Colleges

Biggest muscle? His heart

USF linebacker Tyrone McKenzie never tires of heavy lifting - of weights while honing his body, and of spirits while helping others.

By GREG AUMAN
Published September 5, 2007

TAMPA - Tyrone McKenzie is known as a tackling machine, a linebacker who ranked among the nation's most prolific tacklers last season at Iowa State and led the Bulls with 12 stops in his USF debut Saturday.

As good as the Riverview graduate is at bringing people down on the field, he's at his best when he's helping them up.

Former East Bay quarterback Brandon Zackery knows McKenzie as a player from a rival high school who visited him in the hospital three years ago after he had broken both bones in his lower leg.

"I just wanted to lift his feelings, to let him know it wasn't the end of the world," said McKenzie, who had 129 tackles last season. "To tell him he could still work hard and come back like I did."

A year earlier, two games into his junior year of high school, McKenzie was the one with a titanium rod in a badly broken leg. He had a spiral fracture, one that doctors said might keep him from playing football again. The thought of life without football was difficult.

Ruth Sloley said the first toy her son ever held was a small football, at that age when all children have that one possession - a security blanket, a toy elephant - that they can't leave the house or fall asleep without.

"I had to purchase another one, just in case we couldn't find his," she said.

Fifteen years later, doctors weren't going to take his football away. He was back in the weight room within weeks, limited to upper-body work that explains his physique now, with an imposing neck and huge biceps atop his 6-foot-2, 230-pound frame. He not only returned his senior year, he rushed for 1,415 yards and 16 touchdowns.

USF defensive line coach Dan McCarney, who coached McKenzie, 21, two years at Iowa State, isn't surprised to hear Zackery's story. The Friday afternoon before home games at Iowa State, he had a tradition of bringing eight to 10 players with him to a local children's hospital, to visit the kids in oncology wards who might never come home.

"You just try to put a smile on their faces," McCarney said.

The hospital trips were strictly voluntary, with a weekly signup sheet; McCarney hoped he'd see most players over the course of a year or two.

"It seemed every week that Tyrone was at the hospital with me," he said. "He's just so unselfish."

Regular trips to the hospital are a sad part of McKenzie's childhood. From when he was about 6 years old, he spent three years visiting his father, Rupert, who was hospitalized as he battled colon cancer. He would visit with his mother and sisters in the morning before school, and again at night. Rupert lost his battle when Tyrone was 9.

"It was tough growing up without a father around, but it made me who I am now," he said. "It made me a stronger person at an age when a lot of people don't have to deal with something like that."

Sloley said her son's reputation as a hard-hitting linebacker is well-earned, but doesn't define him. Off the field, he's as compassionate as they come.

"He takes his job seriously out there, but he has a really good heart," she said. "When he sees someone else hurting, he takes it personally."

That was a big reason McKenzie, who majors in accounting, came home to Tampa to finish his college career, to be closer to his mother. When he was on crutches recovering from his broken leg, so was Sloley, who is still limited by serious injuries from a car accident.

On Saturday, she was able to watch her son play college football for the first time; he's able to meet her for lunch, to go to church with his family on Sundays. Sloley said she's proud of her son on the football field, but just as much so when he stops to fill out the $1 charity donation at the grocery checkout.

Losing a parent to cancer might keep some people away from hospitals, but it has had the opposite effect on McKenzie. He said the volunteer trips were one of his favorite things about Iowa State football, something he hopes he can continue with McCarney here at USF.

"It's just giving back," McKenzie said. "I'm blessed to be able to walk, to be able to play football. There are so many people out there that wish they had legs to walk around. You have to reach out to anyone that needs a helping hand."

[Last modified September 4, 2007, 23:17:32]