AN EXCLAMATION POINT
By returning to school to earn degrees, ex-pro athletes show youngsters the value of sacrificing for an education
A few nights before he walked the stage at Gregory Gym at the University of Texas, T.J. Ford chatted with his 11-year old son.
Ford was moved as he heard his son — also named T.J. — talk about how cool it was that his dad was graduating college.
Ford and his wife, Candace, stress education to their three children on a regular basis. He also stresses the importance of learning and doing well in school to the players in his basketball program in Houston.
After Friday, Ford, 34, can put an exclamation point on everything he says to the kids who look up to him. On Friday, he earned his degree in Applied Learning and Development from UT.
The last time he walked a stage to graduate was in 2001 when he finished at Willowridge High School.
Ford was determined to graduate
“It’s been a long time since then,” Ford said. “I always knew I would graduate and earn my degree. It took a lot of work and sacrifice, and it was all worth it.”
Ford was one of several former UT athletes who graduated Friday.
He, like others, had the chance to leave school early to play professionally.
From 2003-12, Ford played in the NBA. He eventually retired following a stint with the San Antonio Spurs after battling back injuries throughout his career.
Ford returned to Houston with his family and runs the T.J. Ford Basketball Academy, a youth program for boys and girls in the area.
He has lofty goals to continue building his business, and he’s passionate about developing young men and women on the court and in the classroom.
While he was growing his academy from the ground up, he was working toward his degree.
It was something he always wanted. During his offseasons in the NBA, he would come back to Texas and take classes, slowly chipping away.
When he retired, it took a little time to adjust. He spent time with his family. Along with his older son, he has 7-year old daughter Peyton and a 4-year old son named Austin.
He’s close to his entire family — brother Tim, sister Karen, dad Leo and his mother Mary.
Before he went to UT, Ford promised mom he would earn a degree. On Friday, he delivered.
It wasn’t easy. For the past year, Ford has buckled down and commuted to Austin several days a week to finish his final few classes.
“I was just committed,” he said. “I wanted to do it and I wanted to learn and to grow.”
Ford’s former coach Rick Barnes — now at the University of Tennessee — came to see him graduate Friday afternoon. His whole family attended.
“It was a group effort, me getting this degree,” Ford said. “My family, the people close to me. They all made this happen.”
Redding funds scholarship
Former UT defensive lineman Cory Redding also earned his degree Friday. Redding walked the stage the same day as the first two recipients of a scholarship he and his wife, Priscilla, fund in the College of Education.
Redding, a former North Shore standout who played in the NFL from 2003-16, hopes other athletes will look at him and the other former athletes such as Ford and Michael Griffin and follow suit.
“You can’t play football or basketball or whatever else forever,” he said. “You can be more, do more.”
Redding said he doubted himself for a long time. He wondered if he was smart enough to finish school. He put his fears aside and made the commitment to finish what he had started.
“I kept it going because someone has to do it,” Redding said. “A lot of people paid it forward for me to be here today. And I want to do the same. I need to show the ones coming behind me. It would be a disservice to the kids today. They can be more than they think.”
Opening up the world
Redding said he loves learning and being back in school brought him joy.
He hopes other athletes see him, his happiness and are encouraged to go back and earn their degrees.
“Fall back on something,” Redding said. “See the value in this education and go after it. You should never want to stop learning.”
For Ford and Redding, their degrees are more than something they hang on the wall. They represent what the longtime athletes went through and sacrificed along the way.
It shows they didn’t stop when their athletic careers did. Ford has more he wants to accomplish. “I think the biggest thing is now I can walk in any room and it’s not a topic of discussion,” Ford said. “If a big company wants to hire you, you want to have a degree. To be an entrepreneur, people look at that and take you more seriously.
“I know what I am capable of and now I’ve given myself more options.”
More than that, he showed the hundreds of kids with whom he works in Houston what determination, work ethic and perseverance look like.
Ford walked across a stage and touched more lives than he can imagine.
His son is right. That is pretty cool.