I was an all-sport athlete growing up. My dad, I think, hoped I would go to college on a scholarship.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My parents wanted me to become a national athlete.
I played football, honestly, to get a scholarship.
I was the youngest of seven kids and I would not have been able to go to college without an athletic scholarship.
In high school and college, I was an athlete.
And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5' 11". So I just picked baseball.
I didn't get an athletics scholarship at a major school.
I wanted to go to college and play football.
My father had a brilliant scholastic record in high school and was awarded a college scholarship. Unfortunately he had to turn it down so that he could continue to support his family.
I wanted to go to medical school. But, I never got a college scholarship.
At 13, I was a big, totally uncoordinated, hopeless football player. I responded to somebody else's rules, and I stayed just good enough to get a scholarship to Columbia, which was looking for scholar-athletes.