Pete Meadows had a massive seizure in January, his family says, and by March he was struggling to concentrate — warning signs that led to a cancer recurrence diagnosis after his initial brain tumor was treated years earlier. The news arrives as his family's Thanksgiving tradition, the Meadows Turkey Bowl in Hinckley, Ohio, keeps growing into one of the region's most unlikely charitable juggernauts, having raised a cumulative $5,654,800 through its 2025 game.
The annual pickup football game, organized by the Meadows family and now drawing roughly 40 players across four teams, has become far more than a holiday tradition since it started as a small backyard contest and turned into a formal fundraiser for the St. Vincent de Paul Society in 2005, according to Cleveland.com. It was not a fundraiser at all from 1990 through 2004. The event's single-year haul has climbed almost every season since, from $800 in 2005 to a record $652,000 in 2025, and organizers say their goal each year is simply to raise one dollar more than the year before — a mark they have never missed, the same outlet reports.
Pete Meadows was diagnosed with oligodendroglioma, a brain tumor, in 2020, roughly six years before this account, and underwent surgery that his family says went better than expected. He retained his cognitive abilities afterward, and his tumor did not mutate following the operation. One week after that surgery, Pete and his wife Anita learned they were expecting their fifth child.
A Recurrence Upends the Family Again
About a year before this report, Pete Meadows experienced a seizure during a family trip to Disney World, the start of a run of symptoms that culminated in a massive seizure in January 2026. By March, he was having difficulty concentrating and alerted his wife when he noticed the change. Doctors had previously warned that a future recurrence might require chemotherapy and radiation, and the family now faced that exact possibility.
Mike Meadows, Pete's father, has said the re-diagnosis hit the family harder than the original one did, and that the family felt it was working against time. Doctors wanted Pete to have surgery in April 2026, but he postponed the operation to travel to Washington, D.C., with his father and brothers Matt and Michael Meadows to lobby Congress for brain cancer research funding. An aide for Sen. Robert Aderholt, a Republican from Alabama, helped lay groundwork for that funding push. Pete's surgery was ultimately rescheduled for May 11, 2026 — a date Mike Meadows said the family viewed as a sign that Pete's late daughter, Gianna Rae, who died late in a 2022 pregnancy, was watching over him. Pete has said he plans to find a cure or therapy for his cancer within five years.
From Backyard Game to a $6 Million Research Engine
What began as a casual holiday matchup — reported variously as starting on Thanksgiving morning in 1989 by the UCSF Brain Tumor Center and as a 1990 backyard game in Mike Meadows' yard by Cleveland.com — now requires players to contribute at least $3,000 to compete. The Turkey Bowl has supported St. Vincent de Paul for more than 20 years and has broadened its mission to also fund brain cancer research, with at least 50% of proceeds earmarked specifically for that work, per Cleveland.com's earlier reporting.
That research push has grown into a formal partnership. The fundraiser financed $900,000 over three years for three studies through a joint venture between UCSF and the Cleveland Clinic, according to Cleveland19. The effort now funds four targeted brain tumor research studies benefiting the University of California-San Francisco Brain Tumor Center, and Mike Meadows has said the studies were chosen because they were high risk, high reward. He has reported that all four were advancing in their third year.
Beyond the football field, Mike Meadows's company — which employs about 65 people — has employees make fundraising calls on Fridays, and the Meadows family also runs 1st Day School Supplies and 1st Place Spirit Wear. The family is planning a new direct-to-consumer initiative for 2027 called Meadows Turkey Bowl in a Box, which would include flags, boundary cones, a football, jerseys and other items. The kits are meant to encourage children elsewhere to organize their own games, with net profits directed to brain cancer research.
Fundraising Totals Have Climbed for Two Decades
The game's growth from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands annually tracks a long, steady climb: $16,000 in 2007, $70,000 in 2009, $190,000 in 2014, $390,000 in 2019, and $650,000 in 2024 before reaching $652,000 in 2025, according to figures reported by Cleveland.com. The fundraiser also supports people in need across Medina County alongside its research mission. Organizers are now aiming to exceed $6 million in cumulative donations, a target that would mark another milestone for a game that, as Fox 8 has noted, started with just four players and has blossomed to four teams and 40 players.
The Meadows family's own website states the effort has helped more than 1,000 families through direct support, a figure drawn from the organization's own accounting. As Pete Meadows continues treatment and his family pushes forward with its Washington advocacy and its 2027 expansion plans, the Thanksgiving game that started in a backyard remains, for now, both a family coping mechanism and a growing engine for brain cancer research.
