St. Thomas Aquinas High School Football

Published Wednesday July 18, 2007 in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

St. Thomas grad Irvin donates $100,000 to alma mater

By Christy Cabrera Chirinos

Fort Lauderdale. When Michael Irvin entered the cafeteria at his former high school Tuesday afternoon for a news conference, his eyes immediately went to the back of the room.

There behind a crowd of photographers, reporters and onlookers was a group of Raider football players wearing jerseys in the colors Irvin once sported.

Those players took Irvin back to his time at St. Thomas Aquinas, before he would star at the University of Miami and for the Dallas Cowboys and served as a reminder as to why he felt it was important to donate $100,000 to his alma mater.

"I hope that me doing this, in turn, gives some other young guy an opportunity to find his dream," said Irvin, 41. "This was the beginning. It's always an honor to come back and to look around. It gives you a picture of where you are and where you were."

Irvin, who played at St. Thomas in 1983 after transferring from Piper a year earlier, said his upcoming induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next month helped him realize now was the ideal time to reflect on his past.

"I felt this was a good time to do this because of where I'm going. It makes you reflect on how it happened, how did you get there. When that hit me, I wanted to get in touch with St. Thomas," he said.

Sharon Sullivan, executive director of development at St. Thomas, said Irvin's contribution is the largest an alumnus has made toward the construction of the George Smith Athletic Complex, named in honor of the Raiders' athletic director and football coach.

Sullivan said the school has received gifts ranging from $100 from current students to $300,000, bringing St. Thomas halfway to its goal of raising more than $5 million for the facilities that will feature artificial turf on the school's football field.

The field is expected to be ready for the Raiders' first regular-season home game against South Plantation on September 7, 2007.

Also included in the project will be new boys' and girls' locker rooms, classrooms, a new weight room, facilities for Spinning and Pilates as well as an atrium that will feature trophies and mementos from St. Thomas' athletic success.

For the past 20 consecutive years, the school has won the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Class 6A-5A-4A All-Sports Trophy.

Smith, who has coached at St. Thomas for the past 30 years and has served as athletic director since 1982, said he first heard Irvin was interested in helping the school more than a year ago.

"I know that last year, a year ago February…we spoke about things and he said, 'Point blank, Coach, I'm going to help you,'" Smith said.

Published Sunday August 5, 2007 in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Irvin's induction caps golden night

Ethan J. Skolnick, Sports columnist

CANTON, Ohio Sandy Irvin, wearing a glittery Dallas Cowboys hat, had to wait like everyone else. Her husband of 17 years, never short on words, had refused to share a single one from the speech he had composed for this ceremony — this ceremony at which he would become the first South Florida native enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Still, she had a suspicion about how Michael might act on stage Saturday after seeing him the night before, when he slipped on threads finer than anything in his celebrated wardrobe. Threads that required 750 catches and three years of eligibility to earn. Threads many didn't believe he deserved because of the trouble he had found off the field.

"When they put that yellow jacket on him, I saw him melt," Sandy said, two hours before his turn. "You know, I believe he became a little boy again, just for that moment. Just the way he turned around and looked at me."

At 9 p.m., after an introduction by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lauding his will and leadership, Irvin became that little boy again, wearing that gold jacket, looking out at a crowd of fans, family and friends, many from South Florida, including several of his 16 siblings.

He rubbed his bust, then kissed it on the mouth. He paused for a few seconds to compose himself before leading a short prayer and beginning his well-wishes, which included sending a "special love out to South Florida, and all my St. Thomas Aquinas fans, all my Miami Hurricane fans."

Irvin's speech capped an emotional induction evening. Former Detroit Lions tight end Charlie Sanders closed by saying, "Hi, Mom" to the woman who passed when he was 2. Former Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas asked his wife Patti to remarry him. Jim Brown, Bobby Mitchell and Leroy Kelly wheeled out the guard they followed during their own Hall of Fame careers, Gene Hickerson, who is afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

Then it was Irvin's time. He thanked his St. Thomas coach George Smith, his Hurricanes and Cowboys teammates, his fans and his coaches, specifically Jimmy Johnson. He even thanked ESPN, the network that recently fired him.

Yet in the end, his speech soared when focused on family. Earlier, his mother, Pearl, had called the night "so special to me. And I'm telling you, raising 17 children, I've experienced it all." She had experienced plenty simply raising Michael, the 15th of those 17 kids, even deep into adulthood.

"If you don't go through nothing, you don't know nothing," Pearl said. "You can't tell nobody nothing, OK? But when you have been through something, you know something."

She had always told him that "God is going to open the door, and ain't nobody is going to be able to close it."

On the night a door opened to a Hall housing only 240 others, Irvin opened his heart. He related how his father, Walter, a roofer who died in 1983 of a brain tumor, told him to take care of his mother. He praised his mother and his aunt.

Then he found the words for Sandy, who had stood by him through his issues, many involving drugs and women.

"Sandy, my beautiful wife," he said. "I worked tirelessly, baby, to give you 'for better.' I also gave you 'for worse.' And you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve it. But through it all, I experienced the depth of your love. And I thank God for it. I love the mother that you are, the wife that you are. I love you from a place I can't even mention for keeping our family together."

He asked his boys, Michael and Elijah, to stand. Michael is 10, Elijah is 8. Both wore No. 88 Cowboys jerseys. Irvin called them "my heart." He spoke of how he had begged God that, in spite of his struggles, "Whatever you do, whatever you do, don't let me mess this up." He spoke of how he had asked for help raising them "for some young lady, so they can be a better husband than I," and "for their kids, so they can be a better father than I."

"I tell you guys to always do the right thing so you can be a better role model than Dad," he said.

As he spoke, while dabbing his streaming tears, the camera found Michael and Elijah. They were doing the same thing Dad was doing. They were melting, too.

Ethan J. Skolnick can be reached at eskolnick@sun-sentinel.com.