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Find our collection of courses by searching Try This wherever you listen to podcasts. And we continue with Our American Stories. T.C. Stallings is known for making one of the biggest runs in Louisville Cardinal football history. It was the game-winning run in overtime against the University of Kentucky. To this day, he's known for that play. He calls it, quote, one of the most significant events in my life, unquote. But what people don't know is the story behind that run.
Here he is to share that story. You know, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and most of my life I lived in the rougher parts. And, you know, I was the youngest of six, and I just began to shape my goals at that point because I didn't like how tough it was on me.
I didn't like how tough it was on my mother. And I started to make the goal that I wanted to take care of her one day. And so I started to see on TV and through other things that you could go to college for free by playing football. And, you know, I knew nobody in my family would be able to afford to send me to college.
Nobody had ever been, you know, nobody knew how to get there. And I wanted to be the first, and I wanted to play football. And so I started to put everything I could into getting there.
I never forget when I was officially accepted as a scholarship athlete at the University of Louisville. And, I mean, it's important that I let y'all know what it took to get there because I wasn't really prepared. It was hard to pass the ACT. I would go and I would try to take ACT prep courses and just anything I could, but I failed that test like three straight times. It was the fourth time that I passed. By that time, I had had over like 50 like letters from colleges, but they were kind of just dropping off when I was not passing the test, but Louisville stuck in there. And so I stuck with them. And I signed my scholarship. I cried.
I had done it. I graduated high school, which was a big deal in my family. And I was the first to go to college. And I was on my way. So I'm at Louisville.
And, I mean, those who know me know this is, Louisville was then and now, this is one of the greatest blessings of my life. And so right away, all the work just began. I began to write my goals down and I knew what I wanted to do. Like, my goal was to be the starting running back for the University of Louisville and get myself to the NFL.
And I knew I had to be great. So right off the bat, the first thing that happens is the coaches reach my position. And they pick me to go to the linebacker room. I go to linebacker room. So now, and I'm like, coach, I don't want to play linebacker. I mean, I played a little bit in high school, but I'm a running back.
That's why I came to college for it. He's like, well, we're picking the most athletic running backs to go. This is to sweeten it over for me. We're athletic. You can play, you know, we need you. We got a surplus of running backs and we want to see you play linebacker to help us out.
That's what we're short. We don't have a lot of linebackers and we don't have a lot of time. I'm just like, coach, I hear you, but I just want to, I just want to play running back. He was like, well, you know, you got an opportunity to start.
I'm like, okay, so where you say the linebacker room was? Because I'm starting was the key for me. And so I got all conference as a freshman for the linebacker, playing linebacker. I had like 55 tackles and two sacks. And I did what I did.
I worked hard, never complained. So I told him, like, I was like, I did everything you wanted me to do, coach. All I want is one shot at playing running back.
One shot. I mean, what do you have to lose? And at first he's like, he really wasn't going for it at all. You know? And so I'm like, I knew I had to come up with something different. So I went and talked to our offensive line coach. And that's like one of my favorite coaches, offensive line coach. I could talk to him about anything. And I'm just like, look, I'm like, coach won't give me a shot.
I just think he's kind of caught up in the guys that they have. And I get it. He ain't never seen me play is what it is. So if he saw me run the ball, I might have a chance. Coach asked me, did I have any film of me running? And I had my high school recruitment tape. So I gave it to our offensive line coach. He took it to the head coach, you know, and head coach was like, oh, I like the way he kind of really pushes it up in there. He's your one carry.
You don't do something with it. You going back to defense. I said, okay, that's, that's fair. I appreciate that one carry. I took him serious.
I don't know if he was joking or not, but I took that one carry and I did something with it. My experience as a Christian growing up was just more about habit than having a deep relationship with Jesus. And again, this is about as much as any of us knew, you know, my mother, myself, you know, this is just how I knew I believed in God. And I knew that you could ask him for things. You know, I knew to pray over my food. I knew to, you know, go to church on Sundays.
I like, I knew those types of things. And I would do them. And I knew that I would do them. And I knew that I knew those types of things and I would do them, but I didn't have this deep rooted faith. So it really wasn't hard to be fooled into thinking that you are really a super solid Christian if you just did some of the habits right.
And that's what I was doing. And so there were people that would say, Hey, is there somebody on the global football team that wouldn't mind coming and sharing their faith with, with some kids? I will always be the one chosen to do those kinds of things. So I will go, you know, I will go and do these things.
Yeah, TC is a great Christian, you know, get Tony to do it. So I'm like, you know, no problem. I love to teach the kids, you know, so I will go and I will look at scriptures and prepare myself and go tell them everything that they're supposed to do.
You know, watch your language, watch what you watch on TV. Like be careful with that. You know, you know, don't, don't say this, don't do that.
And teaching them all the things that they're supposed to be doing because they're kids and they need to be careful. I'm an adult. I kind of know what I'm doing. The music ain't influencing me.
So see, I will leave those places and pop in whatever I want to listen to because I didn't think it mattered that I listened to those things. I would, I would lust with the best of them, you know, running around at the parties while I'm out, you know, telling everybody what they need to do. And I'm living it out the best I can for what I knew. There was somebody following me around, like looking at how I live my life. And I'll never forget when he made himself known to me because I'm on my way to lunch and he comes up to me and he says, Hey, I want to study scripture with you. And I'm like, the first thing popped through your head when you think you doing, you know, Christianity, the way it's supposed to be done is you get pride for it. I'm just like, man, you know, I know how y'all kind of walk around campus looking for people to study the scripture with, but I'm like, brother, I lead Bible studies on campus. And, you know, I read, I'm kind of cool.
You probably want to use that for somebody who needs that, you know, but I appreciate the offer. And so finally he started, he wasn't gonna get nowhere with me. And he's like, look, just what do we just do one Bible study one-on-one and I leave you alone.
And all I really heard was I leave you alone. That excited me. I'm like, all right, well, I mean, in my mind, I'm saying to myself, one Bible study to get rid of this guy. Perfect. Let's do it.
In fact, brother Wayne, he got to wait. We can go tonight. All right, get your Bible. We can go tonight.
Let's go. So that night he came to my room and when he walked in, he had his Bible and a videotape. He just pops the tape in.
I sit down on my bed. I'm watching. And when it comes on a phase in and it just shows Jesus on a cross getting whipped, like right off the bat, it's just a crucifixion, it's a reenactment. And I'm watching this and I'm like, okay.
And this is whip after whip. And you're seeing, you know, the agony. And then these scriptures start to scroll up and these words, and it's just saying things like he died for your sins. He died for the sins of the world. And so many of us still freely commit these sins. And then you see in scriptures about what it truly means to follow him and don't conform to the world. And just all of these different things are just coming up.
And I'm sitting up here reading scriptures, reading about how much you love you. And it's just, and he's still getting beat in the background. And you've been listening to T.C. Stallings share his story. And he starts off talking about where he grew up and how he grew up in a tough neighborhood where nobody in his family had ever gone to college. He wanted to be the first one. He saw football as his way to do it. He saw football as a way to get that scholarship.
And in the end, get to the NFL and take care of his mom. Some adversity along the way, the ACTs. And he failed not once, not twice, but he failed once, not twice, but three times. But on the fourth time, well, he got what he needed, the score he needed. And he found himself at Louisville on a full ride. And then we started to hear about his faith journey. Any of you listening who have one know exactly what he's talking about?
When we come back, more of T.C. Stallings story here on Our American Story. Hey, I'm Christina Quinn, the host of Try This from The Washington Post. Each Try This audio course gets you closer to solving some of the biggest everyday challenges we face as humans. Things like how to sleep better, how to have more meaningful relationships and how to enjoy cooking more. We're releasing new courses all the time where you can learn to be a better functioning human without the time commitment.
Find our collection of courses by searching Try This wherever you listen to podcasts. I feel so lucky to collaborate with Megan and how perfectly she put my experience into words. Listen to Chasen from my new album, Infinite Icon on iHeartRadio or wherever you stream music.
Don't forget to visit infiniteicon.com to pre-save my album. Sponsored by 11-11 Media. And we continue with Our American Stories and with T.C. Stallings story. Let's pick up where we last left off. Now, he lets this play for quite some time, and I'm sitting up here.
This this big 218 pound running back was just humbled. I start crying. I mean, I'm like, I just wanted it to end, you know. And I honestly didn't feel like he was necessarily showing me anything I didn't know. But I mean, it's just here I am.
I'm face to face with it. So when the video ended, he just he just immediately opened up his Bible and he just started showing me even more scriptures about what it truly means to follow Jesus. And I'm looking at all of them and I'm like, I'm not doing any of these things. You know, I it's like these scriptures I had seen them before. I was familiar with them, but they just was I never went this deep with them to like really draw out the true meaning.
You know, scriptures about the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit to change your life and lead your life. And all of this is just as I'm like, man, I felt bad. I felt I felt it was bad in a good kind of way. It's just one feeling good at that time. It's just I felt good to know, but I felt I felt embarrassed. I'm just I'm overwhelmed.
And he's like, you know, Tony, the reason that I wanted to talk to you is because, you know, we all see you around here, you know, starting running back for Louisville and people be asking you to come speak. And, you know, you you're speaking on behalf of Jesus Christ. But if people knew what we're talking about right now, like they knew what these scriptures said, if they knew what it truly meant to be a Christ follower and then compare that to the life you live in today, see you as a hypocrite.
That's it. Very next morning, I started trying to do everything right. It was like cold turkey be the best Christian you could ever be. I feel like I was doing better before this kid come in and start showing me all the scriptures. And now it's harder to be a Christian now.
This is this. I mean, I hate this, you know, and I was just really upset because it wasn't easy anymore. And so I'm like, I look at my Bible. I was like, you know what? Let me just I just felt compelled to give it another quick read. I'm like, let me let me just. And I grabbed the Bible and I open it up.
And I do not think this was an accident, but I open it up to First Corinthians, chapter nine, verse 24 through 27. I just started reading right there. And this is where it says, do you know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win. Each athlete goes into strict training.
They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. I sat there and that it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I just watched. Or read, rather, I just I just read Paul compared the effort of an athlete to the effort of a Christian.
That's all he did right there. And he said that the athletes do it for stuff that won't last, but the Christian is supposed to do it for a crown that will last forever. And I'm like, well, do what? This is what I'm saying to myself as I'm reading the scripture.
He said, go into strict training. And that's when I was just blown away by the next thought that came to my head. And I know it came from the Lord because I still live by today. But if the Lord could speak audibly, like write to me, this is what I felt like he was saying. You sat up here, TC, and you had a fit last night because you was failing as a Christian.
You get mad about what the Holy Spirit ain't doing and what what ain't working and what How's your effort? This Louisville team, you will do everything they tell you to do. When it's time to strength train, you're strength training. When it's time to endurance train, you're endurance training. But what about when it's time to strength train for me?
What about when it's time to endurance train for me? What about the strict training that I try to put you through? For Louisville, you never quit. For me, you never quit. For Louisville, you never quit. For me, you never quit. For me, you quit at the drop of a hat. The team meetings, you're always there.
You skipped church today because you ain't feel like coming to be with me. So yeah, you're a great player for the University of Louisville. You do everything your coach tells you to do.
But what kind of player are you on my team? I got all of that from that scripture. And it was clear to me, God has done his part. His part is to save me. Give me the Holy Spirit.
Give me a son, Jesus Christ. My part is to follow him, obey him, let him train me into the type of person I need to be. So I started thinking of it this way.
God, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, those are my head coaches. And the game is life. And I'm always playing.
365 days a year, 24-7. And the opponent is Satan. And the Bible is my playbook. And the question I always ask myself is what kind of player would Jesus say I am? Each and every day.
That was life changing for me. So I go to the running backs meeting and it's like it always is. We sit down and the jokes start coming out and a lot of times it's inappropriate and the bad language and the small talk and just all this stuff that I'm now working hard to not be attracted to. And I'm working on myself.
And so for me, it's you kind of just got to wait till it's over. I'm ducking my head. I'm obviously uncomfortable. And, you know, the players were noticing and the coach was noticing. So when the meeting ended, we were all leaving and my running back coach stopped me and wanted to talk to me. And he was just like, you know, what's the problem? He's like, you really had a problem today. What's going on? I told him after just being pressed to give an answer, I'm just like, look, God runs my life now.
So whenever we are talking about football and the things that can help me grow and the things that can help me grow, I'm just like, you know, as a player, I'm all this. But we start talking about all this other stuff. I ain't going to be listening. I don't want to do it. And I just didn't really sit well with him.
And I really think he struggled with the old me versus the new me, but he hit me with some words that would stay with me the whole rest of the day. God might control your life, but I control the running back rotation. You just remember that. I had a choice. This this is how I started to think, so I'm just like, now comes the compromise option in my mind as I sit in my dorm room, I'm like, all I got to do is laugh at a few little stupid jokes and just like not make this an issue. And then everything's good.
What's so bad about that? But remember, you know, I'm studying scripture now. And I had a regular reading habit and praying habit that really meant something to me now, so I read scripture and I see the book of Matthew where he's like, if you deny me before men, I'll deny you before the father. But if you honor me before me, I'll honor you before the father. And that just made the decision for me.
There's no way that I'm going to put anything ahead of honoring Jesus Christ. When I went back to the meeting, it was pretty much the same meeting that it always is. And I was the same way that I was before. And you could tell it was just like these like battle lines were drawn because from that point on, coaches really kind of gravitated away from me. I mean, he never really all in on it anyway, but I worked hard.
And you're listening to T.C. Stallings, telling the story about the battle between his faith walk and his earthly walk. Again, for any of you who have a faith walk, any kind, you know exactly what he's talking about, that struggle and that temptation. And he got that word from his Lord, and that was you never quit for Louisville, but you quit at the drop of a hat when it comes to me. God did his part, he realized, as he was reading scripture. My part is to follow him and to have him train me up.
The Bible is my playbook now. And now here he is stuck in a conflict. The coach essentially says to him, God might control your life, but I control the running back rotation. Will he compromise? Will he laugh at inappropriate things, things that just don't work with his spirit anymore or not?
And what will the consequences be? We'll find out what happens next in T.C. Stallings life. His faith walk versus his football walk continues here on Our American Stories. We're here for the history, not the hype. To shed light, not fan flames. We're here for the whole story, not just a headline. Here to uphold democracy, uncover the facts, and illuminate what matters. Democracy dies in darkness.
That's where we come in. The Washington Post. Switch on. Subscribe today at washingtonpost.com slash iHeart. Ever wolfed down a Big Mac and thought, I need some extra cash? Then download the Drop app.
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Don't forget to visit infiniteicon.com to pre-save my album. Sponsored by 11-11 Media. And we continue with our American Stories and TC Stalling's story. Let's pick up where we last left off.
As I watched him support, you know, those that kind of got along with him better. I knew that I was kind of going to be on my own. Like this is going to be the challenge of a lifetime.
And here we are gearing up for the first game of the season. All I could do is control what I can control. So I knew he probably would prefer somebody else get the spot. But I held my own in practice.
I stayed in a position where I wasn't giving up my spot. And so for the season opener against UK, I was listed as a starter. If I don't play well, my dream is done. Boom, we come running out.
And here come the Cardinals. And I remember I knew I was going to start the game. I knew I was going to start the game and I just wanted to start good.
And I felt confident, but things just didn't start out the way I planned it all. On a third and one and they give it to Starlings. I'm not sure. I think he's going to be a little bit shy. Yeah, it's going to be close.
He snuck through there, but I think his knees were already on the ground. I was so nervous about the wrong thing. I wasn't nervous about playing football. I was nervous about how much I would play, but they switched running backs, like right off the bat. And I'm like, here we go. Here's a draw play to give it off the 32. That's Chris Lester and he gives it to Lester again. And Lester fights and looks like he has the first down. Here's Lester again. He turns the corner and Lester has another. So now I started to see what we got going here.
Whoever did better in this game was going to be the starter. So then finally I get in, you know, I took the ball and I just made this quick cut and I was, and I was going, I had a nice run. Here's again, big hole up the middle, 27 Tony Starlings, Starlings still on his feet and fights his way to the 43.
Good effort by Starlings that time. And I'm starting to, and I'm like, yeah, I needed that. Like it was a really, really good run. Then I get called off the field before I could really get warmed up. I was like, it's slipping away.
It's slipping away. And again, officials have detected lightning in the area and determined that conditions may be unsafe for the game to continue. So they've asked everyone to, in an orderly fashion, to return to their cars here at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, as the rain really blows in here in a 19 to 14, what we call a suspended game at this point, due to lightning.
Now I'm going to, I'm going to tell you, I think to this day that God knew I needed that storm because it was an hour and 14 minute rain delay. And I didn't even go normally, like, like, like everybody goes and meets as a, as a group, like the running backs go to running backs, the wide receivers go to wide receivers. They said, I didn't even go. I went straight to the bathroom and I was in there by myself and I'll never forget this, man. I started to look into the mirror, water is dripping down and sweat.
And I just, I'm just looking at myself and I'm just like, what are you doing? And I just started to pray if I have to give up my starting position to show that I have full faith in you, that you're first place in my life. That's fine. I get that.
Like, if I'm a loser, let me lose, but let me go out there and play the way I know I can play. I'm nervous. I'm scared. I'm nervous.
I'm looking on my shirt. I just want to stop that. Just let me, let me do what I know I can do. And if you want to take this away from me, you take it, just give me peace.
Just let me play the way I know I can play. And I'm just sitting here just like begging and pleading in this mirror. And honestly, this is just like the movies, man, where I just started to feel a sense of peace. Like, I really just started to feel it. And I felt like if I really go out there and just have this peace, that's faith. Next thing I know that was yelling for everybody, it's time to go back out.
Hour, 14 minutes, and I need it every minute. So yeah, I didn't think it mean I was going to go out there and crush it. But that's kind of what started to happen. Here's the game to stalling, stalling, inside the 20, stalling to the 10, to the 9 yard line. First carry, I'm gone. Straight up the middle, gone. Put some moves on, gone.
Long run. And now when I get up, normally after a play like that, I get pulled out the game and the other running back comes in. Coach called the same play again. I hit it again.
Boom, straight up through there. Hey, almost scored. They call my play again.
I mean, this is a dream. Every single play was to me, this series. I got that ball. I ran straight ahead, ran into the defensive end, carried that boy in the end zone, and scored a touchdown. Penalty. Louisville trying to take the lead for the first time.
Calling touchdown, Louisville. And I just remember going straight down on my knees. And I started thanking God. And I knew they were going to keep rotating because I know that, you know, coach will want his guy to do well.
And he got in, he did OK. But when I got in, it was the same thing. I get the ball, it's the same stuff.
I'm just relentless. And they hand it off up the middle, big hole for Stalling. Stalling, still on his feet to the 20, going to the 28 yard line. I was running like I was possessed.
Like I was possessed. Yeah, for Stalling, Stalling trying to get outside. Stalling for the 33.
First down, hard nose. I think everybody knows I can run the ball now. I'm over 100 yards. You know, I got a touchdown. It don't even matter what the other guy does right now, because the game's tied now. We're going back and forth. We're going into overtime. So now, it's crazy because I go and get my helmet and the other running back would get hit too. And so like, because we don't know who's going in.
We've been rotating all night, pretty much 50-50. When my running back coach says, Stalling's you in. I can't describe how I was feeling when I heard that, because I knew I couldn't win anyway, and I knew I was going to run the ball.
And now I'm going in. This is the group that's going to have an opportunity to beat Kentucky. And I can see it as playing this day.
Like right now, I'll never forget this. Dave came to the huddle and he said, let's go, Tony. Ace right, 24 counter. Ready, break. And after an hour and 14 minute rain delay, we have had a tremendous bluegrass battle. Bluegrass battle, motion by branch. Give to Stalling. We picked the right team player in the game.
Little did we know pandemonium in the end zone, Tony Stalling. But now you know the story behind the run. It's a story I've been wanting to tell for a long time.
But I needed to tell it the way the Lord wanted me to tell it. To where the focus won't be on football. It won't be on me. It won't be on no coaches. It won't be on Louisville.
It won't be on UK. It'll be about Jesus Christ. The peace that he provides and the plan to hear half of your life.
If you're just willing to trust. And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Vision Video for this story. To learn more about TC, check out his website at TCStallings.life.
TCStallings.life. And what a story you heard about the run of his life and what was behind it. And the run he's still running. Because in the end, that's what he learned. He put his priorities in the right place in the end. And that's all it is. Again, anyone going through any faith walk knows that priority.
And when they get out of line, well, things go wrong for you. And for him, it was just football in the flesh versus what God wants from him. And when he got that aligned properly, it unleashed his performance on the field. Because he put God first.
It was just that simple. He put God first and football second. And for any of you struggling with that priority, if you're believers, again, whatever your belief, well, you know, take solace and take inspiration from the story in the end.
Because what he wasn't looking for was his coach's approval or even those fans' approval in the end. But just God's and the rest took care of itself. We love to tell these faith stories on the show because so many of you listening care about and take seriously your walk with God. The story of T.C.
Stallings, his famous run, the story behind that run here on Our American Stories. Hi, Icons. It's Paris Hilton. Check out my new single, Chasing featuring Meghan Trainor out today. I feel so lucky to collaborate with Meghan and how perfectly she put my experience into words. Listen to Chasing from my new album, Infinite Icon on iHeartRadio or wherever you stream music. Don't forget to visit infiniteicon.com to pre-save my album.
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