re: Parents of injured Southern WR flown in at UGA’s expense

Reminds me of Kent Waldrep, a player for TCU who broke his neck in a game against Bama. Alabama boosters ended up paying a large portion of his medical bills. One even bought him a completely accessible van. Waldrep went on to have children and UA awarded his oldest son the Bryant Scholarship.

TCU, on the other hand, refused to pay his medical bills and cancelled his scholarship. Shitbags.

quote:

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Bryant made Waldrep part of the Alabama football family

Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 10:14 p.m.

Perhaps more than any college player who never actually played for the University of Alabama, Kent Waldrep has become a part of the Crimson Tide football family.

Former UA coach Paul “Bear” Bryant made sure of that after Waldrep, a defensive back for TCU, was paralyzed from an injury he suffered in a game between the Horned Frogs and Crimson Tide in 1974. In a story that’s become well known over the years, Bryant spent the days after Waldrep’s injury making frequent visits to the player’s Birmingham hospital bedside. Even after Waldrep was moved back to Texas for further rehabilitation, Bryant remained in contact.

“He’d call every three or four months just to check on me, just to talk,” Waldrep recalled. “He’d talk about his team. He’d tell me that this would be the team’s strength or the weaknesses. It was great just to talk to him.”

Waldrep last saw the legendary coach at the Cotton Bowl following the 1980 season, when he was a guest on the UA sideline. The few spoke a few more times before Bryant died in early 1983.

The relationship didn’t stop, though. Even as Waldrep went on to be a tireless worker, founding his own medical company and heading the Kent Waldrep National Paralysis Foundation. He stayed in contact with hundreds of friends he had made in Alabama. In recent years, Waldrep – who has long been a part of the Alabama family – has made the University of Alabama an even more integral part of his family.

Waldrep and his wife, Lynn, have two sons, Trey and Charley. In 2006, Trey was awarded a Bryant Scholarship – normally reserved for the children of Bryant’s former players – to attend UA. He is now entering his junior year.

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to Coach Richt and UGA.