Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
“I wouldn’t trade them for nothing” — MTSU Teammates help support Warren after football injury
9/22/2022 5:05:00 PM | Football, General, BRAA
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Vernon Warren remembers the muddy field in Bowling Green, Ky. first.
The MTSU cornerback, riding high off of a dream 1984 season for his Blue Raiders, had helped the Blue Raiders get the game under control against Western Kentucky, as they had done against reigning OVC powerhouse Eastern Kentucky two games prior in a season that would be Boots Donnelly's first in the I-AA playoffs at the helm in Murfreesboro.
But there was a game to be played, and the defensive back went for the tackle in the middle of the field. The details are fuzzy, all these decades later. Were there multiple players in on the play? Just Warren and the WKU ball carrier?
One detail is not fuzzy, however.
"(Vernon) came up to make a hit," his teammate, Robert Frazier, said. "And never got up."
Warren himself rarely gets into the details. Lying on the field, getting helped by trainers, eventually getting lifted into the helicopter that arrived to fly him to Nashville, where he'd spend the better part of the next three months recovering from a ruptured disk between his third and fourth vertebrate, among other injuries.
"I couldn't feel anything," Warren said. "They came and got me, put me in a helicopter and took me to the hospital."
Frazier wasn't at the game that day, having broken his leg a few weeks prior. But he caught wind of his friend's injury almost immediately and went with the team to visit. They saw him restrained, having to spend a certain amount of time face down every day, speaking to him via mirrors that let Vernon see the room around him.
Warren doesn't mention any of that when you ask about those months in the hospital. He focuses on the brothers that had shown up in his time of need.
"Those guys, they were ready to break me out of there and go party with me," Warren said. "They said 'we'll back the truck up to the window and get you out of there. Those guys were jewels, I wouldn't trade them for anything."
It, in many ways, captures the spirit that Warren's friends and family say has defined him ever since the football injury he sustained many years ago. With an injury that many doctors at the time said would result in him never walking again, Warren found strength in his support system, and himself, to battle back.
With some help from mom, of course.
"Two months, I was up there by his side," his mother, Barbara Edwards, recalled. "The third month, they told me, 'Momma, you can go on home now, we've done all we can do.'"
So much of the medical literature we now have today on neck and spine injuries had yet to be written in 1984. But even with that challenge, Vernon Warren found a way, working his way back to being able to walk again, and eventually lift objects again, despite his partial paralysis on the left side of his body, a challenging diagnosis for the left-handed Warren.
After MTSU, he took jobs in custodial and maintenance with the Metro Nashville Schools and the Rutherford County Schools systems. The speedster cornerback, one of the fastest runners in Jacksonville, Fla. in his day, had found his way.
In recent years, however, Warren's injuries sustained have flared back up again. His grip strength left him, he lost the use of the left side of his body almost completely. Separate heart problems led to him needing open heart surgery, in addition to new surgery on his neck. He was forced to leave the midstate, move back home to Jacksonville with his mom, who has health problems of her own she attends to.
These days, Warren uses a motorized scooter to get around, as he did when he visited MTSU this past weekend for the Blue Raiders big win over Tennessee State this past Saturday. Through it all, he's maintained his positive attitude.
"If you ever talk to him on the phone, you'd never think anything was wrong with him," Frazier said.
"He doesn't moan about it or try to feel sorry for himself," Edwards said. "He tries to feel as independent as he can.
"I've had doctors today say that I should've been dead by now," Warren said. "I've felt blessed. I've never asked God 'Why me?' I just thank him for letting me go through another one."
On his recent trip to campus, Warren was amazed at how much the campus had grown since he'd been a student, remarking on how much more there was to do on campus after he learned about it on a tour from the admissions office. His emotion on the field against TSU, where he was honored during a first quarter media timeout, is evident.
Through it all, however, Warren and his teammates continue to live by the moto that got them through practice with Coach Donnelly, with Warren's injury, and with so many memories over the past few decades.
"Work together, sweat together and hope to never depart."
Vernon Warren's teammates, Frazier and Dejuan Buford, helped start a GoFundMe for him and his family, to help them with accessibility in transportation and around his mother's house. If you are interested in supporting them, you can find the link here.
The MTSU cornerback, riding high off of a dream 1984 season for his Blue Raiders, had helped the Blue Raiders get the game under control against Western Kentucky, as they had done against reigning OVC powerhouse Eastern Kentucky two games prior in a season that would be Boots Donnelly's first in the I-AA playoffs at the helm in Murfreesboro.
But there was a game to be played, and the defensive back went for the tackle in the middle of the field. The details are fuzzy, all these decades later. Were there multiple players in on the play? Just Warren and the WKU ball carrier?
One detail is not fuzzy, however.
"(Vernon) came up to make a hit," his teammate, Robert Frazier, said. "And never got up."
Warren himself rarely gets into the details. Lying on the field, getting helped by trainers, eventually getting lifted into the helicopter that arrived to fly him to Nashville, where he'd spend the better part of the next three months recovering from a ruptured disk between his third and fourth vertebrate, among other injuries.
"I couldn't feel anything," Warren said. "They came and got me, put me in a helicopter and took me to the hospital."
Frazier wasn't at the game that day, having broken his leg a few weeks prior. But he caught wind of his friend's injury almost immediately and went with the team to visit. They saw him restrained, having to spend a certain amount of time face down every day, speaking to him via mirrors that let Vernon see the room around him.
Warren doesn't mention any of that when you ask about those months in the hospital. He focuses on the brothers that had shown up in his time of need.
"Those guys, they were ready to break me out of there and go party with me," Warren said. "They said 'we'll back the truck up to the window and get you out of there. Those guys were jewels, I wouldn't trade them for anything."
It, in many ways, captures the spirit that Warren's friends and family say has defined him ever since the football injury he sustained many years ago. With an injury that many doctors at the time said would result in him never walking again, Warren found strength in his support system, and himself, to battle back.
With some help from mom, of course.
"Two months, I was up there by his side," his mother, Barbara Edwards, recalled. "The third month, they told me, 'Momma, you can go on home now, we've done all we can do.'"
So much of the medical literature we now have today on neck and spine injuries had yet to be written in 1984. But even with that challenge, Vernon Warren found a way, working his way back to being able to walk again, and eventually lift objects again, despite his partial paralysis on the left side of his body, a challenging diagnosis for the left-handed Warren.
After MTSU, he took jobs in custodial and maintenance with the Metro Nashville Schools and the Rutherford County Schools systems. The speedster cornerback, one of the fastest runners in Jacksonville, Fla. in his day, had found his way.
In recent years, however, Warren's injuries sustained have flared back up again. His grip strength left him, he lost the use of the left side of his body almost completely. Separate heart problems led to him needing open heart surgery, in addition to new surgery on his neck. He was forced to leave the midstate, move back home to Jacksonville with his mom, who has health problems of her own she attends to.
These days, Warren uses a motorized scooter to get around, as he did when he visited MTSU this past weekend for the Blue Raiders big win over Tennessee State this past Saturday. Through it all, he's maintained his positive attitude.
"If you ever talk to him on the phone, you'd never think anything was wrong with him," Frazier said.
"He doesn't moan about it or try to feel sorry for himself," Edwards said. "He tries to feel as independent as he can.
"I've had doctors today say that I should've been dead by now," Warren said. "I've felt blessed. I've never asked God 'Why me?' I just thank him for letting me go through another one."
On his recent trip to campus, Warren was amazed at how much the campus had grown since he'd been a student, remarking on how much more there was to do on campus after he learned about it on a tour from the admissions office. His emotion on the field against TSU, where he was honored during a first quarter media timeout, is evident.
Through it all, however, Warren and his teammates continue to live by the moto that got them through practice with Coach Donnelly, with Warren's injury, and with so many memories over the past few decades.
"Work together, sweat together and hope to never depart."
Vernon Warren's teammates, Frazier and Dejuan Buford, helped start a GoFundMe for him and his family, to help them with accessibility in transportation and around his mother's house. If you are interested in supporting them, you can find the link here.
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