Walker relives his trials, tribulations and overcoming

Mar. 25—THOMASVILLE — What Herschel Walker really wanted to be, he said, was a Marine.

He even seriously weighed joining the Corps, instead of going to the University of Georgia. Instead, he left his home in tiny Wrightsville for the short drive to Athens, where he became a college football superstar.

"I didn't really want to go to college. That's too big of a dream for me to go to college," he said at Thursday's Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet. "I wanted to be a Marine, because those are some bad men."

At the time, Walker was being courted heavily by Georgia, Clemson and the University of Southern California.

Walker, who won the 1982 Heisman Trophy and was the catalyst behind Georgia's 1980 national championship team, told the Thomas County FCA the part God has played in his life.

"I wanted to go into the military," Walker said. "Signing day for athletes was in February. February came and went I didn't say anything. March came and went, and I didn't say anything. Easter Sunday my mom came to me, and said, 'Bo, don't you think it's time for you to decide where to go to school?'"

Walker's nickname was Bo — but as he pointed out, "I want y'all to know Bo Jackson never beat Herschel Walker in anything" — and his mother instructed him "If your mind and heart is pure Lord Jesus, no matter what your decision, may God make it right for you."

That led to Walker flipping a coin, he said, between Georgia and the military, Georgia and Clemson and Georgia and USC.

It came out Georgia each time.

Walker recalled growing up in Johnson County, a small county in east Georgia. He told a story of how one morning before church he didn't have any shoes and didn't want to go without shoes.

"I kept telling my mom I didn't have any shoes, and she said, 'Jesus don't care how you look,'" he said.

Walker also reminisced about when he first became aware of Jesus.

"I start reading about this guy named Jesus Christ," he said. "I thought, 'that's a bad dude — He died and came back to life. Superman doesn't even do that.'"

That Walker was regarded as the No. 1 high school prospect was nothing short of a surprise for him.

His mother used to tell him he was "big-boned" — "I was fat," he said. — and he had a speech impediment.

"I stuttered so, so bad, I couldn't get a sentence out," he said. "For four years, I never went out for recess and for four years, I never spoke up in class. The teachers used to put me in a corner and tell me I was special.

"Kids used to laugh at me all the time."

In the eighth grade, another kid beat up Walker.

"He beat me up and woke me up," he said, joking he's tried to find that kid, Anthony Logan, on Facebook and Twitter. "That's the day I stopped feeling sorry for myself.

"I started going to the library and getting books and reading to myself in front of the mirror. I started doing 5,000 pushups every day, about 5,000 setups every day.

"I started getting bigger, my speech started getting a little better. Now I raise my hands and answer questions. Now the kid nobody wanted to talk to would be one of the highest-rated kids in school."

Even after getting to Georgia, Walker didn't start as a freshman. Coach Vince Dooley didn't like playing freshmen, he said, and Carnie Norris was the starting tailback ahead of Walker.

The first game of the 1980 season was at Tennessee, in front of 97,000 people at Neyland Stadium, Walker recalled, and only about 4,000 were Georgia fans.

The Bulldogs were down 15-0, and the Georgia fans in attendance were chanting for Walker. Dooley put the freshman in, and the Bulldogs won.

"He didn't like freshmen to play," Walker said. "But like my momma said, man can't stop what God has in store for him."

The next week, he ran for three touchdowns as Georgia beat No. 17-ranked Texas A&M.

He started the rest of the way, and the season ended with a 17-10 Sugar Bowl win over Notre Dame and a national championship. Walker said there was excitement in the program too about his being a Heisman Trophy finalist.

There was just one problem, though.

"I didn't know what the Heisman Trophy was," Walker admitted. "I never followed football. I never watched football."

The winner that year was another Georgian, George Rogers, who played at South Carolina.

The next year, Walker was a finalist again, but lost out to Southern California's Marcus Allen.

"They gave it to Marcus Allen. I was better looking than Marcus Allen," Walker said.

He won the Heisman after his junior year, and as a Heisman winner, he now has a vote in the award. Had he been a voter then, though, Walker said he would have voted for someone else.

He'd have chosen then Stanford quarterback John Elway.

"My criteria for winning the Heisman Trophy is a little bit different," he said. "John Elway meant more to Stanford than Herschel Walker meant to Georgia."

Though he left Georgia after his junior year for the United States Football League and the New Jersey Generals, whose team owner was Donald Trump, Walker contemplated leaving before that season for the military.

With a broken thumb, he watched his teammates at practice, and he opted to stay.

After his playing days in the NFL, he decided to go to a different military base every two weeks to take physical training and combatant training with the troops.

After the USFL folded, Walker joined the Dallas Cowboys, playing for legendary coach Tom Landry.

But after leading the league in rushing the year before, he got a call from coach Jimmy Johnson asking him to come by the office. Walker said he was known as a "cleaner," in the NFL, meaning he was often called upon to shepherd other players who didn't lead as clean a life as he did.

Waiting for him were Johnson and team owner Jerry Jones, and Walker was told he had been traded to Minnesota.

"My wife said, 'they can't trade you,'" Walker said. "I had a 100% no trade, guaranteed contract. It's cold in Minnesota."

So Walker decided to ask for a number of conditions he didn't think the Cowboys would meet .

"All this stuff I really didn't want — a brand new house every other year, two brand new cars every year, a new wardrobe, Jerry Jones' plane for a year," he said.

Then he was told Jones agreed to everything. Walker then agreed to the trade to the Vikings.

"I've got to be a man of my word," he said.

Moving to Minnesota was shock in another way for Walker — he wound up liking the Twin Cities.

"Minnesota was one of the best places I've ever been in my life," he said.

His pro career took him to Philadelphia and playing alongside Reggie White, who had earned the moniker the "Minster of Defense" and became one of Walker's best friends.

But even Walker wondered how Philadelphia could be called "The City of Brotherly Love."

"That's a tough place to play football," he said. "Let me tell you, there ain't no love in Philadelphia. They boo everybody. They booed Santa Claus."

Jones brought Walker back to Dallas and one day in the locker room, one of the younger players approached him and greeted him as "Mr. Walker."

It was Anthony Dorsett, the son of his former teammate Tony Dorsett from his first stint with the Cowboys.

Walker openly discussed his diagnosis with mental health issues. His post NFL career has included time as a ballet dancer and becoming a mixed martial arts fighter.

He also wrote a book and directed the proceeds to mental health hospitals.

Walker also urged the crowd to not put anything off because what tomorrow brings is unknown. He also urged them to have a foundation in their life.

"If you don't have a foundation, you're going to keep falling down," he said. "Every time I've gotten knocked down, I've gotten back up."