John Padgett couldn’t walk. He couldn’t stand. He could barely breathe.

But there was somewhere he needed to be Tuesday, Nov. 4, when his Washington Township Football League team took the field one last time.

Diagnosed with lymphoma in April and knowing that his life was coming to a close, Padgett was there when his fifth- and sixth-grade Vikings played the biggest game of their young lives.

Confined to a golf cart and covered under layers of warm clothes, Padgett watched as his team won its league’s Super Bowl.

“He was going up and down the sideline with his son, Darian, driving the cart,” Joe Barnes, Padgett’s assistant told the Indianapolis Star. “I’d walk over, ‘Coach, give me a play.’ He’d say something soft like, ‘Purple 13.’ He was still calling the plays, right to the end.”

By Saturday, Padgett couldn’t make it to the celebration event. He couldn’t even make it out of bed. So the party came to him. All 18 players, their families and others brought pizza and cans of Mello Yello – his favorite drink – to his Indianapolis home.

The players said their goodbyes. Nine hours later, Coach Padgett was gone.

“He was dying, but he faced it,” said Mark Zinn, another Padgett assistant. “John got right in cancer’s face and said, ‘You’re not going to beat me. You might win, but you’re not going to beat me.’”

Padgett got into youth football the way so many adults do – to coach his son. Six years later, he remained on the sideline long after his boy had moved on.

At the funeral today, Vikings players filled the casket with purple and yellow flowers – the team’s colors. They wore their uniforms, each adorned with a single name across the back: Padgett.