Robert Allardice lived by the West Point motto, “Duty, Honor, Country.” He was a loyal friend and family man who was also the life of any party. After “Dice” passed away in 2014 at 67, UNITE Brain Bank researchers confirmed he had stage 3 CTE, making him the first known West Point graduate diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease. Dice’s wife and stepdaughter, Elizabeth Allardice and Kelly Dubs, honor his legacy through the Race to End CTE, where they have raised more than $150,000 for CTE research, prevention, and education.
“Say their names.”
It’s the only way Elizabeth Allardice believes she can guarantee her husband and others diagnosed with CTE will not be forgotten.
Her husband Robert, known by loved ones as “Dice,” never won a Heisman Trophy or a Super Bowl, but Elizabeth says his story — and others like it — need to be told and heard. For more than a decade, she and her daughter Kelly Dubs have been on a mission to not only raise awareness for CTE, but to directly support research and education focused on eliminating the preventable disease that robbed Dice of his golden years.
As a captain for Team West Point, Kelly honors her stepdad’s memory through CLF’s annual Race to End CTE. While some center their peer-to-peer campaigns around an in-person event, Kelly has found fundraising success simply through personal outreach, sharing her family’s story with all 400 contacts in her phone.
“My text message is short, but the story on my page is extensive,” Kelly said. “It starts with just one donation. You put one foot in front of the other and go for it.”
The response from friends, family, and colleagues has been nothing short of incredible. Kelly has been the Race to End CTE’s top individual fundraiser for four consecutive years, raising more than $150,000 to support CLF research, prevention, and education initiatives.
Elizabeth and Kelly also fundraise to ensure the CLF HelpLine remains free to every person and family with concerns about brain health. They are particularly passionate about the HelpLine because of their own experience with CTE. In the mid-2000s, when Dice started to show signs of struggle with cognition and communication, they didn’t know where to look for help.
Educating others through “Team Dice”
Thanks entirely to support from CLF donors, families today can not only find medical recommendations and guidance for living with CTE, but they can also find community with a CTE support group or a Peer Support Connection with someone who understands their challenges.
“There was none of the help available when we were going through this,” Elizabeth recalled.
Though “Team Dice” utilizes texts, social media posts, and emails for their fundraisers, Elizabeth and Kelly have made it a point to travel from North Carolina to support others in the Legacy Family Community at in-person events in Alabama and Ohio. Kelly says she wants families to know they are not alone and that their loved one’s brain donation is making a difference.
Elizabeth reminds Legacy Family members the best way to honor their loved one is to educate others about CTE and support the ongoing work to diagnose, treat, and — someday — cure this disease. Her efforts are extensive, but Elizabeth says she will remain relentless in honor of Robert Allardice, the love of her life.
“I’ll be darned if I’ll be sitting on the sideline and letting him be forgotten.”
Through education and prevention programs, and research with our Global Brain Bank partners, we’re working tirelessly to End CTE.
You can help advance the understanding of CTE by participating in research.