It was Ed Meyerson's idea. His father had battled prostate cancer. So had his friend Mike Slive. Meyerson, a Birmingham attorney, had spent years on the advisory board of UAB's Comprehensive Cancer Center, and he'd seen the success of the very public fight against breast cancer.

He wondered: "Why are we not doing the same thing for men?"

Meyerson had five more reasons to start a research foundation to attack the second-leading cancer killer of men. He has five grandsons. He doesn't want them to have to fight that same fight.

So Meyerson asked Slive if he would be willing to help. Naturally, the retired SEC commissioner said yes.

They were going to call it the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama, to mirror a similar foundation for breast cancer research, but that sounded cold and clinical. It made more sense to put a name and face on the fight.

Who fit that bill better than the man who launched the SEC's expansion to 14 members as well as the SEC Network and oversaw the conference's growth into the postmodern powerhouse it remains today? Slive isn't just one of the most prominent and powerful men of the last quarter century in intercollegiate athletics, the former commissioner of the SEC, Conference USA and the Great Midwest.

At 77, he's a prostate cancer survivor, a prostate cancer victor, himself.

Now, at his friend's urging and with his family's support, he's the namesake of the new Mike Slive Foundation for Prostate Cancer Research. The battle against a disease that affects an estimated 1 in 7 men has a powerful ally.

"When Ed came to me, it felt like the right thing to do," Slive said. "The idea that I had a tough go with cancer, that I survived, it's what I would want for anyone in my position. So this gave me an opportunity to devote my retired life to something that was beyond me. I just expanded the fight for the benefit of others."

'He was fighting for his life'

Meyerson and Slive are both former Yankees, Slive from upstate New York, Meyerson from the Bronx. When Slive moved to Birmingham, they shared a temple and a love for sports. Meyerson witnessed first-hand his friend's battle with prostate cancer.

"Everyone in Birmingham knew he was fighting for his life," Meyerson said. "It takes a special person to put your life story out there for everyone to use as a role model."

Some people might want nothing more to do with a disease that took them and their family to hell and back. Slive's daughter, Anna, said her father has another side to his personality beyond his well-earned rep as her daughter Abigail's doting grandfather. Anyone who's sat across the table from him in a tough negotiation can attest.

"He's a fighter," said Anna Slive Harwood, the chief marketing officer of the Colonnade Group. "What he went through would've killed you or me. At 70-something years old, to have two major spinal surgeries, to have radiation and chemo, all within a year?"

The month they launched Slive's baby, the SEC Network, in August of 2014, the commissioner was undergoing his first major spinal surgery. After a summer of unexplained pain in his midsection, he learned that his prostate cancer, first detected and treated in 1996, had returned with a vengeance, metastasizing on his spine.

In his words, "The tumor was squeezing my spine."

The situation was dire. One day, they did an MRI, which revealed the tumor. The next day, UAB's Dr. Mark Hadley was removing as much of the tumor as possible while preserving Slive's ability to walk by inserting two titanium rods in his back.

Surgery was just the start of the fight

That was just the beginning of Slive's battle. He underwent radiation, then participated in a clinical trial involving two FDA-approved chemotherapy drugs. His daughter described it as a "horrible" ordeal for her dad, her mom, Liz, and the entire family. It fuels their desire to use the foundation primarily to fund research into a disease that men like to discuss less than they like to ask for directions.

Anna Slive Harwood and her husband, Judd, serve on the foundation's board along with Slive, Meyerson and other heavy hitters.

"Prostate cancer is where breast cancer was 25 years ago," Anna Slive Harwood said. "People don't talk about it. Men really don't want to talk about it. One of our objectives is to change that dialogue."

The work has already begun. The foundation has two presenting sponsors in Regions Bank and Medical Properties Trust. There's an active web site. There will be a launch party Thursday Sept. 14 at the Alys Stephens Center on the UAB campus. The SEC Network's Paul Finebaum, a personal friend of Slive's, will serve as MC, and Slive will say a few words. Dignitaries such as the athletics directors and basketball coaches at UAB, Alabama and Auburn are expected to attend.

Demystifying prostate cancer

Anna Slive Harwood said her dad "never complained" during his fight, although "he did demand they get the SEC Network into UAB Hospital" during his recovery from his first surgery.

"Anna's right," Slive said. "I never felt put upon. I never felt, 'Why me?' I never had any doubts I would win the fight. That's what you learn from being in athletics all your life."

The Slive family learned something from that harrowing experience. The more Slive told people he had prostate cancer, the more people shared their own personal and family experiences with the disease.

"It demystified it," his daughter said.

The SEC did its part to spread the word in September of 2015. To honor the commissioner right after his retirement, the conference designated 14 football games, one on each member campus, as Mike Slive Prostate Cancer Awareness Games. September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.

That's another part of the mission of the Mike Slive Foundation for Prostate Cancer Research. To demystify it. To take it out of the shadows. To beat it with research so young men today, such as Meyerson's five grandsons, never have to deal with it later in life.

Slive and his daughter said they're in this fight for the long haul.

"This is just the beginning," Anna Slive Harwood said, sharing the foundation's mission and slogan. "The beginning of the end of prostate cancer."