Hogs fans can take pride in King, too
Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008
Arkansas fans will have a variety of reactions when Darren McFadden is selected in the first round of the NFL Draft this Saturday afternoon.
Some will simply smile, while others will cheer or break into goosebumps as McFadden strides toward the stage. If McFadden is drafted by your favorite team, you might even try to find someone to chest-bump.
Others, of course, might break into tears, the final realization that he ain’t a Hog anymore being too much to bear.
What all Arkansas fans will feel, though, is a sense of pride. That’s the way it works in this state, where the Razorbacks are ours, and carry little pieces of us with them no matter where they go.
Anyone who’s read this far, of course, probably already understands this phenomenon. What some might not realize is that there are other, lesser-known Razorbacks out there who warrant just as much pride as superstars like Mc-Fadden.
Take Taylor King, for instance.
“Taylor who ?” most of you no doubt are wondering.
King is a third-year sophomore tennis player at Arkansas. Assuming Arkansas’ season ended with last week’s loss to Vanderbilt at the SEC Tournament, King finishes the season with 10 doubles victories and five singles victories, hardly the jaw-dropping numbers we watched McFadden post for the better part of three years.
Make no mistake, though, King is every bit as tough as McFadden.
Don’t think so ? Then ask McFadden how he’d like to play the rest of his career with Wegener’s granulomatosis.
“Wegener’s what ?” most of you no doubt are wondering.
Wegener’s granulomatosis is a potentially fatal disease in which inflamed blood vessels restrict the flow of blood, usually to the kidneys, lungs and upper respiratory tract.
King didn’t know any of this when he began feeling increasingly ill during a tennis tournament in Chicago in August 2006. All he knew was that he felt so bad he had to withdraw from the event and return home to Rogers.
What King also didn’t know, at least not until he was taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital and placed in intensive care, was that his lungs were filling with blood and his blood vessels were closing.
By the time doctors diagnosed King, two to three weeks later, his lungs had collapsed and he’d gone from 170 pounds to 108. By the time chemotheraphy and steroid treatments were given and he was released to go home, he was confined to a wheelchair.
Once he got back home and came to grips with the fact that he most likely will spend the rest of his life taking medications for his illness, though, King gave Wegener’s granulomatosis the equivalent of a McFadden stiff-arm.
King eschewed conventional rehab “because they didn’t have any idea what kind of work ethic I was going to have,” and started his road to recovery by walking up and down the stairs in his parents’ home to rebuild strength in his legs.
By January 2007, King was back in school and back on the tennis court, determined to make the most of his life both on and off the court.
When it came to tennis, specifically, this is what King thought “You know what ? Screw it,” he said. “I’m going to use it to motivate myself and motivate my teammates. I just thought, ‘Man, if I’m working hard, there’s no excuse for them not to work hard.’” Fast-forward to this past January — the start of the SEC season — and King finally felt like his old self. He’ll still tell you he’s not the most talented player on the roster, but no one is more determined to make a difference.
“The only thing I want to do is contribute... whether it’s cheering or being out there on the court performing,” King said.
King is equally relentless off the court. Recently named to the SEC’s Community Service Team, King serves as the president of Arkansas’ Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and is just as likely to be found reading to gradeschoolers, distributing food to food banks, or serving a holiday dinner at an assisted living center as he is working on his backhand.
“This university is giving me a chance to do something I like,” King said, “so I’ve got to do some other stuff, too.” King is on track to graduate with a degree in communications a little more than a year from now, and is intent on making the most of his tennis career between now and then.
“It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose,” he said, “as long as you go out there and fight like a Razorback.” If you’re an Arkansas fan, that’s got to make you smile — or maybe even break out in goosebumps.
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