Folks looking at whether Lehigh should offer athletic scholarship ought to look at the story of the 6th round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns, Norfolk State CB Don Carey. Why? According to this report, he almost was a Mountain Hawk:“Coming out of high school I really wasn’t highly recruited as far as football. I had a lot of academic scholarships. I had financial aid to Yale, financial aid to Michigan, financial aid to Colgate, Lehigh, all kinds of schools, Patriot and Ivy League schools. I only had one football scholarship and that was Norfolk State. I really couldn’t afford to go to Yale. I’m honored that I received that acceptance letter and whatnot, but Norfolk State gave me the best chance to get a college education and still play football.”Carey was a four-year starter for the Spartans and is planning to major in building construction technology (with a minor in architectural drafting) in May. He was Norfolk State's recipient of the Army Strong Award in 2007, given to the football player who best exemplifies community service and achievement on the field and in the classroom, and was a two-time (soon to be three-time) member of the Norfolk State and MEAC Commissioner’s All-Academic Teams.
Picture this: he doesn't get offered enough athletic aid to go to Yale, but Lehigh and Colgate instead come in and are able to offer him a full athletic scholarship. Might he have gone to Lehigh as an architectural student, provided NFL-caliber talent in our secondary while providing the Brown & White exactly the sort of scholar-athlete that the Patriot League strives to produce?
Might it have been for the want of a few scholarship dollars? Just the ability to put the name "scholarship" to the aid?
We'll never know now.
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