Community Champion: Luke Laufenberg already a success at UTEP

UTEP tight end Luke Laufenberg’s father took a visit to campus recently.

“I really enjoyed everybody and enjoyed my visit. But one of the coaches said, ‘Hey, this could be a great success story.’ And I said, ‘Well, with all due respect, it already is.'”

Luke Laufenberg’s father happens to be former Cowboys quarterback and current Cowboys radio broadcaster Babe Laufenberg.

And he’s right about his son’s story, because after beating leukemia, football is just the icing on the cake.

“A year ago, if you had told me I would be here right now, you know, I would have been a little skeptical, although I always thought there was a chance I would play again,” said Luke at UTEP’s signing day news conference last week.

This time last year, football was an afterthought as Luke was a couple months into his battle with cancer.

“At that point he’s sitting in the hospital bed at 155 pounds, and trust me, I was not thinking, ‘Boy, I wonder when he’s going to get back to playing football,'” said Babe Laufenberg.

But on May 3, 2018, the Laufenbergs received some great news. Luke was officially cancer-free.

“The big thing for me was just getting back to my old life, and football was obviously a big part of my old life, so I didn’t want anything to change,” said Luke.

Before he became sick, UTEP had already taken an interest in the tight end. In fact, Luke says they visited him when he was playing at Mesa Community College.

“And I told them that I’m not my best, that I think I’m a little sick, and I might have the flu,” Luke recalls of the visit.

Of course, it turned out to be much more than the flu. And that visit turned into something else as well.

Now, Luke will suit up for the Miners later this year. And no matter how many passes he catches, the most important part of his story has already been written.

Although, the UTEP coaching staff is pretty confident he’ll add a few more chapters to that success story in his time with the Miners.

“As I sit there and think, I’m like, ‘We could not have gotten a better tight end to add to our program than what that kid is going to bring to the table for us as a football player,'” said UTEP head coach Dana Dimel.