Life to the Max Podcast

8 Seconds That Changed My Life: Kenneth Jennings

• The QuadFather • Episode 71

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What happens when a promising athlete faces a life-changing injury that threatens to silence his dreams? Kenneth Jennings, a remarkable football coach and quadriplegic, opens up about his powerful journey from the southside of Chicago to becoming an inspiring mentor for others with spinal cord injuries. With a vibrant narrative, Kenneth shares the soulful moments that shaped his path, from the support of a coach during his darkest times to an unexpected out-of-body experience that offered peace amidst chaos.

Kenneth's story is a testament to the resilience and hope found in the face of adversity. His candid discussion about the emotional and physical challenges of adapting to life after his spinal cord injury reveals profound insights into the human spirit. Through creative therapies like singing to strengthen his diaphragm, and the sheer determination to breathe independently, Kenneth found new purpose. His experiences at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, alongside mentors who had walked similar paths, provided the strength needed to redefine his new normal.

Join us as we explore Kenneth's journey to independence, the transformative impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the innovative adaptive technologies that have become vital tools in his life. From the determination required to overcome transportation hurdles to the indispensable role of the mouse stick, Kenneth's narrative not only celebrates personal triumphs but also highlights the enduring power of community and support. His insights remind us that, with passion and perseverance, one can truly live life to the max.

Speaker 1

We're just trying to get by, Just a couple of quants all trying to get by, Just a couple of teens all trying to survive. Live to the max, cause you don't live it twice. Couple green thumbs, all highs, okay.

Speaker 2

And welcome back to another episode of Life to the Max. I am your host, Maximilian Gross, aka the Quadfather, and today I have someone that I admire so much, someone that has faced so much adversity and someone that has, like, just bounced over obstacles. He's a quadriplegic just like me. His name is Kenneth Jennings, but I call him Coach because he's a football coach and I'm just going to let him talk, Coach, welcome to the show.

Speaker 3

What's up? Max Love being here Looking forward to this. I've been looking forward to it for a while. Yeah, Thank you for walking me into your beautiful home and I say let's get started.

Speaker 2

Let's get started. So full disclosure, the way me and Coach Matt is. When I got injured at RIC, which is Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. You're a mentor, right? You come in to help other patients, is that true?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I do mentoring, where I go in and talk to some of the newly spinal cord injury patients. Just let them know you're not alone and you got someone that you can talk to. That's been through what you're about to go through.

Speaker 2

Honestly, that helped me so much.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I did it because I know when I got hurt we didn't have mentors back then, but somebody came into my life that was a mentor for me and his name was Gerald Stingley and he got hurt playing professional football 10 years before I got hurt and it just changed my life and I was like to have opportunity to do that for somebody else is amazing and you know what it really helped me?

Speaker 2

because I was going through a rough patch. I mean, I was 20 years old. It happened right old. It happened right in the prime of my life. I felt like I was doing everything right and all of a sudden, bam paradox flips upside down. The world changes. I don't know what's going on, but I meet the kindest people like you.

Speaker 3

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, and when something like that happens, it changes your life. You know if you go from, like you say, living the prime of your life, because for me too, I was the captain of the football team, playing middle linebacker, playing fullback, getting scholarship offers and then bam, all of it in a matter of a few seconds it was all taken away from me and so I, for me, um, I dealt with it a little different than what a lot of other people deal deal with it. Um, I had there's what they would call a day going viral. It went viral, so it's like I got so much attention from it. I never had opportunity to really get down about it because it's just constantly people there, people around me on the news, all those different things, so I never had a chance to really get down about it. But I mean, I did have my difficult times but I just wanted to share with other people the, the positiveness that you can have from it, how important that is to survive in something like this.

Speaker 2

Yes, having a support system is so huge and people who don't even know you and you're making an impact on their lives it just speaks volumes. That's why I started the podcast. I always say it every episode, but I started the podcast so people could share their stories.

Speaker 3

And it's very important and I thank you for doing that because you're giving people an outlet to be able to share their stories and share their truth, and share their testimony. And that's something that needs to be done to be able to hear what we go, what we deal with, what we go through.

Speaker 2

Yes, Okay, so let's dive in. Coach. How was your upbringing? Did you grow up in Chicago?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I grew up in the projects of Chicago and on 39th and Wentworth, southside yeah, southside, two blocks from old comiskey park, at least that's what I still call it to me, from two blocks from the white socks stadium, and so of course, I'm a white socks fan. Oh, but, yeah so, and for me, I never felt like me being in projects was gonna be where my life was gonna be. I always wanted to strive to get out the projects and I knew football was my way of getting out. I just didn't know football would take me this way to get out of it.

Speaker 2

Now, when you were growing up, was it difficult.

Speaker 3

Oh yeah, in my neighborhood sometimes there was only two ways you was getting out and neither one of them was a positive way. You was either going to go out by going to jail or go out dead. So very few people left my neighborhood on a positive level and I didn't want that to be my fate. So I knew football was something I knew how to do, I loved to do and I knew that was going to be my ticket out. I used to pray and ask God to let me get out to projects through football. So I got what I asked for.

Speaker 2

So how did you avoid encounters in the hood, Like how did you avoid encounters that could possibly be dangerous?

Speaker 3

Well, back then they knew I was an athlete, they knew this was going to take it out, so they wouldn't let me get involved in the gangs and everything. And there have been times that I tried to and I wanted to because that was just part of the nature growing up and seeing some of my friends do it and being involved in gangs so I wanted to do it too, but they wouldn't let me do it. Whenever things started getting to the point where things were starting to go down or something wrong was about to happen, they'd make me go home. So my neighborhood actually saved my life too.

Speaker 2

That's amazing man. Thank God for your neighbors, thank God for the people around you. Amazing man, thank God for your neighbors, thank God for the people around you. So let's talk about how you got injured, man. It was 1986, correct?

Life-Altering Injury and Recovery Process

Speaker 3

88. 88? Yeah, so 1988, can you explain? Yeah, I can remember that, like it was yesterday, yesterday it was the opening kickoff of the game. I think it was our third game of the season, um, and this was my first game starting on both as the linebacker and middle linebacker I mean middle linebacker and fullback and so I was extremely excited. I'm like I'm going both ways, I ain't going to be coming off the field, it's going to be all day, every day. So I'm excited going into the game it's the opening kickoff Went down, made my last tackle and broke my neck and trapped my 34th vertebra and as I made the hit, I hit him on the side and as my head was sliding down, his thigh came up and hit me on the chin and snapped my neck back and I fell down to the turf on my back. Luckily, and as I usually do a thousand times before, I jumped up and ran to the sidelines. Only difference this time it was mentally and not physically.

Speaker 2

I can totally attest to that. That's how I felt when my mom was like you're paralyzed in the hospital and I, like, tried moving my leg. I was like, see, mom, I'm not paralyzed, but my leg wasn't moving.

Speaker 3

And so, after one of my teammates came over and that's what a teammate's supposed to do he reached out and he grabbed my arm and he was trying to snatch me up, and all I remember is looking at him with my eyes bucked, telling him no, because I knew something was wrong.

Speaker 2

Were you able to speak?

Speaker 3

Barely, barely yeah, barely, but just enough to be able to get his attention for him not to move me. So he dropped my arm and at that point he started going to the sidelines until the coach and something was wrong and they the coaches ran out there. The paramedics came running out there and they did what I call the pen test. When he took a pen, took my shoes off and ran the pen across my feet and asked me did I feel it? I'm like no, I don't feel anything.

Speaker 2

So explain to the people this. So you're doing a kickoff, it's like seven seconds in and you get paralyzed like right on it, the first eight seconds of the game. What were you feeling?

Speaker 3

Well, running down or after it happened.

Speaker 2

After it happened.

Speaker 3

Like I said, when they was doing that pen test I didn't feel anything. As they were running the pen, they went to my legs, my thigh, my stomach, my chest, my neck. I didn't feel anything until they touched my face. So by the time he got to my face I got tears streaming down the side of my face and I look up and I see all the coaches and everybody with tears coming down their face. So I knew something was wrong. At this point. I couldn't move. Nothing would move. My breathing was getting real shallow. I'm having a hard time breathing and at that point I didn't know whether I was going to live or die.

Speaker 2

I know what you're talking about.

Speaker 3

And it was terrifying. I know what you're talking about and it was terrifying.

Speaker 2

I know what you're talking about, but I was sleeping, luckily, so I didn't have to see it.

Speaker 3

You actually had the visuals of what happened and you said you can remember it to this day yeah, and my coach probably saved my life because they was getting ready to take me in Amilam and take me to the local hospital and the hospital that was near the stadium was one of the worst hospitals in the city and chances are I probably wouldn't be here today if they took me there. So he stood over me and somehow convinced them, demanded or whatever he did, to get a helicopter out there and fly me down to Northwestern Hospital downtown and that probably saved my life.

Speaker 2

Well, I mean shout out to your coach, yeah. Coach. Yeah, that is amazing. I mean, it's's terrifying, it's scary, but it's amazing.

Speaker 3

you're still here and I'm happy you're still here and funny thing with that um with them putting me in a helicopter. I was afraid of heights, so on top of getting hurt that y'all, finna, put me in a helicopter and fly me somewhere were you conscious? Yeah, I was still conscious, doing all this what yeah, and so I.

Speaker 3

I give a lot of thanks to the paramedic that was in the helicopter because he really kept me calm as we was flying down to the umern Hospital. And craziest thing happened Once we get to Northwestern, I stopped breathing as they was rushing me to the emergency room. I stopped breathing and I ended up having an out-of-body experience. I was literally looking down on them working on my body, cutting my shoulder pads off, cutting my jersey off, getting the helmet off me, and they trying to resuscitate me and bring life back into my lifeless body so you were watching them do this I was like in the upper right hand corner in the purest of white room and watching everything they're doing, but not panicking, I'm in total peace.

Speaker 2

That's how I felt.

Speaker 3

Yeah and just watching everything Like wow, it was so peaceful yeah.

Speaker 2

Until they pulled you back into this fucking world. But it was so peaceful.

Speaker 3

And like I tell people for me, me, I think that was god making the decision between me either still being here or me going to heaven, and seeing I'm here talking to you today. I guess we know what that is, unless we all have it right now yeah, free will yeah, and so he brought me back down and he gave me work to do at that point, and I've been trying to live that purpose ever since so you get to northwestern hospital.

Speaker 2

What time is it?

Speaker 3

this would we. That was a 10 o'clock game so I probably got northwestern, probably about 11. Yeah, by 11, 11, 30. I'm gonna do a 10 o'clock game in the morning.

Speaker 2

And were you conscious for that experience?

Speaker 3

All the way until we got to going toward the emergency room when I stopped breathing. But all before then I was still conscious and seeing and everything going on, everybody being frantic and everybody running around trying to get me to where I need to get to, to try to save my life. And I remember, um, they asked me who did I want them to call? I had them to call my brother instead of my mom's. My mom's didn't want me to play football. So I'm like the lad, don't call my mama.

Speaker 3

I said call my brother, this is his number, call him, but please don't call my mama.

Speaker 3

So he was there when you woke up. Oh, I didn't wake up for like three days later. Me too. Yeah, three days. And the funniest well, I ain't going to say funny, but something kind of crazy when I woke up, they kept the TV on for me. So it was like maybe in the middle of the night when I woke up and I'm watching this TV show and I've never been on a cruise, and this is, and I've never been on the cruise, and this is why I've never been on a cruise and I never will go on a cruise.

Speaker 3

This TV show they had on it was based on a true story. It was a cruise ship that got hijacked by some pirates or whatever. And they tell everybody to go to the upper deck of this cruise on the cruise ship. So there's one man in the wheelchair. He rolls over to the stairs, so of course he can't get up the stairs. They um wouldn't let nobody to help him up the stairs either. So they grabbed this man, take him to the side of the ship, shoot him in the head and throw him overboard. Just the first thing I ever see after coming to.

Speaker 2

That's terrifying.

Speaker 3

I'm like I would never get on a cruise. I've had people offer to pay me that I would pay for the cruise. All that I'm never getting on nobody's cruise, never going to happen.

Speaker 2

So when you got injured and they brought you, when you got injured and they like kind of like stabilized you and they told you you were paralyzed, how did you feel, like what were your thoughts?

Speaker 3

Well, they didn't just tell me I was paralyzed. They told me the only thing I was going to do the rest of my life was blink. They told me I would never breathe on my own, I would never talk on my own, never be able to have solid foods, never be able to have kids. And then, to top it off, they told me that my life expectancy was 10 years. So all this was dumped on me at the age of 17 years old.

Speaker 2

I can't imagine that, man. This is why I have so much respect for you, Coach. Let's keep going with your story. So how long were you Northwestern?

Speaker 3

I was at northwestern probably about two months or maybe a month and a half, maybe a month, month and a half and then they sent me over to um rsc the iconic rehabilitation institute of chicago. Yes.

Speaker 2

What was this like in 1988?

Finding Hope and Purpose in Rehabilitation

Speaker 3

For me and this is what I tell people being in Northwestern was about what I couldn't do. You can't do this, you can't do that, you'll never do this, you'll never do that. Going to RSC, it was about possibilities of what I can do, that we go try to teach you how to do this, teach you how to do that. And in my mind, going there, I figured out okay, after I get to the rehab, I'm going to walk again. I'm going to walk up out of here. That was my thought.

Speaker 2

That was the same thought, man.

Speaker 3

And it took me a while to come to reality, to realize that I wouldn't go walk up out of here.

Speaker 2

How long did it take you?

Speaker 3

Probably took me about a month to get to that. And don't get me wrong even to this day, I still believe that I'm going to walk again, Me too. But I know that I still believe that I'm going to walk again, me too. But I know that I still have a life to live. Until that happens, I still have a purpose until that happens.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 3

So I live with that purpose. But when that day comes and God sees fit to let me walk again, I can't wait for that day to happen, but until then I'm going to live life to the fullest, life to the max. Walk again. I can't wait for that day to happen, but until then I'm going to live life to the fullest.

Speaker 2

Life to the max, yes, so when you get to RIC RIC is world known for their therapy and for their research, for spinal cord injury research Did you have a lot of hope when you got to RIC, and how were the therapists?

Speaker 3

when I first got there, I had all the hope in the world. Um, I'm like I couldn't wait to get to therapy. I couldn't wait to do whatever they was asking me to do. I was trying to learn everything I possibly could as what I call my new normal. And after, after a couple of weeks, you know, as a patient, we want to see these huge changes, we want to see these major changes, and I didn't see them. So once I didn't see them, I started believing what the doctor told me. When the doctor told me that I'd never be able to breathe on my own and I'd never be able to talk, the only thing I'm able to do is blink, and I started believing it. So at some point I felt like I wanted to give up. And that's when the gentleman came in my life, darryl Stingley, and he started telling me everything that he was doing and how he was going out, still enjoying life, talking to um, going to giving speeches to um, young kids and like what?

Speaker 3

and for the first time, when somebody left out the room and said they understand what I'm going through. I believed him because he rolled out the room in this power wheelchair, like I had to and everybody else usually.

Speaker 2

Just like you did for me.

Speaker 3

Right, exactly, and that's where it came from. You got to be able to give back, you know, pay it forward.

Speaker 2

So, coach, walk me through the progression of your rehab, Like, how did it start? You got there, you were on a ventilator, dependent correct, just like me.

Speaker 3

Yes.

Speaker 2

So what walked me through it?

Speaker 3

So I was still on the ventilator and everything, and after I, after encountering Enduro and everything they want, I was going full out Every exercise they had me to do, every therapy they wanted me to do. I even changed some of my therapy when I was going through speech therapy, instead of going through all the exercises they wanted me to do, I started feeling a little different Because, like I said, I liked singing before I got injured. I was actually in a group called. New.

Speaker 2

Fortune.

Speaker 3

And so, instead of doing the regular voice exercises, I would sing, and it caught on with some of the other patients too, and I would be, because it was the same exercise. It was about strengthening my diaphragm. So what do you do when you sing? You take deep breaths in and you let it out and you sing, and that's what I was doing. So my voice started getting stronger and it just made me a little bit of a way of enjoying the therapy sessions right along with just wanting to do as much as I could.

Speaker 2

So a day came, oh, oh, I can't wait for this story yes, tell me, I had um, how long is this? Is this like a month in?

Speaker 3

this. Yeah, I was probably in um, at I mean at rsc probably for about a month, okay, and, like I said, my story went viral, so I used to always have all these random people come to see me. So on this day, two beautiful young girls came in and see me.

Speaker 3

There's a high school also, and I'm, I'm, I'm so intrigued, I'm talking to everything. I'm, I'm 17, 18 years old, I'm frantic that they're in there and oh, yes, and they look real nice too, yeah, and so I'm talking to them. So the respiratory therapist comes in and he said he needed to work on the machine, he needed to test everything out, and I said is it okay if they stay in here? Why are you doing that? He said, yeah, no problem. He seen the smile on my face too. So he said, yeah, no problem.

Speaker 3

So when he's working on the machine, checking the machine, he has to turn all the alarms off. So, all the alarms off. And while I'm talking to them and so intrigued and all into them, I don't notice that the tubing popped off. So for the first time since my accident, for about three to five minutes I'm literally breathing and talking on my own. And then I didn't know, he didn't know, of course the girls don't know. And then, um, once he finished working on the machine, he turns the alarms back on. So, of course, all the bells and whistles going off, yeah, yeah, you know, you know, and I panic and I'm like I can't breathe. I can't breathe, and so he put it back on. He rushed the girls out of the room. And so, about 30 minutes later, my whole team come in the room my doctor, my nurse, therapist, physical therapist, everybody come in the room and I'm looking like what did I do? And they was like we need to talk to you Like what they said. Like we need to talk to you Like what they say, if you could do that for three to five minutes, you should be able to do that forever. And they say we want to send you back to Northwestern to get weaned off. I'm like no, y'all not. Uh-uh, uh-uh.

Speaker 3

Because to me in my mind, being on the ventilator was like being on a drug, because I was dependent on it and I thought that's the only way that I could breathe is by having it. So I wasn't going to get winged off, nothing. And I told him let me think about it. And then, on top of that, this was right around the holiday. It was right around Christmas and this was my first time getting a visit back home. So now I just have to think about the fact of getting weaned off, to go in there to get weaned off. But also, if I got went there enough ways to get weaned off, I wasn't ready to go back home, so I told him let me think about it. So the next morning, when I woke up, it's about 7 o'clock in the morning this is before everybody else gets started it's an older lady at the door, and this is something that's different for what y'all here to deal with. It was four people in my room. It was four of us in one room.

Speaker 2

Oh, my God, yes.

Speaker 3

Can you imagine Four people?

Speaker 3

That was crazy, and my that sucks Right, wasn't no privacy, wasn't nothing, and wasn't no family being there with you all the time or anything? And so when I woke up, my bed was just so. I happened to be right next to the door and it's an older lady at the door and she asked could she come in and pray for me? So I don't hear people do that. A lot of times, like I say, I always hear random people coming in. So I told her she'd come in and pray for me. So she came in and prayed over me. When she got done she said don't worry about anything. God already said you're gonna be able to breathe. I'm like huh, like hold on how she know that I'm go. What's going on with me If I ain't never met her before?

Speaker 3

So after she leaves, I hit the button for the receptionist to come, push my head on the button for the receptionist to be able to come, and when she rings I asked. I said who was the lady that just came in? And she prayed over me. She's like what lady? I quit playing. I said the lady that just left up out of here. She was an older lady. She prayed over me. She said ain't nobody been in here? I said the lady just left. So by then the receptionist came to the room and she was like ain't nobody, doctors ain't even here. Yet I said somebody just left out of here. So she grabbed the phone and she called down to security, security, like ain't nobody been here. And so for me I was like Holy Spirit. Yeah, that was God sending me, an angel to let me know everything's going to be okay, and at that point I made a decision to go get weaned off.

Speaker 2

And I bet you're very happy about that.

Speaker 3

Yeah, probably the best decision I've made.

Speaker 2

Isn't it great when doctors are wrong? Yeah, honestly. I love it Because doctors always think they're right. But listen, dude, you practice medicine. You don't know medicine. Right, you know what I mean. The big guy upstairs, he's the one. He's't know medicine. Right, the big guy upstairs, he's the one.

Speaker 3

He's the ultimate doctor.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 3

And what I? This is something because over the last couple of months I've been in and out the hospital probably about six times. What's?

Speaker 2

going on.

Speaker 3

I had a UTI a recurring UTI that just kept coming, and with some of the doctors and nurses and everything, I felt like they wasn't listening to. What I was trying to tell them and what I explained to one of the doctors was I understand, you studied this, you went to school for it, you learned and you got a PhD, but I said I got a PhD too. I got a PhD, but I say I got a PhD too. I got a PhD in me. Yes, what I know and learned about my body and my system and how things work is something that you would never know. So let's work together instead of against each other and some of them understand that and they're willing to open up and let us work together as a team instead of against each other.

Speaker 2

All right, work together as a team instead of against each other, all right. So how was therapy back then in 88 compared to when I did therapy in 2016?

Speaker 3

It was a whole lot different. I mean, technology is so much different. You know they had the electroshock system that they do. We didn't have that back then. Everything was manually that we did as far as range of motion and things of that nature, hooking me up to different machines, where my arms was in the air, connected, where I was able to swing back and forth and try to get strength within my shoulders. So technology is a whole lot different, even from when you, in 2016, up until now.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 3

When I go into Shirley Ryan and see some of the different things that they're doing and just to see that they're getting closer to finding a cure for paralysis.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 3

And that's going to be a great day. I don't know if it's gonna work for me because I'm 36 years in um, but if it do I'll be glad that it will. But I'm hoping and praying that it will come true to help others if it don't help me well, I have a uh guy on uh, john o'connor.

Speaker 2

He owns uh a rehab place called next steps. I don't know if you heard of next steps. It's a. It's kind of like shirley ryan, it's like on steroids, but anyways they, they know a doctor in san diego that's very close to uh, you know, reversing paralysis, and luckily I'm able to speak to this doctor. Shout out to uh, dr mark trusinski, and you know, in san diego university, and we'll see. We'll see what happens with that, okay, I, okay, I'm excited for the future because the future only gets brighter.

Speaker 3

Always, always.

Journey of Independence

Speaker 2

Yeah, and honestly, man, like your composure, it's so inspiring. When I was at RAC, I was terrified. I was terrified of the beeping. I was terrified of the beeping. I was terrified of being alone. My family stayed with me for like a month, like sleeping on cots. Like were you alone.

Speaker 3

Yeah, well, other than my four roommates, yeah. And back then when 9 o'clock came, they didn't care if you was the president of the United States, you had to leave. They didn't care if you was the president of the United States, you had to leave. So I had to learn how to, in the middle of the night, where I still had to call, like where I could hit the button with my head to get the nurse to come. But I had to learn how to fend for myself a lot to try to figure things out on what was I going to do If I dropped my stick, or my stick was a little too far trying to figure out how could I reach it and things of that nature.

Speaker 3

So I think in some ways that was good for me, but it was difficult, it was scary, it was hard Just not knowing there was somebody there and something went wrong immediately. You know, nurses were eventually going to come but they had other patients they had to work with too. So sometimes they couldn't come right away but they would get there. And sometimes I did wish that I did have family that could have been right there with me. But there's other times I think it was good for me that I didn't have family, because it gave me the opportunity to gain some independence that I don't know if I would have had.

Speaker 2

I'm happy you brought up independence, because I am so dependent on people my nurses, my team. I need a support team because of I'm a C1 quadriplegic. What?

Speaker 3

are you? I'm C3, C4 complete.

Speaker 2

C3, c4 complete. So I'm C1 and I'm ventilator dependent and I always need someone with me. When did you gain independence? When did you gain independence like, and how like? When did you gain the independence to like, live on your own? In what age?

Speaker 3

well, first let me say this max, I think what you're doing is incredible for the independence that you I know you say you have to have people around you every day, but the independence that you have gained and shown for you from the time when I first met you up until now is amazing. I'm so proud of you, of the man that you have become, the man that I can't wait to see that you're still to grow into. I tip my hat off to you and I I'm thankful that you become a part of my life because you inspire me to continue to do things to be stronger. So I wanted to say that first I appreciate that no problem.

Speaker 3

I mean, that's the truth. Um, for me, when did my independence start? Um, start, actually, I would say started in rehab, because some of the things that they taught us back then they probably can't do today because of liability reasons. Okay, um, they had me to go out to a restaurant, gave me money and I had to stop Perfect Structures on the street to convince them to take me into the restaurant. Yeah, and then, once I got in the restaurant, I had to talk to the manager of the restaurant and ask him if he could take somebody off the floor to feed me when my food got there and, after they fed me, to explain to them where to take my money out, to pay for the meal and to get back out the restaurant. I had to stop people that was having meals to ask them to help me get back down the stairs so I could leave the restaurant.

Speaker 2

Oh my God, you're crazy. You are crazy, and speaking of you, saying that you got injured in 1988.

Speaker 3

That was before the American Disability Act correct Yep.

Speaker 2

What was that? Like man.

Speaker 3

It was like trying to invent a wheel that never been made. It wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, it was making the wheel because, um, I was one. After I left rehab, I was one of the first kids in a wheelchair to go to a regular high school.

Speaker 2

I remember going back to school.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I remember going up curve cuts on one end of the street and getting to the other end of the block and it's not a curve cut there, so I had to come all the way back down, go down a curve cut right up the street and to the next curve cut K to get to where I wanted to go to.

Speaker 3

But when I got hurt and left rehab they had one high school in the city that if you were disabled you had to go to this high school and for a couple of weeks I went there and for me it wasn't right for me and the person that I was before before I got hurt, I was a shy kid, didn't say much, was in the background, only time I was vocal was on the football field and that person would have accepted standing at that high school. But, as I tell people, when I got hurt Kenneth Jennings the football player died and Kenneth Jennings the man was born and Kenneth Jennings the man was not going to accept them telling me I had to go to this high school. So at that point I battled with the Board of Education to go back to Simeon and the excuse that they gave me, why they told me I shouldn't be able to go back to the semi-high, was they told me. I wouldn't be able to keep up academically with the rest of the students.

Speaker 2

But you're cognitively fine.

Speaker 3

Huh. You're cognitively fine, yeah, and that's why I explained to them. I say, do y'all not understand? My body was injured, not my mind. So I still got my mind. So I threatened to sue them. So they that way, they started giving me different tests and everything that I could take and do to show that I would be able to compete with the rest of the students academically. So I ended up graduating on time and I increased my GPA from a 2.55, 2.6. I graduated with a 3.75.

Speaker 2

Nice man.

Speaker 3

And what I had to do to get to that point. I was taking classes while I was at rehab when I left there. I left in April, so I was in between the hospital and rehab. I was there six months in a day. I got hurt October 8th and I left rehab April 9th and immediately went after. I fought to get back into school. I went back to Symbiont it was probably late April and so I finished the rest of the year there, and during the summertime I had a summer school class in the morning, I had a tutor in the middle of the day and I had a class at night at one of the local colleges, just so I could catch up, so I'd be able to graduate on time with my classmates.

Speaker 2

Dude hats off to you, man. That's amazing.

Speaker 3

That's how bad I wanted it. I didn't want this to go away in. No how for people to say, oh he had to graduate late because of what happened to him. No, I wouldn't take that as no excuse.

Speaker 2

So walk me through the progression of your life. So you went to high school, Did you go to college?

Speaker 3

Yeah, People thought I was crazy for this too. After I graduated I decided that I wanted to go away to college like everybody else would, Like. I didn't get hurt, and initially I got accepted to Florida A&M.

Speaker 3

And yeah, and my family was like how you going to do this? My thing was I don't know. I'll find out when I get there. So I was planning on going to Florida A&M and at that time I was on government assistance and they sent me a letter stating that if I go away to leave the state to go to school, I was going to have to pay for it myself. So at that time I couldn't afford to pay for it myself and so I ended up going to Southern Illinois in Carbondale, and at that time that was the number one party school in the nation.

Speaker 2

Oh, yeah, that's how you.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it is. So we got our party all down there, and this was back in 1990. So you partied. Oh yeah, I got my party. You were partying, that's when I finally realized I wasn't an athlete, no more.

Speaker 3

Because, before then I still felt like I was an athlete, so I wasn't drinking. I was an athlete, so I wasn't drinking, I wasn't smoking, I wasn't doing nothing. I'm like I'm an athlete, I can't do none of that. So I got down there, um, and I was literally sleeping in the regular dorm bed and I would have pillows on the floor in front of me because I would lay on my side at night to go to sleep. And just in case I fell forward and fell out the bed, I had pillows on the floor, just in case.

Speaker 2

Who was helping you?

Speaker 3

They assigned me a caregiver while I was there, and it made the biggest difference. So my teammates I didn't know they went there and I found out they went there. So I used to sleep a lot of times in their room, but they were the same people that taught me how to drink too. I remember we had a time where we was going out and so they said we should go to the liquor store.

Speaker 3

And man, we ain't grown either. We go to the liquor store and they we ain't grown either. We go to the liquor store and they say we finna get a case of beer.

Speaker 2

You rolling there.

Speaker 3

Yeah, so when you say a case of beer, what you thinking? You think they finna get a case of beer, yeah.

Speaker 2

They got a case of 40s.

Speaker 3

Whoa, yes, I'm like what we supposed to do with this. I said, oh, this is for the week. They said, no, that's for tonight. For tonight, like no, ain't no way Right. So I started getting comfortable drinking and I used to have this real long straw, and so it would fit down in the 40 bottle and still long enough for me to drink out of it. So we used to have this drinking game to see who could drink the most the fastest, you know you're strong, so yes, you could drink fast.

Speaker 3

I was wearing them out and so once I got so drunk, I'm trying to roll down the sidewalk and I couldn't go straight. So I would roll all the way over to the grass and turn just before I rolled off into the grass and then come all the way back down and go right near the curb before I roll off the curb and turn back and forth. So I'm zigzagging going down the street because I was too drunk to ride straight.

Speaker 2

You could have gone DUI.

Speaker 3

Most definitely Driving under the influence. Yeah.

Speaker 2

So let me ask you a question, coach. So we have this little white straw next to you. When did you so that basically allows you to move and control your chair, correct?

Speaker 3

Yep, I have a S and puff wheelchair. Okay, this is one of the things that they taught me how to use when I was in the rehab center, and it helped change my life because it gave me the opportunity to be mobile.

Speaker 3

Mobile yes, so I didn't have to wait for someone to push or move me around, which was extremely important, and the way that it works, like I said, sipping puff. So I blow hard to go forward, I sip in hard to go reverse, I blow in lightly to go right and sip in lightly to turn left and literally I go everywhere in this chair. And when I go everywhere, I tell people about a story. A few years ago, when I was coaching at Simeon, we Coaching, you were coaching. Yeah, I coach high school football.

Speaker 2

I'm quite sure you're going to get into it. You're right on everything, man.

Wheelchair Accessibility and Determination

Speaker 3

Yeah, I know we're going to get into that a little bit. And so we made it to the championship game and somehow my ride to the game got mixed up so I didn't have no ride to the championship game. So the game was about two and a half miles away.

Speaker 2

You did not, yeah, you drove.

Speaker 3

Got in my chair, left out and went to the game. But that was the easy part. Yeah, the hard part was it was in the middle of a blizzard.

Speaker 2

Get the fuck out of here. Are you serious?

Speaker 3

Yes. So I'm literally in the street riding through the game in the middle of a blizzard and I could barely see in front of me. So I know people in cars were barely seeing me either. And thank God, I prayed. I was praying all the way there and all the way back and by the time I got to the game I had about two inches of snow on my table. That's how bad it was snowing. So I had somebody go outside, got to the game and scoop all this snow off my table and went to coaching.

Speaker 2

That takes grit. I'll tell you that.

Speaker 3

I was a believer that, and I think it got a lot to do with football just like with you being in the service that you don't believe in letting nothing stop you.

Speaker 2

Yeah, service, yeah, that you don't really even let nothing stop you.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's so you, you, you live into the max and you push it to the max yeah and that's the same thing I do.

Speaker 2

I push it to the max so, so, coach, you get introduced on how to be mobile with this wheelchair. Then they obviously give you a wheelchair. What were more wheelchairs like back then compared to now?

Speaker 3

um, oh they, they was a lot harder to drive. They're a lot easier to drive now.

Speaker 2

Um what about, like the tires?

Speaker 3

oh you had. You had air in the tires back then and so any given time you could be out. Thank God I never had an opportunity where I caught a flat, but I know people that had that was out in their wheelchairs and they got a flat and basically you're trying to get back home any way that you can. You have to have someone to help you and it's like having a car. When your car goes on the flat, you basically driving on the rim trying to get back to a destination, but unlike a car where you could basically take it to a lot of different places to get to that tire fix, you couldn't do that with your wheelchairs. You had to make arrangements for someone to either come change the tire or you had to come pick up your chair and change the tire, and that's the last thing you wanted to do is have someone to come pick up your chair, because you were going to be out without your chair for about a week.

Speaker 2

so something as simple as just having your tire I was going to ask what was the difference with accommodations for people who had disabilities before and after the American Disability Act.

Speaker 3

Things got a whole lot better after the American Disability Act Because we had someone finally fighting for us, because we had someone finally fighting for us, someone that we could depend on with the government and everybody else that understood that they just couldn't look at us as second class citizens. They had to look at us and give us respect, like they had to give everyone else.

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 3

And that was huge, and that was huge. And for the people that went in and sat in at the Senate and Congress to make this law, to put this law, I give them all the respect in the world, Because without them I would hate to see what position we would still be in if they didn't do what they had to do. They sacrificed a lot, a lot, in order for all of us that's disabled to be able to have the respect that we deserve.

Speaker 2

Well, thank God for those congressmen.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Thank God for that, because the ADA has helped me a lot too.

Speaker 3

And.

Speaker 2

I can also be like, hey, this is an ADA compliant and you could complain, and they actually, like you know, figured out. You know the restaurant or the place you go to. So you live in the city of Chicago, correct? Yes. And have you bounced around or have you just had one house?

Advancements in Mouse Stick Technology

Speaker 3

I've bounced around quite a bit. After I came back from college I was still trying to find myself, and so I remember well before I go there. Another piece of adaptive equipment that I use is my mouse. Stick right here.

Speaker 2

Yes, please show me this. I use this to use stick right here. Yes, please show me this.

Speaker 3

I use this to use my phone with.

Speaker 2

Okay.

Speaker 3

To use the phone with computers, turn light switches on and off Pretty much everything. I consider this my third hand.

Speaker 2

Yeah, me too Okay. So you have to tell me when was the mouth stick introduced?

Speaker 3

It was introduced to me while I was still in rehab, okay, and for me it wasn't as hard to have. A lot of people like they're not used to having something in their mouth, but with playing football I was always used to having a mouthpiece in my mouth, so that wasn't a huge adjustment for me, learning how because my head was my neck and my neck was still weak. Just the fact of trying to hold it up was difficult. Um, because not only did I have a neck brace on before, um, I initially, when I first got hurt, I had a halo on too, and for people that don't know what a halo brace is, it's a metal brace that's from your head going to your shoulders with poles and they literally screw it into your head and I'm not joking, I'm talking literally screw it into your head to keep you perfectly stable. So when that came off, it felt like my head wore 100 pounds, and so and well, some of my friends think, or my family think, my head probably do wear 100 pounds for real. But that's beside the point.

Speaker 3

But I had to when they let me, taught me to wheel with the wheelchair and my mouse stick, the two most pieces of adaptive equipment that I ever had, because the chair gave me mobility. The mouse stick gave me another form of having a voice, to be able to communicate with everybody else by using my phone to be able to turn channels to be able to hit buttons. Like I said, it was a third hand for me well, what is, uh?

Speaker 2

the mouse stick, like before and now, since, like ai, is like taking over and like technology, because a mouse stick usually was used for painting and writing, and like flipping the page of a book. How did it progress? Like even with smartphones, like when you got your first smartphone. Was it amazing?

Speaker 3

oh yeah, it was amazing, but I, even today, I still don't use all the AI technology or the voice commands to use my phone. I still like using my stick, like I'm writing a book right now and I'm using my stick to do it. I don't like all the voice commands because with the voice commands it still make mistakes.