Word: waldrep
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...second quarter of a football game between Texas Christian University and the University of Alabama. Already behind 14-0, the underdog Texans gave the ball to their junior tailback, Kent Waldrep, 20. Sweeping around the right end, he quickly ran into the Crimson Tide's crushing defense. As two players tried to push him out of bounds on the Alabama 40-yd. line, a third crashed into his legs from behind. Waldrep was hit so hard he flipped over and landed headfirst. Texas went on to lose, 41-3. But for Waldrep that game in 1974 was an even...
...fall, Waldrep crushed his fifth vertebra and bruised the spinal cord. At Birmingham's University Hospital, doctors were able to rebuild the damaged vertebra with a segment from his hip bone, and after intensive physical therapy Waldrep regained some use of his hands, arms and upper body. But he remained immobile from the waist down...
Still, no universal moral will be drawn from a young football player's misfortune on an October afternoon. Sports injuries like Waldrep's leave little room for discussion. The only way to eliminate them is to eliminate contact sports altogether, hardly a viable option. Players who love to "hit" wouldn't stand for it, nor would the thousands of armchair quarterbacks who spend their spare weekend hours watching athletes parade up and down synthetic turf. All that can be hoped for in our sports-conscious society is that every possible precaution be taken to prevent serious injury...
...football will continue to be played, and with gusto. For Kent Waldrep, however, the game won't go on. Last Saturday wasn't just another loss, something he could shake off by mid-week. It's just sad, pure and simple, that a young man has been so severely incapacitated while trying to carve out his own bit of gridiron glory...
...dogged pursuers of athletic success, Kent Waldrep puts that shanked punt, that booted ground ball, and that fifth personal foul in proper perspective...