Ronnie McMahan thinks about the 3- to 4-inch scar that will be on his abdomen soon.
He can’t wait to tell the story.
“My son is very inquisitive,” McMahan said. “He’s like any 5-year-old. Anytime he sees a scar on my hand or leg, he’ll say, ‘Daddy, what is that one?’ I’ll have this scar I can one day show my son. He’ll ask what that is and I’ll say, ‘That’s from someone else giving me a chance to be around to spend more time with you. It was something I couldn’t do on my own.’ ”
McMahan, a former Vanderbilt basketball guard and a dean of students at Montgomery Bell Academy for the past 22 years, didn’t want to ask for someone else’s kidney.
But what choice was there?
McMahan, 53, has a hereditary disease that is causing end-stage kidney failure. His kidneys are just 9% functional. Last fall, he had to go public about his condition — doctor’s orders — to find a kidney donor, fast. The longer the wait, the more likely he would die or face a washed-out life of regular dialysis.
McMahan’s first effort was posting a Facebook video seeking potential donors. “Having to ask someone for such a great favor, admitting that I need help, that was a low point for me to have to do that,” he said.
Six months later, he went on 104.5-FM The Zone’s “3HL” radio show to talk Vanderbilt basketball. Co-host Ron Slay and McMahan know each other through basketball, and Slay gave McMahan a window to ask for potential kidney donors.
Station Camp High School soccer coach Jeremy Cooke was listening. He worked with McMahan once, briefly, but it had been almost 20 years and they hadn’t spoken since.
The wheels in Cooke’s head started turning.
McMahan soon will have new life. On April 28, he’ll receive a donor’s healthy kidney.
Cooke’s.
In 2008, McMahan did Cooke a favor that changed both their lives.
Cooke, now 45, had been hired as general manager of Nashville’s American Basketball Association semi-professional basketball team, the Broncos. McMahan, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard who played with the Chicago Bulls and then overseas, was on the roster.
When the team’s ownership started biting off more than it could chew money-wise, players’ paychecks started bouncing. Cooke didn’t have anything to do with the finances, but drew the anger of players anyway.
“One game, there were five minutes before tip,” he said. “They came out and said, ‘We’re not going out there until we have cash in our hand.’ ”
McMahan — “Mac” or “Ronnie Mac” to many — stepped in. Lay off Cooke, he said, this wasn’t his fault. McMahan took the role of player relations moving forward.
The team moved to Kentucky the following season. Cooke eventually got into coaching high school soccer, and he and McMahan were disconnected for 18 years.
Deep down, maybe Cooke swore he’d return the favor someday.
McMahan still has the long, lean frame that helped him become a star basketball player at McMinn County High School and later Vanderbilt.
He remains fifth on the Commodores’ all-time scoring list with 1,719 points from 1992 to 1995, averaging 18.3 points his senior year. He’s still third in career 3-point field goals made (296).
He continued lifting weights, running regularly and playing pickup ball with college buddies well into his 40s and 50s. Two years ago, things changed.
“I walked into a training room,” McMahan said, “and the athletic trainer looked at me and said, ‘Mac, your legs look swollen, what were you doing?’ ”
His skinny legs were filled with fluid. His primary care doctor referred him to a kidney specialist. They tested for 20 to 30 potential causes before a biopsy identified focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) as the cause.
FSGS is a hereditary disease that causes the kidneys to create too much protein. It raises creatinine and cholesterol levels and blood pressure, progressing to kidney failure. McMahan was told a virus likely sent his once-dormant FSGS into overdrive.
For now, his kidney levels are stable enough to avoid dialysis, but he’s on the clock. He makes so many trips to the bathroom at night that he struggles to sleep. He gets dehydrated and achy easily. He needs IVs for electrolytes because sports drinks contain too much sodium. Sometimes he has to go home early from work just to rest.
That’s not conducive for someone who’s dean of MBA’s freshman and sophomore students, a high school basketball assistant coach and an assistant eighth-grade football coach.
MBA basketball coach Kevin Anglin said people who don’t know McMahan might not notice the decline, but those who do can tell.
“People laugh, because I say it feels like I played against Arkansas’ “40 Minutes of Hell” every single day,” McMahan said. “Like, I wake up exhausted.”
The average wait for a donor kidney is three to five years at most centers, according to the National Kidney Foundation, and initially, the odds were stacked against him. A number of people offered their kidneys after he went public on Facebook in September, but by January, only a couple of potential donors were anywhere close to being a match.
None of McMahan’s family members could be his donor due to the hereditary risk of FSGS. And he didn’t just need someone with a blood Type O — he needed someone whose antibodies matched his own.
The radio appearance was a Hail Mary that found the right person.
Cooke has always listed himself as an organ donor.
“Jeremy’s got a very giving personality, almost to a fault. He has a hard time saying ‘no’ to a lot of things, so it doesn’t surprise me at all he’s doing this,” Cooke’s wife, Emily, said. “He genuinely cares about people.”
For a short time, Cooke was a soccer walk-on at Memphis after graduating from Beech. He got a business degree, which got him in the door with the ABA, but nothing fit him like coaching high school soccer.
Cooke has guided Station Camp to two TSSAA soccer state titles, one each with the boys and girls programs. The Bison (9-5-1) are expected to be in the hunt for a second straight boys title this spring.
His players were proud — fascinated, even — when he told them why he’s stepping away for a few weeks. He’ll rejoin them about the time of the region tournament.
“It’s probably the most generous thing I’ve seen in my life,” Station Camp senior forward Ryan Hendon said. “What he’s doing is bigger than our season. This will last long after our season.”
While Cooke instantly knew he wanted to give his kidney to McMahan, there was the matter of timing. The TSSAA soccer postseason runs from the end of April to May 22. June initially seemed like the best option for a transplant date.
But Cooke started thinking harder about it.
McMahan currently can get by without dialysis, but that could change at any moment. Dialysis patients have a fairly high risk of dying from complications.
“(That) was weighing on me,” Cooke said. “That night, I went to Mac’s house. I hadn’t talked to him — hadn’t seen him — since 2008. I told him I talked to my players and families and they were all supportive of me doing this sooner.”
In January, McMahan went back on radio. He was at the studio with Slay and the “3HL” crew when Slay got Cooke on the phone to explain the surgery date had been moved up — way up — to April 28.
“Mac’s already got these bug eyes,” Slay said. “But dude, he looked like Roger Rabbit when something went wrong, and his eyes popped out of his head. That’s exactly how Mac was. I couldn’t stop smiling.”
Cooke’s pre-operation testing, which included two 16-hour exams, finally ended in mid-April with two scans that officially greenlit the transplant.
He phoned McMahan with the news.
“I just put down the phone,” McMahan said, “and yelled.”
McMahan and Cooke have been hanging out more with the big day approaching.
In March, McMahan’s son, Xavier, asked if he could sit between his dad and Cooke while they all attended the SEC basketball championship.
During a recent meeting at MBA, McMahan walked into a room and immediately wrapped one of Cooke’s hands into his big palms and just held it there for a moment.
“When someone says, ‘All right, I’m going to give you a kidney so that you can live, and sooner rather than later,’ I don’t know how you’re supposed to respond to that,” McMahan said.
Their surgery will last about three hours. They’ll be in separate rooms with different surgeons. Cooke’s left kidney will be removed, placed on ice and transplanted into McMahan.
Neither one knew until recently, but April is National Donate Life Month, to honor and spread awareness about organ donors.
“He (Cooke) is doing an amazing thing,” said Dr. Leigh Anne Dageforde, who will perform Cooke’s surgery. “This is life-saving.”
McMahan’s post-surgery recovery will last about 10 weeks, but he is told he will immediately feel improved after the procedure.
The alternative to a transplant is a grim one.
One person is added to an organ transplant wait list every eight minutes, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration, and 13 people die each day awaiting a transplant.
McMahan’s wait is over.
“The most important thing in life to me is relationships,” Cooke said. “People talk about religion and whatever it may be, but I think if you want to be blessed for the rest of your life, relationships are the most important thing you can build. Everybody’s like, are you nervous? No, I’m not nervous at all. Period. I get to help somebody I care about.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform,@tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean’s high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg.Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
