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“There’s a rainbow on this pavement and it’s shining up at me. I’ma rise up like a phoenix cuz I’m through with misery. Oh, my world has never been this low before, and my head is tellin’ my heart that this is war.” – Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews
This is my final article for 2019. And in this article, I wanted to use my voice to speak about the beauty of the human spirit.
Let’s flashback to January of 2002. For two seasons, I was the radio voice of the Eufaula, Alabama High School football and basketball teams. I had a blast doing it and I wanted to make a career out of it. But it wasn’t meant to be.
I wanted to make a career out of radio play by play…to be clear.
It was a bitterly cold night in Enterprise, Alabama. Granted, my idea of what constitutes “bitter cold” is radically different for me NOW as I live in New England…but I digress.
Eufaula had a kid who was primarily a star for their football team. For the life of me, I never understood how a kid with such awkward shooting mechanics could be that deadly with his medium to long-range jumper. But he was money!
I don’t remember the score; it’s been many years ago. But I do remember the outcome.
The score was tied, with about:08 left in regulation and the Tigers called time out. Their coach – who managed to coach both the girls’ and boys’ teams – drew up a play. I was making jokes about “playing for free basketball” figuring we’d play for overtime.
It was an expertly run play. From their own baseline, Eufaula took two passes to get the ball across center court. There was a dribble-drive penetration, and a kick out to the football player, who drained a 3 pointer at the buzzer to give Eufaula the win.
“For three, at the buzzer, for the win…” I don’t remember much about the play, but I remember my call so very well. I remember yelling “YES SIR!” over and over again after I called the play.
I also remember that shot took 15 minutes from the time it left his hand to the time it went through the net.
When I got to my apartment to check my recording of it, it was garbled and sounded like trash. The Walmart cassette recorder I jerry-rigged for this very occasion failed me. My best call of my all too brief sportscasting career was going to be the lead call on my reel, but it wasn’t meant to me.
Several months later, I hear that my alma mater The University of Alabama was having open auditions for their basketball radio network.
Eli Gold had been doing double-duty on both football and basketball for a long time, but he chose to step away from basketball around this time.
And since I had aspirations on HIS job, I sent in my tape and resume. Not thinking in a million years that I’d get the gig…and I didn’t.
The gig went to a guy who’d been with Bama’s baseball team for a couple of seasons by this point. A young guy from Birmingham named Chris Stewart got the gig.
Chris had been doing games for smaller colleges around the Birmingham area for a few years by this point.
Since 2002, Chris has become a courtside institution for Bama basketball. And he’s absolutely electric at what he does. As an alumnus and a big fan, I wish he had some better teams to announce for, but I believe our new coach is going to get them turned in the right direction.
Aside from his work with Bama baseball and men’s basketball, Chris has also become the host of Bama football broadcasts as well as for many years being their game-day sideline reporter.
In the spring of 2018, Chris suffered a pretty significant stroke. Considering that the power of speech is a pretty important thing for a man who does what he does for a living, I can only imagine the fear going through his mind. To say nothing of his health…
Keep in mind, Chris is in his mid-40s. Not an old man at all.
Thanks to an observant wife as well as the medical team at the hospital he was rushed to, not only was he able to make a full recovery, but to my ears, he didn’t lose a step.
Let’s flash forward to the summer of 2019. A few weeks before he was to re-assume his role as the host on the Crimson Tide football radio network, he tweets out that he was going to undergo heart bypass surgery. But doctors believed it would be routine and that he’d be able to go back on the road with the Men in Crimson shortly afterward. This wasn’t meant to be.
After being home for a little while, he developed a serious infection that landed him back in the hospital. Over the course of the next 91 days, he fought off pneumonia, a severe staph infection, and was placed in a medically induced coma for two weeks.
Now let’s pull back. I don’t know Chris, but I have shaken his hand a couple of times. We had also mutual friends when I was in the broadcasting business.
But aside from Chris Stewart the broadcaster, I want to talk about Chris the man.
He’s a husband. He’s the father to three beautiful children – one of whom is a freshman at Alabama this year.
And he’s d*mned lucky to be alive.
Every day I’m present to the beauty of the human spirit. The way that men and women are able to rebound and thrive through insane circumstances.
Looking in the mirror, I see this every day. From my own health problems to my other problems this year, it’s been a challenging year. I mean, technically I was homeless for a time.
I see my sister Ivy, fighting with every fiber of her being to not only beat cancer into submission, but to create a massive breakthrough in her employment situation.
I opened with the line from that Trombone Shorty song for a reason.
This song, and particularly this line, has saved my life many, many times during my darkest days this year. It’s fed me, inspired me, and encouraged me during some of the darkest times I’ve ever seen.
Around Thanksgiving, a video surfaced of Chris Stewart headed home after 91 days in the hospital. His body looked frail, but there was a look in his eyes that said to me “I am the phoenix! Watch me soar! Get out of my way!”
A short time later, he made an appearance at Bama’s basketball practice before a game in Birmingham. He also made an appearance on the radio network prior to the game that night.
And he has said he wants to go back to work for Bama’s basketball game at Florida on January 4th.
For me, I believe this entire year has been a lesson in faith, trust, and resilience.
To trust that I’m in the right place, even when I didn’t know where I’d sleep, that’s faith!
To trust that despite spending an entire quarter of the year in the hospital not knowing if you’d live or die, only to return to work doing what you love and are immensely talented at – that’s faith.
To be told “you have cancer,” yet you remain positive and resilient despite the history of cancer in our family, that’s faith.
Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Yesterday is history. Today is the gift, that’s why it’s the present.
While I wouldn’t wish my 2019 on anyone, I’m grateful and glad I experienced this.
This holiday season and into 2020, I wish you peace. I wish you joy. I wish you love. And I wish you, soul, with a capitol S.
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