Alex Manske’s road back to the Penn State field runs through a scar down the center of his chest and a surgery that once put his football future in doubt.
Less than six months after open-heart surgery, Manske is back in full participation at fall camp and pushing to be Penn State’s quarterback of the future. It’s a remarkable turn after a diagnosis of a dilated aortic root and a dilated ascending aorta forced him to face a reality he never saw coming.
The warning signs weren’t obvious. Manske had no prior symptoms, and the condition might have gone undetected for his entire career.
But if he had taken a hit the wrong way, the consequences could have been life-threatening. Once the echocardiogram results came back, the path became clear: he needed surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The news hit hard. Brahmer, now one of his roommates, remembered Manske talking before the test about his fears. Then came the moment in the Lasch Building when the results were in and Manske was sitting with his head in his hands, crying.
“We found out, and it was devastating for me because you don’t know how the surgery is going to go or if the doctor is going to let you play. So we were just keeping him in our prayers and thoughts.”
Manske said the message from Penn State head coach Matt Campbell helped steady him from the start.
“He pulled me into his office and told me the news, and I called my parents right away, and I drove back home for a little bit,” Manske told a small group of reporters. “And then [Penn State head coach Matt Campbell] told me to meet him in his office in 30 minutes, and from the start he was really, really good. Right away he was like, ‘I know this isn’t it, you have a lot more football in you’ so he was in my ear right away telling me we’re gonna get through this together and we’re gonna be good.”
There was still a long stretch between diagnosis and surgery. Manske got the results in February, but didn’t go under the knife until March 16. In that window, he had time to sit with the uncertainty, and like a lot of people staring down something big, he admitted he went searching for answers online.
“They probably wouldn’t advise me to do this, but I was ChatGPTing everything,” Manske said with a laugh. “I think just having Joe - because Joe’s really good, and he said he talked to a really good doctor.
And he told me right from the start, he’s like, ‘We have a plan. We’re gonna get you back,’ and that’s kind of what Campbell was saying too.
So I trusted them. But I think when you’re sitting alone at night, I think you can start thinking about it a little bit.
So there was a definitely a couple nights where I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I don’t know what’s going to happen.’”
His mother had her own fears, even while trying to project confidence. Manske said a call with her and the doctor brought the plan into focus, but also made the emotion of the moment impossible to miss.
“It was a pretty emotional phone call. She called me right after and was like, ‘I’m just so happy for you and happy you have a plan to get back.’ Because she was like, ‘I honestly didn’t think you were gonna be able to play again.’”
After a Monday-to-Friday hospital stay, Manske went back home to Iowa to recover with his parents and do cardiac rehab for about a month. Even then, he stayed close to the program, watching practice, joining meetings on Zoom and staying in touch with teammates and staff.
Eskildsen, another roommate, said he kept checking in.
“[I was] just calling and texting and making sure if he needs to talk about anything, if he wants to talk about anything he’s not talking about with his parents or doctors, and making sure everything’s going all right,” Eskildsen said in early August.
When Manske returned to State College, he eased back into football at his own pace. He estimates he was throwing again about three months after surgery, once additional testing was completed. By August, he was fully back in practice.
That return carried a different kind of weight after what he had been through.
“I think when you’re practicing you take it for granted how much you’d miss it,” Manske said. “... I think the reward of being back and able to do that was definitely something that brought the emotions out a little bit.”
His roommates see the comeback as something bigger than football. Brahmer and Eskildsen have both watched him navigate the ordeal, and Eskildsen especially didn’t hold back when talking about what Manske means to the group.
“Seeing him come back from what - he didn’t know if he’d play football, he didn’t know anything about this. And then open-heart surgery, and here he is.
So it’s an unbelievable story. I call him the miracle child,” Eskildsen said, smiling from ear to ear.
“Him being back on the field and then looking as good as he has, he just... he just shocks me more every day. And I’m super proud and happy for him that he’s back on the field with us.”
Manske is now back in fall camp, fully involved and carrying a new scar - roughly nine inches long across the center of his chest - as proof of how far he’s come.
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