The University of Saskatchewan Huskies received the kind of news that goes far beyond football this week.
Fifth-year quarterback Anton Amundrud, who was diagnosed in October with a combination of T-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, has announced he is now in remission following six rounds of chemotherapy.
The update, first shared with Wray Morrison of HuskieFan.ca, is welcome news for the entire Huskies program as spring camp draws near.
After seeing his weight drop to 173 pounds during treatment, Amundrud has worked his way back to his playing weight of 210 pounds and is eager to return to the field.
For Huskies head coach Scott Flory, the news was emotional.
“When we first got the news from Anton, you're so happy for him,” Flory told the SportsCage. “The whirlwind of the last six months, it’s just been an unbelievable ride, the emotions, the stresses, the highs, the lows.”
While the news is encouraging, Flory knows the journey is not yet complete.
“He's not out of the woods yet, we know that,” said Flory. “It is a fickle disease that is going to take its own path. We do our best to control it. For the time being, the chemo worked, and he’s going to stay on top of things, and there are still steps to go, but just the fact of the last six months and everything that’s gone on, it’s just fantastic for him.”
Amundrud’s love for football has helped fuel his recovery.
“I’m doing fantastic,” Amundrud told HuskieFan.ca. “I love this sport, and I love this team. There is nothing I want to do more than play football. It’s where I find joy. I want to play football with my friends."
Those friends and the entire Huskies locker room have been with him every step of the way.
“The culture of football is just so different than other sports,” Flory said. “We’ve got 85, 90 guys on the football team. We rely heavily on each other, and you can see how they rallied around Anton. They just want what’s best for him.”
Before everything changed last fall, Amundrud was putting together one of the best starts to a season by a Huskies quarterback in recent memory.
The Lloydminster product opened the 2025 campaign by starting Saskatchewan’s first five regular-season games and was nearly flawless, throwing for 1,604 yards and 14 touchdowns without a single interception.
Even after missing the final three games of the regular season, Amundrud’s body of work was enough to earn Canada West all-star honours — a reflection of just how dominant he had been early in the year.
Then came the frightening turn.
After battling a number of troubling symptoms, including yellowing of the eyes and swelling of both his liver and spleen, Amundrud was admitted to the hospital on Oct. 23. His diagnosis was made public on Nov. 12, right in the middle of Saskatchewan’s playoff push.
Rather than let the moment derail the season, the Huskies rallied around their quarterback.
With Jake Farrell stepping in under centre, Saskatchewan captured the Hardy Cup and carried that emotional momentum all the way to the Vanier Cup, all while keeping Amundrud at the heart of everything the program was playing for.
Now, the focus shifts to 2026.
The Huskies will open spring camp with the annual Dogs’ Breakfast on April 30, one of the signature events on the Saskatchewan football calendar.
Flory says it’s a special day that showcases the deep connection between the program and the community.
“When we’re cramming 1,500 people into a hall at seven o’clock in the morning just to have breakfast and talk about football, you get such a sense of community,” Flory said. “It goes beyond the field of play.”
This year’s featured speaker for the Dogs’ Breakfast is CFL Hall of Fame running back Michael Clemons, and Huskies head coach Scott Flory says there may be no better person to speak to what the program is all about.
“His story is really unique in where he came from in Florida, and just how important the student-athlete experience was, it changed his life, and I think that that's the power of sport and that's the power of football,” Flory said.
For Flory, the annual breakfast is about much more than football talk and preseason excitement. It’s a chance to showcase what the Huskies program builds beyond the field.
“We've got some great young men that are coming in, and everybody's coming from a different situation,” Flory said. “They’ve got an opportunity to grow and develop and to be winners on and off the field.”
That support has been tangible. Proceeds from the Dogs’ Breakfast have now returned more than $2 million to Huskies student-athletes, providing critical support to players balancing the demands of university life and football.
“People just think we just play some games in the fall, but it's a full-time job on top of a full-time job,” Flory said. “Being a student is a full-time job, and being a student-athlete, especially in our program, with all the mandatory runs and lifts and academic programming and team events, it's another full-time job on top of that.”
Flory added that every dollar raised goes directly back to the players.
“I just want people to know that everything that they do and all that they're doing to help, it's going directly to the student-athletes.”
Tickets for the Dogs’ Breakfast are available through the Huskies Football Foundation. Then the team will hold its spring camp May 1-3 at Griffiths Stadium.
But before the Huskies turn their attention to another chase for a Hardy Cup, the program is already celebrating its most meaningful win yet, seeing Amundrud on the road back to football.
