Jerry Doss - Pat Tillman

PAT TILLMAN

JERRY DOSS

Pat Tillman

P assion is what makes life interesting, what ignites our soul, fuels our love and carries our friendships, stimulates our intellect, and pushes our limits... A passion for life is contagious and uplifting. Passion cuts both ways... Those that make you feel on top of the world are equally able to turn it upside down... In my life I want to create passion in my own life and with those I care for. I want to feel, experience and live every emotion. I will suffer through the bad for the heights of the good.

Pat Tillman

In the Beginning

Patrick Daniel Tillman was born on November 6th, 1976, in New Almaden, California a small, close-knit community in the shade of the Santa Cruz Mountains - to Mary (affectionately known as Dannie) and Patrick Kevin Tillman.

When Pat was only seven months old, the family moved to Campbell, California, because Pat Seniors hour long commute to and from Cupertino every day was taking its toll.

He was not a cuddly infant. Actually, he was a little malcontent. He didnt like being swaddled and held like most babies; he preferred to be upright. I remember I would sit in a chair and hold him up so he could bounce on my knees until my arms got so tired I could no longer hold him.

Even before the age of one, Pat was an explorer and didnt like being confined. His mother recalled how, when he was around eight months old, he would throw himself out of his crib at bedtime and crawl over to the closed bedroom door, reaching for freedom through the gap under the door, crying out over and over again. The doctor had told Mary that Pat needed to learn to settle by himself so she and Patrick would wait until his crying stopped and then quietly creep into his room, where they would find him with his fingers still reaching under the door, asleep on his knees.

When little brother Kevin came along on January 24th, 1978, Pat was delighted. He would often climb into the crib he had been so desperate to escape just a few months earlier and lie down next to the baby.

The family moved again just before Kevins first birthday, to another house in Campbell. Pats thirst for adventure was becoming more and more apparent. When he was around two and a half, Mary found him with his arms and legs wrapped around a tree outside his window. He had opened the bedroom window, climbed out onto the roof, and jumped the three feet between the roof and the tree, and, as Mary watched in horror, Pat clung on, squealing with delight every time the wind blew and the tree swayed.

In the fall of 1980, the family moved back to the house in New Almaden Mary was more than halfway through her third pregnancy and wanted to bring her boys up in the space and tranquillity of the rural community. Richard was born on Kevins third birthday, January 24th, 1981.

Life was idyllic.

Pat was four when Mary signed him up for football and she herself took on the role of assistant coach. Pat wasnt keen on football and wanted to stay home and play but he stuck it out, and Kevin joined his own team when he was five.

School

Pat went to Graystone Elementary School, and later Leland High School, and it was during his time at school that he learned to question authority. He was never disrespectful, but he was taught by his parents not to blindly obey adults just because they were adults, or in authority. When Mary would go through his school work she would often find that Pat had questioned the teachers grades or comments, always wanting an explanation. Pat was not being obnoxious, he genuinely wanted to know.

While Pats behavior in class was never questioned, in between classes it was a different matter. He liked to run, climb, and wrestle just as he did at home. Pat would let off steam and energy between lessons and it caused his teachers much bewilderment that he could behave so differently in and out of the classroom.[1]

Football

Although Pat hadnt been too fussed about football when he started playing at the age of four, by the time he reached High School he was hooked. Football was his passion, and the familys lives revolved around the game, with all three brothers playing. Pat joined the varsity team when he was 15, in November 1991, and by 1992 he was Leland High Schools star player.

Pat was small for a football player, but that didnt stop him excelling on the field. Whatever position his coach put him in, Pat would shine, and it was his performance in a game near the end of the season which put Leland in the playoffs.[2]

In 1994, Pat won a scholarship with Arizona State University - for both his academic abilities as well as his talents on the field to play football for the Sun Devils.[3] When Pat played as a junior, the ASU went unbeaten and won the Pacific-10 conference championship. The following year saw him named Pac-10 defensive player of the year, and was also a Second-Team All-American. At the same time, he was gaining recognition and honors academically. That season also saw Pat Tillman take the Sun Devils to a 9-3 season. In 1997, he was named Sporting News/Honda Scholar-Athlete of the Year[4] as well as being picked as the ASU Most Valuable Player of the Year. 1998 also brought him the Sun Angel Student-Athlete of the Year accolade.

Academically, Tillman was still excelling, and in both 1996 and 1997, he won the Clyde B. Smith Academic Award.[5]

NFL

In April 1998, Tillman was drafted in the 7th and final round by the Arizona Cardinals, where he started ten of sixteen games.

By 2000 Tillman was really making his mark on the game, breaking the franchise record for tackles with 224. Tillman was not a man who liked to slow down, and it was sometimes a problem in practice when he would run full-pelt in drills which werent supposed to be done at full-speed. But even football didnt push the man who lived life at warp speed enough in 2000 he ran a marathon just to see what it would be like. Always trying to better himself, in 2001 he progressed to the triathlon. Sitting back and taking it easy was never Pat Tillmans way.

He was offered a lucrative contract with the Cardinals, worth $3.6 million over three years, but after a few weeks, Pat had still not signed the contract. Then in May 2002 Pat walked into coach Dave McGinnis office and told him they needed to talk.[6]

With War on his Mind

Pat, like every other American, had watched the horrors of September 11th unfold. But while his teammates expressed their anger towards Osama Bin Laden, and giving their verbal support for the war, Pat quietly ruminated. His comfortable lifestyle was making him feel uneasy.

War had been discussed many times in the Tillman household while the boys were growing up. Marys family had a rich history with the military her father had served in the Korean War as a Marine, and her Uncle John had served in Korea, World War II, and the National Guard. Marys childhood had been punctuated by visits to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, where her father would tell stories to Mary and her brother about the Civil War. On the paternal side of the family, the boys Grandfather had been in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese dropped their bombs. But while there were many discussions about life in the military, they almost always concentrated on the camaraderie, the fun, and the brotherhood of being in the forces. Marys father, for instance, never talked about the fact that his best friend had been killed by a landmine in front of him a fact that Mary herself never knew until after her father died. So, in many aspects, military life had been glamorized.