{"id":34656,"date":"2024-11-04T10:15:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T15:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=34656"},"modified":"2024-11-14T10:58:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T15:58:41","slug":"sports-brief-a-helping-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/sports-brief-a-helping-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Brief: A Helping Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2013, it was hard to imagine former Furman football standout Allen Edwards \u201992 being anything other than the powerful physical presence he was on the field.<\/p>\n

At 6 feet 1 and 240 pounds, he was, as a true freshman, the Paladins\u2019 starting nose guard in their 17-12 victory over Georgia Southern in the 1988 national championship game. Edwards so dominated the Eagles\u2019 All-American center that it\u2019s still a vivid memory for Furman head football coach Clay Hendrix all these years later.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Allen Edwards \u201991 lettered four times as nose guard at Furman and helped lead the Paladins to the 1988 I-AA national championship.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAllen was incredible in that game,\u201d says Hendrix, who was in his first year as an assistant coach with the Paladins. \u201cThe center had trouble even getting the snaps back to the quarterback. I wasn\u2019t surprised. Our offensive line had to face Allen in practice every day and we couldn\u2019t block him, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the stroke was something Edwards couldn\u2019t overpower. After losing mobility on his right side as well as his ability to speak, he was confined to a wheelchair and would need full-time care in a nursing facility. But he hasn\u2019t had to go through it alone. Once his Furman teammates learned what had happened, they banded together to help.<\/p>\n

That included members of the 1988 championship team like coach Bobby Johnson, All-American linebacker Jeff Blankenship \u201990, wide receiver Don Clardy \u201991, running back Chad O\u2019Rear \u201992, and offensive linemen Brian Anderson \u201992 and Tom LeGrand \u201994.<\/p>\n

They raised money to move Edwards from Charleston to a facility in Greenville. Somebody visited every day. They took him to doctor\u2019s appointments, to physical therapy sessions, to Furman football and basketball games. Whenever Edwards\u2019 situation required even more comprehensive care, they raised more money.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have given hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for Allen\u2019s care,\u201d says LeGrand, who would become Edwards\u2019 legal guardian. \u201cEverything from $50 to $30,000. There was a need and people have stepped up.\u201d<\/p>\n

LeGrand also wants people to remember the player who was a three-time All-Southern Conference first-team selection and the league\u2019s 1991 Defensive Player of the Year, to recall the greatness of the former All-American who spent eight years as an assistant coach with the Paladins and was named to the Furman Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI blocked Allen every day in practice as a freshman, and I lost every single time,\u201d says LeGrand, who was not exactly fragile at 6 feet 4 and 230 pounds. \u201cHe threw me around like a rag doll. He was an amazing football player, the best defensive player in Furman history in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

At age 53, Edwards\u2019 condition has continued to deteriorate over the years and the challenges have become greater still. But, LeGrand says, Edwards can count on his Furman teammates helping as long as it is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a camaraderie among the Furman football players that doesn\u2019t go away,\u201d says LeGrand. \u201cThere\u2019s a level of respect for the guys who played a game that\u2019s hard and can be brutal, and Allen was one of the best. It\u2019s been a long, tough journey for him these last few years, and we\u2019ve tried our best to make that journey as easy as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since experiencing a major stroke more than a decade ago, former Furman football great Allen Edwards \u201992 has learned he can still count on his teammates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":34749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3055,1963,3060],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2024","category-furman-magazine","category-notes-from-the-field-fall-2024"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34656"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35237,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34656\/revisions\/35237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}