Every
turn he took they said he was too small.
They said he was too small to play college football. He excelled. He was much too small to make it
in the NFL. He played 13 seasons.
Leo
Lewis III wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school after winning the state
championship for Columbia Hickman High School in 1974. He didn’t get drafted after playing football
for the University of Missouri. He’s
only 5-foot-7. When he played he only
weighed 167 pounds.
It’s
hard to measure the size of a person’s heart.
Maybe
it’s something in the gene pool. Leo
Lewis, Jr., his father, is a legend of the Canadian Football League. He was a running back with the Winnipeg
Bombers and was named All-Pro six times and earned a spot in the Canadian
Football Hall of Fame in 1973. The older
Leo had an 11-year career and rushed for 8,861 yards, and averaged 29.1 as a
kickoff returner.
Pops
has another son, Marc Lewis, who played professionally for the USFL Denver Gold
and the CFL’s Oakland Invaders. All
three were too small to play. All three
have big hearts and a determination not to be ruled by the narrow limits people
use to measure possibilities.
Leo
III was cut or released five times – three times by the Vikings and one each by
the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cleveland Brown. He returned each season to play for the Vikings. When he retired in 1991, he had played in
more games than any Viking wide receiver and was the team’s all-time leader in
punt returns. He outlasted three head
coaches.
He
kept coming back. He also kept going back to school.
“I took classes every year after leaving
Missouri,” the younger Leo told me. In
1985, he obtained a Master of Science degree from the University of
Tennessee-Knoxville.
He
knew his stay in the NFL would be short.
Younger, faster athletes kept vying for his spot on the team.
“You
have to prepare for life after the NFL,” Lewis says. “It can end anytime.”
He
now holds a Ph.D.
In 1997, Lewis earned his Ph.D. in Kinesiology
from the University of Minnesota. His work focused on the social and
psychological dimensions of sports.
Lewis
was appointed the Director of Player Development for the Vikings in 1992. He managed the team’s personal and career
development programs that included encouraging personal growth in the areas of
continuing education, financial management, alternative career exploration, and
family assistance. In 2000, the program
was awarded the most outstanding in the NFL.
In
2006, he was appointed associate director of athletics and student athlete
development at the University of Minnesota. Lewis prepares student/athletes for
the realities that face professional athletes.
He preaches the message that life must continue after the helmet,
shoulder pads and cleats are placed in the locker the last time.
Lewis
teaches his own story.
“Things
are much harder for athletes today,” Lewis says. “They have so much more expected of them than
when I played.”
There’s
more time spent preparing to play. There’s
more time spent in the classroom. There’s
more time spent on the road. Today’s
athletes are expected to do so much more.
“We
have to stress the importance of academics,” Lewis says. “It’s what keeps so many from being unable to
play.”
Athletes
come to college with a variety of needs.
Lewis is developing a program that tailors the student/athlete. It’s a holistic approach that keeps many from
falling through the cracks. Some enter
college prepared for the transition.
Others lack the tools needed to conform to the expectations of college
life.
Then
there’s the influence of parents. Lewis says his parents stressed the
importance of academics. It’s what kept
him going back to take classes - one summer at a time, until he was ready to
write his dissertation.
“I
had people in my life that steered me in the right direction. I had parents who reminded me of the
importance of education. It’s important
to have people to guide you through making the right decisions,” Lewis says.
Lewis
was the little Viking that refused to go away.
He was too small to play. He had
just enough to play. Just enough to keep
coming back.
Maybe
it’s because Lewis understand life is more than a game. Maybe it’s the balance between the field and
the books that makes for the rearing of a man.
Maybe it’s there within the balance that true strength emerges above the
rest.
Lewis
said no to limitations. He also said no
to compromise. He kept coming back,
every off season, until he walked across the stage one last time. He walked as a man defined by his own will to
rise above the fame of football.
There
are few better suited to teach young men what it takes to become a man.
Way
to go Dr. Leo Lewis III.
