Teacher and Hall of Fame Student 40 Year Reunion

Aug. 12, 2009 - PRLog -- A teacher helped inspire former NFL player Tyrone Keys, who was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.  

TAMPA, Florida.--(SPORTS WIRE)--Aug. 12, 2009
— At 1:00 on Thursday, August 13th at 1:00pm CDT, Tyrone Keys, a 2009 Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame winner and All Sports Community Service, Inc. Founder and Director, marks his roots by returning to his grammar school, 40 years later with his 6th Grade Teacher, Mrs. Hagan.

Through standout days as a defensive end at Mississippi State and an NFL career that included winning the Super Bowl with the Bears, Tyrone Keys never forgot his sixth-grade teacher.  Mary Hagan never drifted far from Keys' thoughts, even after he played for the Bucs and Chargers, retired from the league in 1988 and launched a successful nonprofit in Tampa.

"She just radiated love and compassion," Keys said.

And Keys and his fellow students at Dawson Elementary School in Jackson, Miss., needed love and compassion in the worst way. It was 1970, the first year Jackson's public schools integrated, and Keys said the racial strife surrounding the change engulfed the children in negativity and chaos.

Hagan stepped into the fray and became the first white teacher at predominantly black Dawson. She didn't have all the supplies and tools, but she had a gift for inspiring the students.

"I think the bottom line was we developed a sense of trust with one another," said Hagan, 67. "I was new to them. They were new to me. But I told them at the very beginning we were going to get along fine."

"You've got to enjoy your students. You've got to get the job done, but you've got to make that connection."

Hagan regaled them with personal stories of how she grew up next to Beverly Hillbillies star Donna Douglas in Louisiana. She boasted about her LSU Tigers and the greatness that is SEC football.

Keys specifically recalled how Hagan had him write a paper about the NFL draft and how he could achieve his dreams of playing in the NFL.

"She was the first white person I had ever spoke to," Keys, 48, said.

The turmoil, however, always loomed in Hagan's life. She drew criticism from integration opponents. Attendants refused to pump her gas, and management in her apartment complex threatened her.

"They were harassing me something horrible," she said. "It was to the  point that I was afraid."

The worst came around Thanksgiving. Hagan's husband had moved his bride from Baton Rouge, La., to Jackson for a job, but the employer told him if his wife didn't stop teaching at Dawson, he would lose his job.

He returned to Louisiana and got his old job back, but Hagan stayed in Jackson to finish the semester. She refused to give up on the kids.

When she said she was leaving, the students screamed and cried and wailed. They understood the pressures Hagan faced but desperately wanted her to stay.

Hagan, too, cried all the way back to Louisiana. To soften the blow, she left the kids with a poem.

Love is knowing your students love you.

Love is being honest with one another.

Love is not being afraid.

Love is looking forward to each new day.

Love is making your husband happy.

Love is going where you husband goes.

Love is hating to say goodbye.

Love is wanting to cry but know you shouldn't.

Love is when a student writes to you.

Love is when he writes again when he's older.

Love is when your students come to visit you when you move.

Love is remembering our good times together when I'm gone.

Love is loving a new teacher next Monday.

I love you,
Mrs. Hagan

Keys took the poem to heart, wanting to write as he got older, but he couldn't find an address for Hagan. In college, Mississippi State played at LSU twice. Keys woke up early and thumbed through the Baton Rouge telephone book hoping to find her name. No luck.

Years later he saved a pair of Super Bowl tickets for her but couldn't find her.

This year, Keys hired an attorney to help find Hagan. They connected with the help of the Louisiana Department of Education. Since then, they've talked at least six times, including an initial conversation that lasted 45 minutes.

Keys told her about his career and doing the Super Bowl Shuffle with the '85 Bears. He told her about starting All Sports Community Service, a nonprofit that has helped more than 1,000 high school kids reach college.

He told her she was with him for every step.

"I shared with her how she inspired us coming into our school at the time period in our lives," Keys said. "The courage she had and the compassion she had for us as young people, I never forgot it."

Hagan, who became a principal, said Keys' call out of the blue is a defining moment in her career. She has never forgotten her "special class" at Dawson, and she kept a folder with mementos from that time, including the class roll.

"That's what makes the teaching profession what it is. … The rewards you get," Hagan said. "The rewards may not come this year or next year; maybe 20 years down the road a reward may come.

"This is a testament to what I've been preaching all these years."

Hagan's greatest reward continued. She was Keys' special guest when he was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame on July 31, 2009 in Jackson.

"Society has changed," Hagan said. "It's come around. Thank goodness."

Keys is a former NFL player for the Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Diego Chargers. His Bears team won Super Bowl XX in January 1986.

In 2003, People Magazine published an article featuring Keys and All Sports Community Service in one of its issues. Keys has been recognized twice by the USA Freedom Corp. and the White House.

ABOUT ALL SPORTS COMMUNITY SERVICE, INC.
All Sports Community Service (ASCS) is a Tampa-based 501(3)c organization supported by various Tampa Bay Florida charities that provides opportunities for student/athletes to attain personal enrichment through higher education Since 1993, ASCS has helped hundreds of students secure more than $20 million in support for their college educations. All Sports Community Service college graduates come full circle and dedicate themselves to helping others achieve college educations.

Use granted By Ernest Hooper, Times Staff Writer
St. Petersburg Article In Print: Saturday, August 1, 2009

For more information, CONTACT: Tyrone Keys on his cell phone @ (813) 966-1008
email: tkeys@allsportscommunity.org
http://www.allsportscommunity.org

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