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Fiesta Insider: Healing at last, OSU's Terry reflects on a fractured Buckeyes career
by Doug Lesmerises/Plain Dealer Reporter
Wednesday December 31, 2008

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Thoughts from the desert, where I chose Wednesday to watch in person as Minnesota lost to Kansas in the Insight Bowl and dropped the Big Ten to 0-3 in bowl games. A New Year's Eve to remember.

1. Curtis Terry is just glad to be walking comfortably: The Cleveland native played linebacker, defensive end and fullback during his five-year career in Columbus and did it all on two fractured legs.

Unbelievably, unbearable late-season pain in Terry's lower leg finally led to a diagnosis that Terry had fractures in both of his tibias, or shin bones. That necessitated surgery Nov. 18 that kept Terry from walking out for his final home game against Michigan with the rest of the seniors. But he was around that week -- using a walker.

"I broke out of the hospital to go to Senior Tackle," Terry said Wednesday.

For several seasons, Terry dealt with what he believed to be shin splints, grinding through practice each week, figuring if he could get to Thursday, and that day off before Saturday's game, he'd be fine.

"I took a lot of aspirin," Terry said. "I felt like I could play through it and I just wanted to be there for my teammates. The coaches would always tell me, 'if you can't go, sit out.' I just never liked sitting out."


Then before the Penn State game, he knew something was seriously wrong.

"It got to the point where I couldn't run or jump or do anything," Terry said. "They thought it was shin splints but it was way too excruciating."

As Terry described it, he was told he had a condition where his bones were never fully healing. He'd start to feel better, but then under pressure the bones would start to break again. He was told it was an injury of overuse, and blamed himself for his days in high school when he'd go from football practice to playing basketball in the park to basketball practice.

"The more miles I put on it, the worse it got," Terry said.

If the injury kept him from fulfilling his potential at Ohio State, he believes he'll be a new player as he chases the NFL. Now back jogging, he expects to be at full health by the NFL combine, and believes he fits best as a linebacker in the pros.

"I'm disappointed about what could have been if I knew about this in the beginning," Terry said, "but I was also kind of relieved. I felt my athletic ability slipping away and I didn't know what the cause of it was. So to find out there was something I could do about it was a huge relief."

Fiesta Insider: Healing at last, OSU's Terry reflects on a fractured Buckeyes career - Ohio State Buckeyes Football & Basketball Blog (OSU) - cleveland.com