https://youtu.be/XJyHMotXzl0 My Nephew Andrew is more than inspiring. His story is transforming. Tonska Andrews's experience with his Father when he first played football, when he went from third-string to first-string in one night, is the same as what happened with my Father in my last football game in the 7th Grade.
When I moved from Umatilla, Oregon, to Walla Walla in the summer before the 7th Grade, I was intimidated when I entered Pioneer Jr. High. No one cared about how you dressed in Umatilla, and we didn't have cliques, and most of us did not come from families that went to the Country Club or had much money. So we didn't care about these things.
When I walked into Pioneer, the students had white bucks, sometimes thin white belts, and were into the latest fads. I dressed as most of my classmates would classify as a dork, including jeans that I would wear pulled way up, a belt that was too long, and clothes entirely out of style. Instead of white bucks, I wore work boots to school.
In the 7th Grade, I wanted to play real tackle football, even though I was not very big or fast. I played on the third String and never got to play in a game against another team. At the end of the season, they had a game between the 2nd and 3rd teams.
The night before the game, my Father sat down with me and told me about the football team at Haskell Institute in Lawrence. Kansas, an Indian Boarding School. He was sent there when he was 12 and could only leave home to Standing Rock after finishing high school.
My Father tried to run away from Haskell after his Grandfather Tipi Sapa, Philip Deloria, died, and Haskell would not allow returning home for his funeral. They caught my dad and roommate, Blacky Wetzal, from Blackfoot Reservation in Montana. They got caught at a Hobo camp along the railway tracks, preparing to jump on the next freight train heading West.
Anyway, the night before the 2nd and 3rd string games, he spent the evening telling me about the Haskell Football Players he knew and how their High School Football team beat Kansas State, with players who were only 14 years years. He showed me a newspaper article about how they beat the best High School football Team in Kansas 36-0 and limited the Kansas Team to -13 yards. He told me about the All-American football players that played for the Haskell and Carlye Football teams, Jim Thorpe, Lewis "Rabbit" Weller, his Boys Advisor, John Levi, Goose Gooslin, and others.
He inspired me so much that the next day, I went wild with a vengeance. I knocked down and tried to hurt everyone on the opposing Team we got in my way. Like the Haskell players my Father told me about, I played like a berserk bowling ball. Our Third String easily won the game with the 2nd String.
In 8th Grade, I immediately advanced to the First String and became captain of my Team. From there, I never stopped playing footfall, track, and wrestling with the same spirit and intensity in practice or competition throughout Jr.High, Sr.High, and University. And from the intergenerational trauma and hurt my parents went through that was then passed on to me, I was full of anger, hatred, and revenge, and the place I could release it was in athletic competition.
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