One of my heroes growing up was Eddie Lee Ivery, running back for the Green Bay Packers in the early 80s. I remember my dad taking my brother and me up to Green Bay for training camp when I was 6 or 7. Eddie and James Lofton were my brother and my favorite players.I had the opportunity to meet Eddie a few years back when I was working at Cafe 458 in Atlanta. As has been written of elsewhere, Eddie was in the Oakhurst Recovery program, an in-patient drug and alcohol recovery program that was connected with Cafe 458. Eddie was an All-American at Tech, setting what was at that time the single-game rushing mark of 356 yards against Air Force (in a blizzard, no less) and the single-season mark of 1526 yards in 1978. He was drafted in the first round by the Packers, but was injured on the third play of his rookie season. He went on to have multiple knee surgeries, and he was never the player he was in college, though he did lead the Packers in rushing twice.
From small-town, warm weather Georgia, Eddie told me he was pretty depressed when he injured himself. Isolated, he started using drugs and alcohol with teammates. This habit turned into an addiction which lasted through his eight seasons with the Packers, until he finally sought help at the Oakhurst Recovery Program in 1998. That's where I met Eddie. I even talked him into playing on a church-league flag-football team where I was quarterback. I just told my teammates this was Eddie and he'd played a little ball before. I think that first game he had 5 touchdown catches, at 43 years old, not having run in years.
Georgia Trend magazine has a great article about Eddie and his story of getting his life back together. Eddie finished Oakhurst and was put back on scholarship at Tech to finish his bachelors degree. He works as a strength and conditioning coach with the football team at Georgia Tech. Who knows how many lives he has touched already. He certainly touched mine.
Posts
