Overcoming obstacles Former OU baseball player fights through illness and writes a book only to run up against NCAA regulations and lose his scholarship. Scott Hughes - Daily Staff Writer August 29, 2003
Journalism senior Aaron Adair watches baseball practice at L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park. Adair joined the team in the fall of 1999.
When people get sick, they usually become weaker, less vibrant. When that sickness is a serious one, the gloom of illness can last years, even a lifetime. Usually, but not always. Aaron Adair, journalism senior, is a longtime sufferer of polyps in his chest and stomach and was able to overcome a debilitating bout with cancer. He says he is more alive today than ever.However, when he put his life story on paper, he ran into yet another obstacle, the National Collegiate Athletic Association.The beginning of Adair's story is not a happy one. At the age of 14, Adair was a promising baseball player, but brain cancer threatened to end his athletic career before it began."Baseball was religion to me," Adair said. "Baseball was my life."Refusing to give up on his dream, Adair tried out for the OU baseball team in the fall of 1999."I wanted to do it," Adair said. "I wanted to show the world I could do it."Once Adair was on the team, he dived into his training. But tragedy struck again. During his workouts, he started to black out and vomit. Doctors found hundreds of polyps in his body that were leaking blood into his system, slowly killing him.A trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota was fruitless. The doctors there were baffled by Adair's condition and could find no cure, Adair said.The doctors did know one thing, however. Adair should no longer play baseball."I was righteously pissed off," Adair said.With baseball fading from the picture, Adair was left without a purpose, until one night."The Lord came to me in a dream," Adair said. "He said, 'You are going to get up and write a book and help other people.'"Athletic Trainer Clark Pearson, who helped train Adair during his collegiate baseball career, was amazed by how Adair tackled this new project."He took all that energy and frustration and put it into his book," Pearson said.In June 2002 Adair finished his autobiography. Ready to publish, he ran into another obstacle--the athletic department of compliance at OU.The department would not allow Adair to publish his book because it would violate an NCAA guideline.The guideline in question, article 12.5.2.1, states that a collegiate athlete cannot compete in any intercollegiate athletics if he or she uses his or her name or picture to endorse a commercial product."They are not pro athletes. They cannot receive pay for play," said Curtis Jones, director of compliance. "That's not what college athletics is about."Jones said the guideline is in place to ensure that college athletes cannot do things like autograph their jerseys and put them up on eBay.Eventually, Adair had to quit the game he loved because of his growing health problems, but he continued his fight with the NCAA.As Adair knows all too well, an athlete's sports career can stop in an instant. For him, the ability for college athletes to make money is a good thing, and he sees the guideline as outdated."If you let [college athletes] survive somehow, and have them do something for themselves, they would stay in college sports longer and make college sports better," Adair said.Recently, HBO's Real Sports contacted Adair about doing a piece on him and his battle with the NCAA.The NCAA remains unwavering in its stance on the issue, but Adair said he is ready for this new fight and has no qualms about going up against the system."If I thought negative, I'd be a dead man," Adair said.Pearson said Adair is one of the only people he knows who could see a fight like this through."He's had a lot of obstacles thrown in front of him," Pearson said. "He takes these negatives and turns them into positives."