Early Life, Education, and Early Football Career
Shuler was born in Bryson City, North Carolina, a small town in the Great Smoky Mountains on the Tennessee border. His father was a mail carrier and his mother a homemaker and volunteer with the Swain County Youth Association; he has a younger brother, Benjie.
Shuler's athletic career began at Swain County High School. A standout quarterback who led his team to two state championships and was named the North Carolina High School Player of the Year, he drew plenty of scout attention and accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Tennessee in 1990.
At Tennessee, Shuler gained national attention as one of the SEC's top quarterbacks. He held nearly all Volunteer passing records at the end of his career, although most of them have since been eclipsed by Peyton Manning. In 1993, he came in second in the vote for the Heisman Trophy.
Read more about this topic: Heath Shuler
Famous quotes containing the words early, football and/or career:
“When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed
And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,
I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)