Former Duke offensive lineman Kade Parmelly dies after year-long battle with cancer

Former Duke Blue Devils and Abilene Christian Wildcats offensive lineman Kade Parmelly has passed away after a year-long battle with cancer.

Parmelly played in 12 games for Duke during the 2021 season after transferring in from Abilene Christian, where he played in 52 career games, earning an All-Southland Conference honorable mention in 2018.

Duke announced his passing on the team’s Twitter account. The post read, “Our hearts are broken as we mourn the passing of former Blue Devil Kade Parmelly.”

Our hearts are broken as we mourn the passing of former Blue Devil Kade Parmelly pic.twitter.com/JUJ6PGwxUC

— Duke Football (@DukeFOOTBALL) July 9, 2023

Kade Parmelly was diagnosed with leukemia in February of 2022. Since then, he’s been battling the disease. Unfortunately, on July 7, 2023, he passed away due to the disease.

Duke Football Talk first announced Parmelly’s death, having a close relationship with him following an appearance on the podcast.

“In our three years of podcasting, there hasn’t been a Duke football player we have connected with better than we did with Kade Parmelly,” the podcast wrote. “We initially reached out once the grad transfer from Abilene Christian’s official team photos were found. We could tell he had quite the personality.”

In 2019, Kade Parmelly graduated from Abilene Christian University with a degree in kinesiology. He later went on to graduate from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in May 2022, with a master’s degree in management studies.

There will be a memorial service for Parmelly in Abilene, Texas. He is survived by his parents, Bryan and Shawna Parmelly.