Herschel Walker Interview (page: 2 / 8) All-American Football Player	Print Interview

I remember you talking about a race that didn't work out so well. That's a great story.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Not having that athletic ability, and being talked about, kids not wanting to play with you and kids making fun of you. When I was in the seventh grade, I think, they have this race at the end of the school year, like a mile run. And I felt that if I can win that mile run, I'd have all these friends. People were going to come and talk to me because I won the mile.

So about three weeks before the race, my father was a farmer, so he plowed this field and I got out and went into training with my younger brother. We went out and we went into training so I could get ready to win this mile. For three weeks, I trained.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. The day came for the race and I got up there with this guy, Willie Jenkins. I remember his name and this other guy, Wells, who everybody predicted they were going to win that race. They were the most athletic kids in my class. And, I got up there right with them to run this race, and we started running. I was feeling good. I was feeling great. I was in shape. No one know I'd been training except my younger brother. So, we were running around the track and about the second lap, something said, "Herschel, you're not going to win." I'm running and I'm thinking, okay, wait a minute. Third lap something said, "Herschel, you're not going to win." And, I'm up front. There's only like...I'm in the second place. I'm right up front. I'm feeling good. I'm not even tired, and going until the last lap. Something said, "Herschel, you're not going to win. You're not going to win this race. You better get out of it. You better get out of it." And, I'm like in second whereas I probably could have won it if I had kept running. And, I said, "Okay. What am I going to do? I'm going to pretend like I pulled a muscle." So, on the last curve, I walked off the field and grabbed my hamstring and sat and pretend like I hurt my leg. And Willie Jenkins ended up winning this race and all day it bothered me.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I remember going home and getting off the school bus. My younger brother ran up to me and said, "How did it go? How did it go?" and I said, "Well, I hurt my leg," and I lied about it. He said, "Oh you know, you'll get them next time." That made me feel so bad, because I lied, and I think the thing is I didn't try. I said then, no matter whatever happened in my life from then on, I don't care what happened. I'm going to give it everything I've got. It's funny, because I see so many people today that don't want to try, and I say I don't care what I ever do, I never give up at anything anymore. I don't care what it is, you'll never see me give up.

What kind of a student were you when you were a kid?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Herschel Walker: I had a speech impediment when I was growing up. I could barely put a sentence together. I could barely talk. But my parents wouldn't let that be an excuse. They said, "Well, you have to work on it." I had a lot of teachers that really didn't pay that much attention to me. Having a speech impediment, they just figured then, it's going too tough for Herschel so we will put him over there in the corner, and we will work with him when we have time, after we work with the other kids. Even though that may have disappointed me in their views, it didn't disappoint me in the way my parents said, "Herschel, you just study this, you study that." And my speech got better. My grades came up. And when I graduated high school, I was valedictorian of my class.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

I graduated high school as the Beta Club president, which is a club that you have to have "A"s to be a part of. I was president of the Beta Club. I went into college with a very high grade point average. I knew, from what my parents had told me, that as long as you apply yourself, you are going to succeed.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Too many people today are afraid to step up at bat. They are afraid that life is going to throw them all kinds of curve balls, and this and that. And you know what is so strange, is there is no one in professional baseball that is batting 100. I doubt there is anyone batting 600. There is no one probably batting even 500. But as long as you're not afraid in life, and step up and take on a challenge, you never know what's going to happen. And every challenge that I have been faced, I am going to step up and swing because one time I may hit a home run. And that home run is going to carry me a little bit farther. That's what is so great to me about the Academy here. I've won so many awards in my life. I won a lot of things, but when I got the word about coming up here to the Academy as a student, I was getting so many scholarship offers and I really didn't know what to think of it, until I got here and saw the other students here. And it made me proud to be a part of that.

[ Key to Success ] Courage

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I was sort of embarrassed, coming from a small town and this and that, and I'm seeing all these kids from all over the country, seeing what they've done, and they had a few whiz kids here that were already in college. It made me proud just to be a part of it. I don't care if I was riding on the coattails, as I felt then. It just made me proud to be a part of it. It inspired me, and I said, "Herschel, you can get better. Why don't you get a little bit better, because the Academy means something. The Academy of Achievement, that's always it, it means something." It just made me real proud when I came up as a student. It's like man, all these other kids here, and I think as an individual sometimes you think, I'm the only one that's from a town that's so small, if everyone breathed at the same time, you'd run out of oxygen. Man, there is nothing there. So it's so strange when I came up to this place that has so many students that knew everything. Your'e thinking, shoot, I thought I knew everything. I thought my mother and father knew everything. Here is this little kid here that knows about trying to put together this sphere that can tell you how fast the speed of light. That was stunning to me.

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