Navy veteran tackles next challege: NU football

[huskernumerouno]

This was a better place than where he’d been, but it wasn’t as good as it could be. He wanted to be down there, in the thick of it.

 

Tyrone Fahie watched Husker football games from the student section two years ago, rooting like those around him, but also constantly thinking about how it would be different the next fall.

 

“I made a promise to myself,” Fahie said. “I don’t want to be watching these games from the stands next year. Whatever it takes, I want to be on the sideline for these games.”

 

View SlideshowNebraska football player Tyrone Fahie served served six years active duty with the U.S. Navy. Among the souvenirs of his service is a flag he flew in Iraq on his parents 25th wedding anniversary. (William Lauer)

 

Never mind that Fahie was something of an old-timer compared to most freshmen with dreams of playing college football.

 

Most arrive on campus as baby-faced boys fresh off a dance at the prom. Fahie was far removed from high school dances. He had served six years active duty with the U.S. Navy. He had been to Iraq — twice.

 

He knew how fast the heart beats when a man dives to the ground thinking a rocket might explode on top of him.

 

He had seen Fallujah sooner than he had seen an organized football game. The fact is, he hadn’t played since his freshman year in high school. Instead, he spent his time with an alto saxophone.

 

No matter. Fahie had decided he was going to be on the Nebraska football team. And for those who know him, when Fahie decides he’s going to do something, you might as well bank on it happening.

 

When he told his mom, Dafney, about his Husker football plans, she just grinned.

 

“Hey,” she said, “if you can go to Iraq for two tours and come back in one piece, you can do anything you want.”

 

He’s 25 now and will be 26 on Sept. 30, the oldest player on the team.

 

A redshirt freshman, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound defensive end earned a spot on the team as part of an 85-man open tryout prior to spring ball last year.

 

He left the tryout with a worry he had failed in his quest. He ran the 40-yard dash in 5.2 seconds. His vertical jump was about 32 inches, but he messed up the pro-agility run.

 

“I kept slipping. I wanted to make it so bad, but I didn’t think that I was good enough.”

 

On the other hand, he was the second-biggest guy at the tryout and one of the coaches asked for his name after he ran the 40. Maybe there was hope.

 

An e-mail came a day later. Welcome to the team.

 

Playing football at Nebraska became a goal even while he was finishing his military service. He may be from Virginia Beach, Va., but he still knew about Big Red.

 

“When I was growing up, you couldn’t turn on the TV and not see Nebraska football,” he said.

 

And while in boot camp, he met Casey Sok, from St. Paul, Neb. The two quickly became friends and often enough their conversations would include Husker football.

 

Sok offered an invitation for Fahie to visit Nebraska and Fahie took him up on it in 2005, just before leaving for a six-month tour in the dangerous Fallujah area. Memorial Stadium was a place he wanted to see.

 

He walked inside the stadium hoping to find Bill Callahan. He found Tim Cassidy, then NU’s associate athletic director for football. He told Cassidy of his wishes to play football after his military service was complete.

 

Cassidy took note and even wrote him several times.

 

About this time, there was plenty of anxiety back in Virginia, where his mother almost always kept the TV on.

 

During the Persian Gulf War, her husband, Floyd, a longtime Navy veteran, had been deployed and she’d worried often about his safety.

 

“That was really bad and I took it hard, but it wasn’t half as bad as having my son go to Iraq,” Dafney said. “It was as if I couldn’t breathe. Every time I’d look at the news, I’m scanning to see if I see my son.”

 

Even now, with her son out of harm’s way, she gets goose bumps when she hears of a casualty in Iraq.

 

Tyrone Fahie had signed up for the Navy on a whim at age 17, an act that was met with dropped jaws and plenty of concern from his parents.

 

His father sat down with him and said this was no part-time job he was signing up for. He better be ready to put in the work and go through with it.

 

“I was a pretty stubborn kid,” Fahie said. “They pretty much knew once I made up my mind I was going to go through with it.”

 

This was in 2000, before 9/11 was part of our lexicon. He was in military school the day the world changed.

 

“I remember I was asleep. Someone came in and banged on all the doors, ‘Come look at this,’” Fahie said. “Right when I walked in was when the second plane hit the tower. I thought at first someone was playing a movie or something.”

 

Fahie was impressed by how Americans came together during the tragedy. It made him proud of what he was doing. He worked hard and eventually became a support communicator for the Navy’s SEAL Team One. His first trip to Iraq came in 2004.

 

His unit set up camp along the Tigris river in one of Saddam Hussein’s old palaces, located at the edge of the Green Zone. It was a bizarre setting and he didn’t leave it without a close call.

 

After a 12-hour shift one night, Fahie and his boss went on a short walk to get something to eat. Explosions served as background noise but they kept walking.

 

“You hear mortar rounds and rockets and stuff explode all the time. You kind of almost get used to it,” Fahie said. “It kind of gets to the point to where if you can hear it explode, it didn’t kill you, so you continue to function. There’s nothing more you can do about it.”

 

But what Fahie and his comrades didn’t normally hear was the sound of a rocket being fired.

 

That was what they heard this time. When they looked up, they saw a rocket with a red tracer tip. It appeared to be coming right at them.

 

Fahie looked at his boss and they immediately ran as fast as they could, diving as they heard the rocket skip across the ground.

 

It hit about 50 to 100 feet behind them, but it didn’t explode.

 

Fahie e-mailed his parents as much as he could while in Iraq, but that was not a story he included in his letters home.

 

A day of sweat on the football field might be bliss after two visits to Iraq.

 

After making the team, Fahie didn’t go out of his way to tell any of his teammates his age or his military experience.

 

“I didn’t want to draw a lot of attention to myself,” he said.

 

Now, though, some guys have learned of his past and will ask him what it was like in Iraq.

 

Teammates have gotten to calling him “Sarge,” which isn’t a fitting name for a Navy guy, but one he has graciously accepted nonetheless.

 

Former Husker defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt was always mispronouncing the defensive lineman’s name last year. Fahie is actually pronounced “Foy.” Eventually, Wyatt just started calling him Sarge.

 

But sergeants are in the Army, not the Navy, Fahie said.

 

OK, Wyatt asked: What were you in the Navy?

 

“I was a Petty Officer, 2nd Class.”

 

“Yeah,” Wyatt said. “We’re not going with all that. We’re just going to call you Sarge.”

 

Sarge it is. He plans on playing football through the 2009 season until he finishes his education. He’s majoring in electrical engineering.

 

Making the team was amazing, but he wants more. He wants to start a few games before he’s done here.

 

However it goes, it’s been a thrill putting on the pads and calling himself a Husker.

 

“I’m just glad to be a part of it,” Fahie said. “I know last year wasn’t a storybook season, but just to be a part of it is a great feeling.”

 

Reach Brian Christopherson at bchristopherson@journalstar.com or at 473-7439.

[dustinl15]

Awesome read.......I wish him the best of luck.

[bbhusker]

Awsome. Good luck and never ever let up, you never know when you will get your chance.

[huskered17]

Dreams do come true it could happen to you if........

Good for him. I wish him the best of luck and you just no, he will get to play in some games.

 

GBR!!!

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Awesome read!!

[BIGREDIOWAN]

WOW that's a great story! My wife just laughed at me when I said I would like to try out for the football team.

[RedNLeader]

I hope one day he'll get to start and then i hope the crowd goes nuts when he gets his first sack

[Apathy]

Reading that just got me pumped up for this coming up season

[Ohio Pete]

Reading that just got me pumped up for this coming up season

[cornhuskers4ever]

Awesome to see a Navy guy that is going to be a part of the Sea of Red. Thank GOD, Pelini brought back the Walk On Program, because it adds to the amount of heart and determination on the field!

[huKSer]

Awesome to see a Navy guy that is going to be a part of the Sea of Red. Thank GOD, Pelini brought back the Walk On Program, because it adds to the amount of heart and determination on the field!

This will be his 2nd year with the team. Buddy Wyatt nick named him "Sarge" He red-shirted last year.

[hack]

link to original article

 

we heard about this young man last year. looks like he's still chasing the dream and more power to him. especially when we have a regime that puts more emphasis on walk-ons than any other program out there.