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Tillman still inspires 22 years after death in Afghanistan

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Pat Tillman lived his life moving forward, delivering huge hits on the football field, chasing knowledge, reaching out to those who most need help, meeting challenges instead of backing away.

Tillman’s ideals, the ability to recognize something bigger than himself, still resonate 22 years after his death, a legacy pushing ahead in the millions of people he inspired.

“I believe Pat impacted people because he lived his life to its fullest, always setting goals for himself and working hard to attain them,” said Mary Tillman, Pat’s mother. “Pat made mistakes, but he tried to learn from them. He was harder on himself than he was on other people. He was kind and respectful to people he met, and he didn’t take for granted the people who put effort into him.”

Tillman’s 50th birthday was Friday. It’s impossible, perhaps even unfair, to project what his life would have been like had he not been killed by friendly fire serving as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan.

We can only peer back to project forward.

Tillman excelled on the athletic fields of San Jose, California, continued to thrive playing football for Arizona State and the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

Sports fans admired that part of his life.

Tillman’s crossover outside the sports world goes beyond his athletic prowess: unpretentiousness, intellectualism, thoughtfulness, curiosity, a selflessness epitomized by his decision to leave behind a lucrative NFL contract and a new bride to fight for his country in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

His legacy carries on in the places bearing his name and the people who view his life as a call to action.

“We never try to speak for Pat because we don’t know, but I’m sure that he would have been doing something to solve a problem, whatever that problem might be” said Katherine Steele, CEO of the Pat Tillman Foundation. “He showed up for people constantly when he was alive and I’m sure he would have continued to find ways to show up for people if he was still here with us.”

Foundation

In the aftermath of Tillman’s death in 2004, his friends and family gathered to celebrate his life. Tillman loved athletic challenges, so they opted to run in his honor.

The first Pat’s Run drew 5,000 people.

In the wake of that inaugural run, Tillman’s widow, Marie, co-founded the Pat Tillman Foundation.

The foundation’s goal is to invest in leadership and, in 2008, it created the Tillman Scholars program to bridge gaps in the GI Bill.

Now more than 1,000 members strong, the Tillman Scholars embody their namesake’s pursuit of knowledge and achievement. They are doctors, higher education leaders, scientists, CEOs and entrepreneurs. Adrian Perkins, former mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, is a Tillman Scholar. So is NASA astronaut Jonathan Kim.

“They see a problem and they want to run towards it and try to solve it,” said Steele, also a Tillman scholar.

The statue

Jeff Carol Davenport’s New River studio in the hills north of Phoenix is filled with ceramic and wire figures, plates and bowls, a service dog made of clay. Small paint containers sit on a shelf, cups and buckets hold countless brushes and sculpting instruments.

At the edge of the large table in the center of the room is a roughly 18-inch figure of a football player in full uniform, Arizona State and 42 across the jersey.

Known as a maquette, the figure is a scaled-down version of the bronze statue of Tillman inside Arizona State’s football stadium. Davenport’s original design showed Tillman without a helmet, but Mary Tillman suggested basing the statue on a photo showing the back of her son walking out of the locker room -- a photo she uses for Christmas cards.

“I’m very happy with it -- it turned out nice,” Davenport said. “It was an amazing experience to be involved with someone like Pat.”