In celebration of athletes going back to finish college, I want to share my own experience with a college legend
I graduated from the University of Texas in 2015. By junior year, my class sizes were roughly 15-20 kids. I knew most of the other students in my program. Despite the 50,000 student population, the campus felt smaller and smaller as you moved more and more into your specific degree plan. I may have not known everyone by name, but I recognized most faces and we all knew each other well enough to connect on Facebook in order to share study guides. In the spring of 2015, I attended the Syllabus week for “Philosophy in Sport”, and recognized the back of most students’ heads after taking my seat in the last row of the class. There were a few new hairstyles, but I just assumed I hadn’t shared a class with them yet. One of the heads, a bald man sitting in the front row, was more noticeable than the others because it was attached to someone of impressive stature. I assumed it was a member of the football team, and didn't think much about it after that first observation. As the weeks went on, I realized this man was a bit older than the general student body, so varsity football seemed to be out of the question. Despite his age, this man was incredibly eager in the classroom and brought the overall energy of the class up with his dedicated interest in whatever conversation we were having that day. It wasn’t until my professor asked us a question about college football that I finally put it all together. Dr. O was pontificating the introduction of a super conference in FBS football and pointed to the man in the front row while mentioning “Ricky, you may have a stronger opinion on this because of how impactful you were for the Longhorns”. In that moment, my brain placed dreadlocks on this bald man in the front row and I saw Ricky Williams. He had been sitting at the front of our classroom for weeks now, and not one soul has ever addressed the fact that a Heisman Trophy winner was in the room. At first, I was shocked. My emotions quickly transformed into excitement at the reality of the situation. Ricky never had a chance to graduate from UT because of his draft status. He went straight to the NFL, and life kept him from coming back to earn his degree.16 years after leaving the University of Texas, Ricky returned to finish his Bachelor’s. If you ask him yourself, he’ll tell you that class was not his main focus during his first stint in college. However, the Ricky I saw was passionately invested in the class we took together. He seemed to derive pure joy from simply learning, and was engaged in nearly every conversation we had as a class. I still remember that passion when I think back on my college experience, and the impact it had on my mentality moving forward. Ricky clearly had a desire to come back for his degree. Given his connections, I don’t believe it would have hindered him not to have his degree from the University of Texas. Seeing his passion for learning and the excitement he brought to every class showed me that this type of stimulation doesn’t happen every day when college is done. It seems obvious now as a full-time professional, but my college brain didn’t process that shift in lifestyle until I saw Ricky’s excitement about discussing fake rules in a fake game we all made up to prove a particular theory. Ricky was a part of our cohort, and while I never got his number or built a strong relationship with him, it was a blast to watch him experience a learning environment as an adult. He inspired me to appreciate my time in college more, and I am encouraged to see the rising number of athletes who have decided to return to school when possible. 
