| Jack Tatum never expected to be faced with a mobility problem. Tatum was as talented a defensive back as college football had ever seen. Recruited by the Ohio State Buckeyes as a running back, he moved to the defensive side in his freshman year. Tatum could cover like a corner and hit like a linebacker.
Tatum's reputation as a big hitter took off when he got to the National Football League (NFL) as an Oakland Raider, but it all started in college when he became the focus of every offensive coordinator's game plan. They didn't throw the ball much in the Big Ten during the "three yards and a cloud of dust" era, so Tatum was primarily used as another linebacker, but that didn't stop the Buckeyes from putting him on the opposing team's best receiver.
Known as one of the greatest all-around athletes to ever play college football, he made a name for himself shadowing and shutting down running backs.
In his last three years lettering for Ohio State, the Buckeyes went 27-2 winning two Big Ten titles and one national title. He was named National Defensive Player of the Year in 1970 and was unanimously chosen as an All-American in 1969 and 1970.
During his NFL career Tatum, Oakland's first round pick in the 1971 draft, went to three Pro Bowls and helped the Raiders win the 1976 Super Bowl. A member of the NFL Hall of Fame and listed as one of College Football's 100 greatest players of all time, Jack Tatum has always been accustomed to being the dominant force, on and off the field.
When severe circulatory problems necessitated the amputation of his lower left leg less than a year ago, Tatum's first concern was finding a way to return to his favorite physical activities. While he wasn't planning a comeback on the gridiron, he desperately wanted to return to golf.
In mid-December, wearing a prosthetic foot from Freedom Innovation, Inc., Tatum received personal instruction from a group of golf professionals that included amputee golf champion Ron Harding, at the Orange Coast College Football Stadium in Mesa Verde, Calif. The event was orchestrated to give other amputees an opportunity to see how properly designed prostheses can help golfers return to the links.
Tatum is enthusiastic about the new technology and determined to see that it enables him to resume his golf game. And while the emphasis was on his golf game that day, there was nevertheless a poetic irony at play.a football connection at works behind the scenes. The same prosthetic foot that is returning this gritty competitor to the gentle greens of the golf course, has returned a young gentleman named Neil Parry, of San Jose State University, to the gritty confines of the football field.
This story is courtesy of Active Living Magazine. |
