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Never Forget 31-0
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LOSS TACKLED
As a child, David Patterson lost his dad. His family and church helped the Ohio State senior defensive tackle find his way.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter Columbus
-- On the day David Patterson's father didn't wake up, the piggy bank came out.
Saturdays were their time, when 6-year-old David Jr. and his dad would head to an indoor pool in downtown Cleveland. On the morning of March 30, 1991, 40-year-old David Patterson Sr. didn't stir when his son came to his bedside. He had died in his sleep of a heart attack, leaving behind his young family -- wife Leesa, David Jr. and his 4-year-old daughter Devin.
Young David had been told before that his piggy bank was to be saved for a special day or an emergency. After a day of tears, he came out of his room that night and offered the piggy bank to his mother.
"Mom, this is an emergency, right?"
"From that point on, I knew David was a special kid," Leesa Patterson said after telling the story. "He would always take care of his mom and his grand mother and his sister. He devel oped into the man of the house."
As David did that, and as the grieving family lost its home that same year in a New Year's Eve fire, the aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and church community surrounding the Pattersons made sure they looked out for their boy.
All these people helped'
Fifteen years later, David Patterson Jr. is a senior defensive tackle and one of the Ohio State four captains, a young man with a full understanding of what it is to lead and be led.
"They say it takes a village, and all these people helped raise me," Patterson said.
This week, 15 people gathered for a photo at the Cleveland Heights home shared by his mother and grandmother, Thelma Burnett, but "we could have had the house and the yard full of people," Burnett said.
"I've seen a lot of things, but I've never seen anything like this before, the way people pitched in," the 77-year-old said. "First it was the family, and then so many friends, and it made it a little simpler."
They helped pave the path that led Patterson to Ohio State, and they were there when Ohio State coach Jim Tressel came calling, all with a vested interest in what was best for David.
"We met most of Warrensville and Cleveland Heights and the surrounding communities," Tressel said of that home recruiting visit while Patterson was playing at Warrensville Heights. "But you can tell by the person David Patterson is, not only did he get a lot of support and guidance, but he's appreciative of it, and he wanted those people to be there."
Patterson seems to remember every kindness bestowed on him along the way: the children at elementary school who brought in toys after his Christmas presents were lost in the fire, the winter coat someone bought for him in a time of need.
"That's just the way it was at my church," Patterson said. "When anyone needed something, people were always there."
Nothing meant more than the time and attention offered by the men of Mt. Olive Baptist Church, especially five deacons who became like godfathers to him. Henry Johnson, Glenn Gude, Greg Robinson, Donald Thomas and the late Raymond Forrest took Patterson to Browns games inside the Dawg Pound, paid for him to attend Ohio State's football camps, and treated him like their own.
"Since his dad had to go, I couldn't have asked for a better set of men or a better group of people as a support system," Leesa Patterson said.
Johnson, who would take Patterson out along with his own son, Eric, said, "I saw a young man whose father died, and something needed to be done. We didn't know where David was going. He was a young man in need. It could have gone a lot of ways, but it went this way, and you know, you're part of that by the grace of God. I'm so proud of him, I don't know what to do."
Personal angels
For Patterson, those men are like family.
The women in his life are his angels, and he bears a tattoo with that inscription and the names of his mother, grandmother and Devin, now a 19-year-old sophomore education major at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
"The first thing he does when he runs on the field is he finds me in the stands and he points to his tattoo, and then he points to his heart, and then he blows me a kiss," Leesa Patterson said. "We find strength in each other.
David Patterson said, "I have a big respect for women and what women are capable of. I know they can do whatever men can do."
After three decades as the minister of music at Mt. Olive, his grandmother now holds the same position at Calvary Hill Baptist Church. Leesa Patterson is the minister of music at Affinity Baptist Church. Devin Patterson is the assistant director of a gospel choir at Miami.
They are three women fueling a 285-pound hulk who along with Quinn Pitcock gives Ohio State maybe the best pair of defensive tackles in the country.
"It wasn't always easy, but it makes us strong to look back on it, and it brings us closer," Devin Patterson said. "A lot of people in our situation could have chosen not to do such positive things, and no one would have blamed them. We were children, and we were allowed to be children, but we were also realistic - life won't always be roses, but you have to get through it. And we always wanted to make our mother proud."
Fifteen years removed from tragedy, that pride has grown.
Patterson has support in three different churches now, but he still attends some Mt. Olive Baptist services when he makes it home in the off-season. He usually tries to sneak into the balcony unnoticed, but that never lasts.
Everyone knows David Patterson, and the word quickly filters to Pastor Larry Harris. Once Patterson is pointed out, the clapping follows.
"He's one of our heroes, and he's definitely one that everybody applauds," Harris said.
For all the cheers he has heard in Ohio Stadium, nothing means more to Patterson than the cheers of that church, because inside, Patterson's applauding them as well.
"It makes me feel good," Patterson said. "I want to make those people proud."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
[email protected], 216-999-4479
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