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Monday, September 1, 2008
Lucky Break
Western Arkansas, AR
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Serious childhood injury didn’t derail Hampton’s football career
Dan Hampton endured 12 knee operations during his 12-year Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears. Hampton’s resiliency at age 12 made his football career possible.
Hampton starred as a 180-pound sixth-grade tailback. However, the summer before his seventh grade season, he fell 40 feet from a tree house on the family farm in rural Pulaski County. He landed on his feet and the impact fractured the fibula and tibia in his legs, shattered his right ankle and doctors removed 60 percent of his right heel. Plates and screws were needed to repair the injuries. “The doctor knew I liked football,” Hampton said. “When I woke up, he said I would have problems walking again, let alone playing football.” Hampton also broke his left arm. He used a wheelchair and crutches for five months.
He recovered from his injuries and concentrated on his farm chores, motorcycles and playing the saxophone in the Jacksonville High School band.
Hampton grew to 6-foot-5, 230 pounds as a sophomore in 1973. Newly hired Red Devils Coach Bill Reed and assistant Ron Mayton encouraged Hampton to resume his football career.
“I had been riding motorcycles and hauling hay in the summer, and I felt like I could (play football),” Hampton said. “I tried out, and I had some swelling in my legs, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
Reed told Hampton he had to work out 100 hours before his junior year. He pedaled his bike three days to the high school weight room. By the end of the summer he earned starting jobs.
Hampton started on the offensive and defensive lines and attracted Division I schools after his junior season but a motorcycle mishap threatened his senior season. He missed two-a-day practices and his weight dipped to 208 pounds. However, he rebounded with an all-state season and a selection to the all-star game. Hampton, born in Oklahoma City, visited Oklahoma State but settled on the University of Arkansas.
“My dad died when I was in the eighth grade, and he was a big Hog fan,” Hampton said. “I visited Oklahoma State, but Arkansas was my first choice.”
UA defensive line coach Jimmy Johnson, who later coachedthe University of Miami and the Dallas Cowboys, moved Hampton to the defensive line where he played as a freshman. Hampton became a two-time all-Southwest Conference selection and earned all-American honors his senior season in 1978 with 18 sacks.
“Last season Darren McFadden ran like he was unstoppable,” said Hampton, the 1978 SWC Defensive Player of the Year. “That’s how I felt my senior year. I was unblockable.”
Hampton impressed his Hog and Bears teammates with the passion and perseverance he learned when he traded in his sax for a helmet and pads.
“Bill Reed and Ron Mayton pleaded with me to come out,” Hampton said. “I’m glad they did.”
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