My role model growing up was Byron Leftwich. I grew up down the road from Marshall and my dad and I didn't miss a home game for close to a decade. We didn't know it at the time but the Byron years were the end of the dynasty.
His most iconic moment was getting carried down the field. If anyone isn't familiar, Marshall was having a good season and had a road date against Akron that was expected to be an easy win. Things started poorly though, and got worse when Byron took a shot to his leg. He tried to play through it but Coach Pruett eventually made him go get an x-ray. There wasn't one on campus, so they drove to a nearby hospital.
Byron came back and told Coach that the x-rays were negative. This was a lie; his shin was broken, but his team needed him, and Leftwich went back in to the game. He was clearly hobbled and Akron was targeting the leg, but he did get a comeback rolling. Late in the game he completed a long pass and began to try and limp down the field. Two of his linemen saw the pain he was in and, one on each side, lifted up their quarterback and carried him down the field for the next play.
And it wasn't enough. Marshall lost. The perfect conference season and any hope of being ranked any time soon were gone.
The next week Byron couldn't play; his damned shin was broken. And Marshall had a home game against bitter rival Little Miami (Miami Ohio), with their all time QB Ben Roethlisberger. I remember my dad driving us to the game and listening on the radio, with the super-homer guys on the pregame show saying "whatever happens, the sun will come out tomorrow."
But the team rallied behind backup Stan Hill and delivered a last second victory that led to one Little Miami coach tearing up the press box while another assaulted a fan and got arrested on the field. And yours truly had seats right behind the Chickenhawk bench and got to yell at the QB with the weird name that he'd be selling used cars in two years. I even got him to turn around.
Byron taught me the immeasurable. Had he come back and won against Akron you could measure it. They were this bad without him, they were this good with him. But I am 100% convinced that had he not come back the team never would've had the spark they needed to win the next game. They saw their guy leaving everything he had on the field, and when he had no more to give they picked the team up and carried it until he could return. I'll carry the lesson around always, that even if the effort doesn't lead to the result you want immediately, you never know how you're impacting the future.
His most iconic moment was getting carried down the field. If anyone isn't familiar, Marshall was having a good season and had a road date against Akron that was expected to be an easy win. Things started poorly though, and got worse when Byron took a shot to his leg. He tried to play through it but Coach Pruett eventually made him go get an x-ray. There wasn't one on campus, so they drove to a nearby hospital.
Byron came back and told Coach that the x-rays were negative. This was a lie; his shin was broken, but his team needed him, and Leftwich went back in to the game. He was clearly hobbled and Akron was targeting the leg, but he did get a comeback rolling. Late in the game he completed a long pass and began to try and limp down the field. Two of his linemen saw the pain he was in and, one on each side, lifted up their quarterback and carried him down the field for the next play.
And it wasn't enough. Marshall lost. The perfect conference season and any hope of being ranked any time soon were gone.
The next week Byron couldn't play; his damned shin was broken. And Marshall had a home game against bitter rival Little Miami (Miami Ohio), with their all time QB Ben Roethlisberger. I remember my dad driving us to the game and listening on the radio, with the super-homer guys on the pregame show saying "whatever happens, the sun will come out tomorrow."
But the team rallied behind backup Stan Hill and delivered a last second victory that led to one Little Miami coach tearing up the press box while another assaulted a fan and got arrested on the field. And yours truly had seats right behind the Chickenhawk bench and got to yell at the QB with the weird name that he'd be selling used cars in two years. I even got him to turn around.
Byron taught me the immeasurable. Had he come back and won against Akron you could measure it. They were this bad without him, they were this good with him. But I am 100% convinced that had he not come back the team never would've had the spark they needed to win the next game. They saw their guy leaving everything he had on the field, and when he had no more to give they picked the team up and carried it until he could return. I'll carry the lesson around always, that even if the effort doesn't lead to the result you want immediately, you never know how you're impacting the future.