Craig Baugh groaned in unknowing agony while he stood in front of a urinal during Nashville Predators training camp last fall.

"Come on! Come on!" pleaded the team's longtime locker room attendant, known affectionately around town and the NHL as "Partner."

"He's talking to himself because he couldn't go," said Predators equipment manager Pete Rogers, Baugh's boss and confidant for the past 25 years.

Rogers was heading into the restroom to wash his hands when the scene unfolded. He asked Baugh if he was OK.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah," Baugh replied.

Except he wasn't.

Baugh, who has a learning disability, some physical disabilities and a heavy stutter, had prostate cancer. He just didn't know it yet.

A month or so later, around Thanksgiving, he found out. Baugh approached Rogers with some urgency one morning.

"He says, 'You need to call my brother,' " Rogers said.

REWIND: 'I love you, buddy': Craig 'Partner' Baugh has left his mark on the Predators, NHL

Baugh's brother and primary caretaker Paul had been bringing Baugh to a clinic. He told Rogers that doctors thought he had cancer. That his prostate-specific antigen numbers were high during his annual physical, which Baugh religiously has done and religiously reminds others to do.

A biopsy confirmed it.

Baugh was scared. Rogers was scared. The Predators' organization, from top to bottom, was scared.

"I didn't know I had it," Baugh said in his friendly, buoyant voice. "Now everything is better."

As he spoke, Baugh stood inside the equipment staff headquarters at Bridgestone Arena. It was the morning of the Predators' home opener. A blow-up picture of him was visible on a far wall.

"We just hung it today," Rogers said.

The white laundry cart Baugh had been pushing sat outside the doorway, overflowing with odorous outfits from that morning's pregame skate.

With the help of many, Baugh's 25th season with the Nashville Predators had officially begun.

Vanderbilt football coach Clark Lea and Baugh go way back

Craig "Partner" Baugh used to babysit Vanderbilt football coach Clark Lea.

OK, not exactly babysit. More like entertain.

Baugh was working as a locker room attendant for the Nashville Sounds back then. Lea's father, also named Clark, was the team physician.

Baugh often interacted with the younger Lea when he tagged along to old Greer Stadium with his dad. He was tickled to reconnect with Lea when he was hired by Vanderbilt in December 2020.

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"I remember watching him, it'd be like the seventh, maybe the eighth inning," Lea said. "He would be taking the visiting team's food behind home plate on the field for the postgame spread."

Their lives intersected again late last year when Lea was attending a Predators game with his family, and ended up playing a part in saving Baugh's life.

Rogers brought Baugh to the Lexus Lounge in the basement of Bridgestone before the game that night so the two could say hello. Rogers pulled Lea aside before the reunion.

"I said, 'Hey, just so you know, Craig just got diagnosed with prostate cancer,' " Rogers said.

One of Lea's father's best friends happened to be Dr. Joseph Smith, who at the time was chairman of the department of urology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

"You want to take Craig to see him?" Lea asked.

He arranged a meeting between Rogers and Baugh and Smith at Vanderbilt. Smith advised them that the cancer was slow-moving, that he wanted to monitor it for a while and revisit it in the spring.

Baugh back where he belongs at Bridgestone Arena

There was one problem: Baugh went 0-for-3 on MRIs.

Two minutes into each one, Baugh shut the machine off. He couldn't do it.

"I was never so frustrated with him," Rogers said.

Another biopsy in April produced two options: Forty-eight radiation treatments in a 12-week window, or surgery. Oh, and by the way, Smith was retiring from performing surgeries at the end of June.

With the NHL draft coming to town that month, there was no way Baugh could be ready for surgery in time.

So Smith recommended Dr. David Penson for the job. In August, nearly a year after he stood in pain at the urinal, Baugh was scheduled to have the cancer removed.

However, there was another problem: Baugh had off-the-charts high blood pressure, which meant surgery had to be postponed until it was brought under control. Later in the month, it was managed enough that Penson and his team could operate.

Baugh's PSA numbers tested "perfect" in early October. Tissue samples have shown no signs of cancer.

"I'm proud of him for helping me," Baugh said of Lea.

He could have been talking about any number of people.

"Partner" is back where he belongs. He's folding laundry. He's hustling heavy equipment bags on and off waiting trucks. He's setting up benches and playfully pestering players, who gave him a standing ovation the day he returned to work.

Clark Lea on Partner: 'He lives in the moment'

Baugh, who is on Medicaid, saw not a single bill from Vanderbilt. The only one he received was from the clinic his brother had taken him to. The Predators players paid for that.

"When I found out what Partner was up against, it was . . . I don't know," Lea said. "I consider him to be extended family. He's a burst of joy and spirit."

Lea has saved on his phone a heartfelt thank-you voicemail from Baugh and his brother.

"It's one of the sweetest things you'll ever hear," Lea said.

He will never delete it.

"In a weird way, Partner has figured out what we're all trying to figure out," Lea said. "He lives totally in the moment. He loves his work. He loves the people he's around. I don't know that he has many bad days."

Andrew Brunette always gets big Partner hug

For three weeks after Baugh's surgery, pretty much everyone in the Predators organization — from team president Michelle Kennedy to CEO Sean Henry to the players to the staff — lined up to help.

Remember the meals Lea fondly recalled Baugh bringing to visiting teams during baseball games all those years ago?

Now the Predators were taking turns bringing meals to Baugh and his brother.

First-year Predators coach Andrew Brunette and Baugh go back 25 years. They sit down every morning and talk baseball or life or both. Every team Brunette says he likes, Baugh goes against.

Same old Partner.

"He's a pretty funny guy," Brunette said. "He is part of the culture here. He's Partner. I always make sure I get a big Partner hug."

Same for Clark Lea. Same for Roman Josi. Same for so many others.

"He kind of blew it off at first," Rogers said of the cancer. "I'm like, 'No, this is serious. We need to get this fixed or you're not going to be around much longer.' "

Thanks to all those people he has hugged, he's still here.

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt's Clark Lea helped beloved Nashville Predator beat cancer