For­mer Bron­cos run­ning back Floyd Lit­tle has entered hos­pice care, his close friend and for­mer Syra­cuse team­mate, Pat Kil­lorin, announced Sat­ur­day night on Facebook.

The 78-year-old Lit­tle, a mem­ber of the Bron­cos’ Ring of Fame and the Pro Foot­ball Hall of Fame who has his jer­sey No. 44 retired by Syra­cuse and the Bron­cos, has been under­go­ing can­cer treat­ments since this spring. Lit­tle resides in Las Vegas.

Kil­lorin orga­nized a GoFundMe page for Lit­tle ear­li­er this year to help with med­ical expens­es and a total of more than $100,000 was donated.

“Floyd’s coura­geous bat­tle with a dif­fi­cult dis­ease (can­cer) is now at a crit­i­cal stage in his life,” Kil­lorin wrote. “This is a time when a hus­band and wife must make impor­tant deci­sions regard­ing poten­tial end of life decisions.”

Play­ing on strug­gling teams and with mix-and-match quar­ter­backs, Lit­tle was long the Bron­cos’ shin­ing light. He was the NFL rush­ing cham­pi­on in 1971 (1,133 yards) and cur­rent­ly ranks sec­ond in team his­to­ry in rush­ing attempts (1,641), yards (6,323) and touch­downs (43), behind fel­low Hall of Famer Ter­rell Davis in all three categories.

Lit­tle nev­er appeared in a play­off game and was a part of only two win­ning teams (7–5‑2 in ’73 and 7–6‑1 in ’74), but his con­tri­bu­tions to mak­ing pro foot­ball in this region a hit should not be forgotten.

Lit­tle led the Bron­cos in rush­ing sev­en times. He was a part of the team’s inau­gur­al Ring of Fame in 1984. The sea­son-tick­et base rose from 24,650 to 49,000 dur­ing his career. His No. 44 is one of only three Bron­cos retired num­bers, join­ing quar­ter­backs Frank Tripuc­ka (18) and John Elway (7).