MOTHERS CARRY ROLES AS MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENCES ON ASU COACH GRAHAM, HOOD
Mother’s Day is an important holiday for Arizona State football coach Todd Graham. Carol Graham and her son talk on the phone every night. She is the force behind “speaking victory,” the mantra preached by the coach since his arrival at ASU.
“She always told me I’m smart, that I could do anything,” Graham said. “I learned a lot about perseverance from her. I was the runt of the family — all my brothers were bigger than me — and she told me I could do anything.” …
Graham’s father left the picture early in the coach’s life and Carol, who was 16 when she had her first child, was left to raise five kids on her own. She worked three jobs to support her family “but I never knew I was poor,” Graham said. “There is so much to admire about her: her relationships, her attitude, her spirit.”
One of Graham’s greatest thrills when he started making a bigger salary was to buy things for his mother. Last month, he gave her a new car. …
Carol still lives in Mesquite, Texas, where she raised her family. When she comes to ASU football games, she rides next to Graham on the team bus. She will turn 70 on May 25. …
Graham wasn’t thrilled about this getting out, but I thought it was a story worth sharing. Every Mother’s Day, he sends cards to the mothers of his players and recruits, and shares how important the holiday is to him.
“I’m grateful they are trusting me with their sons,” Graham said. …
Mother’s Day is also important to ASU defensive tackle Jaxon Hood, who will be a sophomore in the fall. His mother, Roseyn, a Duke graduate and longtime educator and school administrator in the Valley, always stressed the importance of having your academics in order.
“She’s such a great role model,” Jaxon Hood said.
Jaxon, his brother Tevin, an Arizona defensive lineman, and their siblings were raised by Roseyn and their stepfather. Former Cardinals tackle Eric Swann is the biological father of Jaxon and Tevin but not part of their lives.
Every year, Jaxon puts aside a few dollars each week from the stipend check he and other athletes receive to supplement their scholarships. The check isn’t huge, $100 a month if you live on campus, but he saves enough to buy a nice Mother’s Day gift.
“It’s the least I can do for everything she’s done for me,” he said. …
This surely will be a hard Mother’s Day for Nancy Taylor, the mother of Tyrice Thompson, the former ASU football player who was stabbed in January when he tried to stop an altercation at the Scottsdale bar in which he worked.
One of Thompson’s closest friends was former Sun Devils wide receiver Rudy Burgess, who is now a graduate assistant in Tempe. This week, Burgess and his fiance, Brandi Lammon, are expecting their first child. The name they will give their son? Maddox Tyrice.
“We wanted to honor (Thompson) in any way we could,” Burgess said. …
Their future son and Thompson already have a connection.
After Brandi learned she was pregnant in the fall, Thompson visited the couple, leaned down toward Brandi’s stomach and whispered something.
“What did you say?” Burgess asked him.
“That’s a secret between me and my ‘nephew,’ ” Thompson said. …
Burgess said his connection with Thompson is also strong. Hours after Thompson’s stabbing, Burgess woke up at 5 a.m. before his alarm went off. He found it odd and was surprised when the phone rang a few minutes later. It was Richard Thompson, Tyrice‘s dad, telling Burgess that his friend was in the hospital.
This has to be a special Mother’s Day for Denise McDonough, the mother of Ryan, the Suns’ new general manager, and Terry, who just joined the Cardinals’ personnel department. The wife of the late standout sports journalist Will McDonough is also the mother of ESPN broadcaster Sean and as well as two accomplished daughters.
Denise was asked on KTAR 620-AM’s “Doug and Wolf Show” what advice she would give other mothers.
“Number 1, they need to know they are loved, unconditionally,” she said. “And they need to know (you are) their mom, not their best friend.” … Final thought: “My doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.” — late Olympic sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who wore a brace on her left leg for much of her youth because of infantile paralysis caused by the polio virus. ...
Happy Mother’s Day.