Spurrier stresses character

December 13, 2007

Steve Spurrier couldn't have illustrated his point any better Thursday night that when 12-year-old Tyler Stroud of Inman came onstage to meet the head football coach of his beloved Gamecocks. 

Tyler's appearance at Potential Youth Foundation's Coaches 4 Character series drew the evening's loudest and most sincere applause. 

Afflicted with osteogenesis imperfecta, more commonly known as brittle bone disease, Tyler has become an inspiration to people throughout the Upstate for his courage.

Minutes earlier, Spurrier had completed an address to dozens of youngsters, encouraging them to "just try to be the  best you can be, and great things will happen for you."

His listed several points he embraced after reading the book "The Characteristics and Traits of Highly Successful People."

Qualities "we can all choose to have," he said such as responsibility, honestly, determination, preparation, resilience, competitiveness, and persistence. 

​But the point on which Spurrier dwelled the longest -- and what moved him and the audience when Tyler hugged him -- was attitude. 

"You've seen people with bad attitudes, you've seen people that are positive, upbeat," he said. "They smile a lot."

"That will get you further in life if you have a good attitude, because people will like to be around you," he said, "I encourage all of you to say, 'I want to have a good day today, and I want to be positive and I want people to enjoy being around me.'"

And he said he saw that in Tyler's smile.

Spurrier also encouraged the audience to not fear for striving for success, for wanting to win. He quoted 2 Timothy 4:7, a passage he said that came to him while attending his mother's funeral.

"'I have fought the goof fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.' It sounds pretty simple," he said. "It really is pretty simple, but you have to challenge yourself every day.

"It's about doing things the right way. And that's obviously what we're trying to do in South Carolina. We want to graduate our players, we want good quality first-class citizens, but we need to win.

​By: Ed McGranahan -- Greenville News