The Ordeal

At 8:30 on December 11, 1965 I began an ordeal that would last for the next six months. When I couldn't stand up without help on the sideline Coach Gray called for the doctor to come down. After some preliminary tests Dr. Apple decided that I should go to the hospital for x-rays.

At the hospital, not really knowing the extent of my injury I was put in a wheel chair with my jersey and shoulder pads removed over my head without regard to what injury there may be. I was taken to the x-ray room where the technician moved me in all sorts of directions to get pictures of my shoulders and neck. Then is was back to a stretcher where I lay on my back waiting for the results.

The next thing I remember is a doctor coming up to me and saying, "lay very still and don't move." This was an odd request since I had been moved every which way since tackling the player on the field. Then I heard the doctor say that I had crushed the fifth cervical vertebrae. I was wheeled to an operating room where they prepared to drill a couple of holes in my head and put me in traction. While waiting a group of doctors came in and moved me to the side of the room while they rushed in a man from an automobile accident into the same room. As they frantically worked on him I heard the final comments "It's no use. He's dead."

For the next 7 weeks I was in traction in a foster frame. To turn me over I had to have a canvas bed like the one I was lying on placed on top of me, bolted to the bed and the whole bed turned, removing then removing the part that I had been lying on. It was 7 weeks of lying flat on my back or stomach.

At the end of this time I was taken to an operating room where I was put in a plaster cast. It rested on my hips, covering my back, chest and head. The only openings were for the arms and then around my head for my face, ears, throat and top of my head. This 20# plus cast would be with me for the next 6-7 weeks. The only pivot place would be my hips. This was the only time I cried during the entire 6 month ordeal. At this time I felt trapped. The only good thing was I could now walk around and sit in a chair. Of course whether lying down or sitting, I was always on a rock. I'm sure I was scary looking, looking like a zombie. I know I was to my youngest brother when I first came home.

The day finally came when I went into have the cast removed. That was the happiest day of the entire ordeal. For the next several months I'd be in a neck brace, but when I sat down on the hard vinyl seat of our Falcon Futura I felt like I was sitting on nice fluffy pillow. Now I could take a shower, get my hair cut, drive a car and lie on a nice comfortable bed.

Then in June of 1966 I was able to take off the brace and resume a more normal life. My future would be changed however. There would be no college football, no military service and arthritis in my neck whenever the weather changed too drastically. But there was no more paralysis and I was able to move on with life.

Every day I realize how fortunate I was to be where I am today. Every once in a while I look back I wonder at times how I made it through this ordeal so easily. Then the answer comes as easily as the question. It was the support of friends and loved ones. I received hundreds of cards and letters from the people of Plano as well as places far away from my hometown. I knew I was in the thoughts and prayers of thousands of people, most of whom I had never met and never would.

The week following my injury the Plano Wildcats went on to win their first state championship and was on the road to become one of the best high school football programs in the state of Texas. Upon returning my teammates presented me with the game ball from the state championship. I'm looking at it as I sit here writing this blog. It's a Spalding J5-V. It's just a football to most people, but to me it's the love of group of my brothers that I'll never forget.

"If one falls down, a friend can help him up. But pity the man who fall and has no one to help him up." Ecclesiastes 4:10 I survived because of those who were there to help me up.