Ryan Wetnight dies after long battle with cancer. Fresno product defied odds in NFL career

Ryan Wetnight, a former football star at Hoover High, Fresno City College and Stanford before playing eight seasons in the NFL, died Friday after a long battle with cancer. He was 49.

“We lost a great Ram today,” Fresno City coach Tony Caviglia said. “Ryan Wetnight was loved and respected by many and will be remembered by us forever. So many people have felt his presence and positive energy. It is time to celebrate his life.”

Rick Lyons, a longtime high school and junior college coach in Fresno, said, “As great as he was as an athlete, he was a better person.

“He really exemplified that – good Christian man, great father, great husband; brother to Craig. Overall, he was just a great kid and it’s such a sad time for all of us at Hoover that had him in classes or were fortunate enough to coach him. Tough times, very hard for all of us that knew him and loved him.”

Wetnight signed with the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent in 1993. Undersized at just 225 pounds in his first years in the NFL, he spent most of his first two seasons inactive or third on the depth chart, but ended up playing in 91 games with 19 starts in seven seasons in Chicago.

He caught 172 passes for 1,522 yards and nine touchdowns for the Bears before finishing his career in 2000 with the Green Bay Packers.

His best season was 1997, his fifth in the league, when he caught 46 passes for 464 yards and one touchdown.

Following his NFL career, Wetnight went into real estate in Southern California and coached youth and high school football at Thousand Oaks and then Grace Brethren.

He was inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005. Prior to his induction, he told The Bee’s Andy Boogaard, “I grew up in Fresno and never missed a Fresno State athletic event. Those guys were my heroes. And now that I’m being honored into the Hall of Fame, I guess I can say I was one of the great athletes to come out of Fresno. And it’s pretty cool to think some little boy might have the same view of me as I did them.

“I would never have projected it, not at all.”

Wetnight first learned he had cancer in 2017 and had surgeries in 2018 to remove part of his stomach and part of his esophagus, Lyons said. Wetnight had been told he was cancer-free in January 2019, Lyons added, but later that year doctors found an inoperable tumor near his stomach.

“It’s just a tragedy, a young man’s life cut way too short way too early,” Lyons said.

Wetnight is survived by wife Stacey and sons Scott and Zach, brother Craig and mother Pat.

This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 6:47 PM.