Tyson Gentry (Official Thread)

[BB73]

Official.site

Gentry Among Honorees in 51st Alumni Awards

Courtesy: OhioStateBuckeyes.com


Related: View Photos




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio State alumnus Tyson Gentry, a former football player for the Buckeyes, will be presented with the E. Gordon Gee Spirit of Ohio State Award at the 2009 Alumni Awards on Sept. 25 at the Hyatt Regency Columbus, 350 N. High St.

"Tyson has shown exceptional perseverance and dedication in earning his college degree," said Archie Griffin, president and CEO of Ohio State University Alumni Association. "He clearly has the ability to overcome significant obstacles in pursuit of the things that are important to him. He truly represents the best of the Buckeye spirit."

The E. Gordon Gee Spirit of Ohio State Award is presented to Ohio State alumni who demonstrate a devotion to Ohio State and promote school spirit with integrity and honor in an effort to elevate the university and its history. Previous winners of the Gee Award include Gee, Jim Tressel, John T. Mount, and Student-Alumni Council.

Gentry graduated from Ohio State in June with a B.A. in Speech and Hearing Sciences. He came to Ohio State and walked on the football team in 2004 as a punter, hoping to play for the Buckeyes like his father, Bob, did in the early 1970s. In April of 2006, Gentry moved to receiver for spring practices and suffered a broken vertebra in his neck that left him partially paralyzed. He was honorary captain for Ohio State's Fiesta Bowl appearance against Texas in January 2009.

Gentry is one of 16 Ohio State alumni being honored at the 51st annual ceremony. Other honorees include: Samira Kanaan Beckwith (Alumni Medalist); Hongor J. Oulanoff (Heinlen Award); Terina Joann Matthews and Mac A. Stewart (Failer Award); George Acock, Jr., Russel E. Kaufman, and Harry P. Bahrick (Professional Achievement Award); Aimee C. Nezhukumatahil, Jacqueline Nwando Olayiwola, and Daniel R. Prophater (Thompson Award); Robert B. Horton, Susan L. Hubbell, and Velma Vizedom Everhart (Mershon Award); and Edmund Casper and Bernard J. Scott (Duncan Award).

For more information, visit www.ohiostatealumni.org/awards/history.php.

 

[Heater]

Tyson Gentry Update and MORE...

I just had a great conversation with Bob Gentry, Tyson Gentry?s dad. I get energized every time I talk to him. Good people.

Tyson is doing well. Grades are stellar as he continues on in his progress as a graduate student in speech pathology and of course, enjoying life and time with his family and his girlfriend.

As a walk-on, Tyson never made All-American on the field, but there is NO doubt in my mind that he?s an All-American person from an All-American family. Anyone that has spent time with him, his family or even watched them on television in interviews can tell that right away.

Recently, Tyson was asked to be the Grand Marshall in the upcoming 5K run and 1 Mile ?Walk & Roll? sponsored by the Ohio State Medical Center on 23 May on campus. The event is set up to raise money for Dodd Hall, one of the nation?s top rehabilitation programs (for nearly 20 years) and hopefully brings some publicity to spinal cord injury/rehabilitation. Understandably, it doesn?t quite get the publicity of some other ailments.

Anyway, here?s the event website: Premier Sports - 5K Walk and Roll.

That website will link you into race participation. Coach Hazell has said that he?ll be out there and he?s going to try to bring some of the players as well. From my communication with the elder Gentry, I understand that Chris Spielman and Joe Daniels are making plans as well.

For those that would like to contribute but not run/walk/roll, here?s what we would like to do?make a check payable to Tyson Gentry and send it to me. I will collect them all and forward them to Tyson and he will turn in all the money to The Ohio State University Rehabilitation Services folks at Dodd Hall.

Please recall to 3 years ago when we did a similar thing here at Bucknuts for Tyson and raised over $24,000 for the Tyson Gentry Trust Fund. This time around, I would just love it if folks could find it in their hearts to send in to help the cause. As Bob Gentry said on the phone, ?Anything is a blessing and a plus.?

Heath Schneider
208 Walden Woods Drive
LaGrange, NC 28551

[email protected]

Folks: NO pressure here. If you want to send something to me (honestly, amount doesn't matter), let me know and I will keep a running tally for those that are interested. If you can't, please keep Tyson and his family in your prayers.

Thanks in advance!

I'm in for the first $50.

--Heater

 

[Buckskin86]

Former Ohio State player tells group to stay positive
Marion Star staff report ? October 4, 2010

WORTHINGTON - Stay positive!

That seemingly simple phrase was at the heart of a message delivered Monday by former Ohio State Buckeye football player Tyson Gentry, who spoke to several hundred individuals with disabilities at the Ohio Self Determination Association's annual conference.

The Self Determination Association advocates for individuals with disabilities, according to a news release. The association believes individuals with disabilities should have the freedom to plan their own lives and pursue the things that are important to them.

Lee Wedemeyer, superintendent of the Marion County Board of Developmental Disabilities, is the president of the Ohio Self Determination Association.

Seated in his wheelchair amid several hundred rabid Ohio State fans, Tyson's talk was interrupted numerous times by applause. But he wasn't on hand to talk about Buckeye football. Rather, he was there to talk about overcoming the obstacles.

"My main message is about overcoming adversity," Gentry said. "There is going to be a time when your life is going to be turned upside down. I know what it's like to have your life turned upside down and it's important to stay positive. No matter what, you can always make the choice to stay positive."

Gentry, 25, was a sophomore receiver and punter for the Buckeyes when he was tackled during a spring practice scrimmage in 2006. A neck injury from the collision left him paralyzed. He is confined to a wheelchair, but has regained use of his arms and has sensation throughout his body.

http://www.marionstar.com/article/20101004/NEWS01/10040303

 

[MD Buckeye]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulf-d8kQf28"]‪Tyson Gentry on His Injury and Ohio State Football as Family.‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Buckskin86]

 

[Buckskin86]

Checking in with Tyson Gentry, the paralyzed former Ohio State Buckeye with a brand new bride

Tyson Gentry in 2006, speaking with reporters a little more than three months after he was partially paralyzed during an Ohio State spring scrimmage. (Associated Press)
By Doug Lesmerises, Northeast Ohio Media Group
November 01, 2013

Tyson Gentry and his wife, Megan, on their wedding day on Oct. 19.
Courtesy of Tyson Gentry

COLUMBUS, Ohio – As I thought about the story of Ohio State's Dontre Wilson and his friend Corey Borner, who was partially paralyzed after a hit on a football field at DeSoto High School in Texas in 2009, one person came to mind.

Because Ohio State has seen that kind of football accident as well. I wanted to know how Tyson Gentry was doing.

In 2006, Gentry was a walk-on receiver and punter for the Buckeyes participating in a team scrimmage that April. After catching a pass at Ohio Stadium, Gentry absorbed a hit from safety Kurt Coleman and then landed awkwardly as he hit the ground. He broke his C4 vertebra. He hasn’t walked since.

But two weeks ago, he did watch his bride walk down the aisle.

Gentry married Megan, whom he met in class at Ohio State as a senior 2009, on the Saturday that the Buckeyes played Iowa.

You’d love to hear that Gentry walked down that aisle as well. Life hasn’t given him the use of his legs again. From his wheelchair, he’s seized everything else that has come his way.

“I’ve really come to believe that everything happens for a reason,” Gentry told Cleveland.com in a phone interview from Florida this week. “You don’t always get what you want, but you get what you need. You do the best you can with what comes across your path.”

cont...

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2013/11/checking_in_with_tyson_gentry.html

 

[MD Buckeye]

11W - NINE YEARS AFTER SUFFERING A DEVASTATING INJURY, TYSON GENTRY IS STILL PAYING FORWARD

 

[MaxBuck]

11W - NINE YEARS AFTER SUFFERING A DEVASTATING INJURY, TYSON GENTRY IS STILL PAYING FORWARD

What a great story. Very inspirational young man.

 

[Dryden]

Tyson did a fantastic Reddit AMA today:

http://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/31qs34/i_am_tyson_gentry_former_ohio_state_football/

 

[BayBuck]

The season countdown thread made me wonder how Tyson has been doing, found this article from last year:

http://www.norwalkreflector.com/Edu...yer-gives-inspired-speech-on-facing-adversity

...
Now married and the father of two young children, Gentry said when he was in “the dark days,” many of his friends, coaches and teammates helped him get through it. He said that experience and the subsequent years made him realize it’s OK to depend on people and now he focuses on “the three F’s” — faith, family and friends.

In 2014, Gentry started the New Perspective Foundation, named after the fresh point-of-view he had after his injury. The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is geared toward helping people in Florida, Georgia or Ohio. The mission of the foundation is assisting the family and friends of a patient with a spinal cord injury “with airfare, gasoline and or lodging expenses, so they can travel to support the hospitalized individual in his or her time of need.” ...

 

[ScriptOhio]

 

[ScriptOhio]

Tyson Gentry Grateful As He Reflects on Life 20 Years After Ohio State Practice Injury That Left Him Paralyzed

Twenty years after he was paralyzed in an Ohio State practice, Tyson Gentry reflects on his life journey in his new book “Once A Buckeye…: A Story of Football, Family and Faith.”

www.elevenwarriors.com

Tyson Gentry Grateful As He Reflects on Life 20 Years After Ohio State Practice Injury That Left Him Paralyzed​

Twenty years after suffering a life-changing injury during an Ohio State football practice, Tyson Gentry is grateful.

Gentry has been paralyzed from the neck down since suffering a spinal cord injury during a spring scrimmage at Ohio Stadium on April 14, 2006. The former walk-on wide receiver eventually regained use of his biceps, but remains unable to walk or move his fingers or wrists.

Despite that, Gentry has a thriving life. He runs the New Perspective Foundation, which assists others who have suffered spinal cord injuries. He serves on the board and was previously the president of the National Football Foundation’s Columbus Chapter. He shares his life journey through public speaking, and has authored four books, including his new autobiography “Once A Buckeye…: A Story of Football, Family and Faith,” which was published this week.

Most importantly, Gentry is a husband to his wife Megan and a father to his two sons, 10-year-old Adam and 8-year-old Ryan. And it’s because of them that Gentry says he’d still choose to play football at Ohio State all over again even if he knew how his career would unfold.

“I really would. If I was able to answer that question while knowing that I would say I end up where I'm at with my wife and our two sons, Adam and Ryan, undoubtedly yeah, because I don't want to know what my life would look like without them,” Gentry told Eleven Warriors. “My wife is my angel. She makes things so much easier on me and helps me carry a lot of the burdens that come with my injury. So having her by my side is amazing. And then to watch our two sons, who are 10 and 8 now, grow up and to kind of show them so many things that they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to.”

In the immediate aftermath of his injury, Gentry questioned whether he’d ever have the opportunity to be a husband or a father. After undergoing fusion surgery three days after the injury, the pain was so intense that Gentry wished for death.

The following morning, however, Gentry’s parents showed him an inspirational note that told him to “Never give up, no matter how much adversity you face.” The note resonated with Gentry because he wrote it himself after a woman who suffered a spinal cord injury spoke to the Ohio State football team – eight months before his own injury – and asked them to write letters of encouragement to patients at Ohio State’s Dodd Hall, the same hospital where he’d soon undergo his own rehabilitation. Gentry took that as a sign from God, and it gave him the faith he needed to persevere.

“When I reached my lowest point and I was ready to give up, I honestly thought I was going to die. Just the amount of pain that I was in, I was ready to go, I was at peace with everything,” Gentry said. “And I woke up the next morning and realized that it's not the end of the road, and so just from that standpoint onward, my faith has increased.”

The coming months remained difficult for Gentry as he was told to “hurry up and wait” to see if he would regain more function in his arms and legs. But as he gradually came to accept that he would never be able to walk again or do many of the things that he loved to do before his injury, Gentry decided he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life dwelling on what he couldn’t do.

“I don't know that there was a specific point that I recall reaching that phase. But I do remember at some point coming to terms with the fact that like, OK, I obviously can't undo what happened, and I can't suddenly change my function and give myself hand movement or get up and walk or anything like that,” Gentry said. “So I think once I kind of realized like, ‘Hey, if this is what I have to work with moving forward, all I can do is make the best of it.’ Because the only alternative is to sit there and feel sorry for myself and spiral downward, and I didn't want that.”
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