Remembering Dennis Byrd

REMEMBERING THE CAREER OF DENNIS BYRD, CLICK HERE

A week ago Saturday, tragedy hit the streets of Oklahoma as The University of Tulsa lost one of its top defensive players in the last 30 years of the Golden Hurricane football program.

Dennis Byrd lost his life in a Rogers County car crash.

The University of Tulsa football team will honor Byrd's legacy at Saturday's Homecoming game against Tulane with a moment of silence, helmet stickers and other planned tributes. Dennis Byrd's Memorial Service is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday at Church on the Move (Main Auditorium) at 1003 North 129^th East Avenue.

Let's look back at Dennis Byrd the football player. He was an all-state performer at Mustang (Okla.) High School and earned a scholarship at The University of Tulsa, where he started all four seasons. At Tulsa, Byrd became a stalwart defensive tackle for the Hurricane, totaling more than 300 career tackles and earning honorable mention All-America honors as a senior.

At a time when Tulsa was a major college independent, there were no conference awards for Hurricane players to earn, but if there had been, Byrd most likely would have been competing for Defensive MVP accolades as a junior and senior. To think that a college defensive lineman totaled 321 tackles is quite amazing, as all those players on Tulsa's top-10 list for career tackles are either linebackers or safeties. Byrd ended his collegiate career as the school's all-time sack leader with 20 sacks for -147 yards.

Byrd was a second round draft choice of the New York Jets in 1989 and early on it was obvious that Byrd would have a long and prosperous career in the National Football League. But that career was cut short when in his fourth season, Byrd collided with a teammate and suffered a neck and spinal injury that ended his career in 1992.

Byrd's football career was over. But, the talk of his paralysis and never being able to walk again is all it was –– talk. Byrd walked out of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York less than three months after the injury and returned to Oklahoma.

Dennis Byrd will be remembered as an outstanding football player, but he was a remarkable person just the same.

To better illustrate Dennis Byrd – the person. We borrow from Sports Illustrated's Peter King, who just this past Monday (R.I.P Dennis Byrd) shared a story about Byrd when the writer was assigned to author a story about the Oklahoman in 1992 . . .

"When the Helen Keller Services for the Blind took a group of physically impaired adults to visit the Jet training camp last summer, a few of the players were uncomfortable with the visitors, some of whom had little control over their bodies. But after practice Byrd waded into the group and found a blind woman who was sitting on the grass because she had no use of her legs. Byrd sat beside her, took her hand and explained who he was, what position he played and what his job was like. When she touched his helmet and seemed interested in it, Byrd put it on her head. She screamed, out of happiness. She threw her arms around Byrd, and he threw his arms around her, and the people who saw it say their hug lasted for five minutes."

Thank you Peter King for sharing this story . . . That was truly Dennis Byrd.

Remembering Dennis Byrd

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