Continuing the theme of college athletics, if you weren't aware of it yet there is a new movie coming out entitled "The Fifth Quarter", which is the true life story of a Wake Forest football player, Jon Abbate, who had to deal with the sudden, tragic death of his younger brother Luke played for a team that went on to win the ACC Championship over my beloved Georgia Tech team in 2006.
His story though is more then the story of a football team winning a championship but is instead the story of how tragedy can be turned to triumph. The Abbate family live in the metro Atlanta area which just adds another layer into the story. After his younger brother is killed in traffic accident, Jon Abbate makes the tough choice to return to Wake Forest, changes his jersey number to 5 in memory of the number his brother Luke wore and the family creates a tradition of raising 5 fingers at the start of the 4th quarter of the game in memory of their dead son.
This film looks to be this years "Blindside" and like that movie is about more then football.
Of course with all of the local connections I may be a little biased but it is still a ray of light and inspiration in these times when life can be so tough for many of us.
This is the extended trailer for the movie that you won't see on tv. At one point when they are raising the 5 fingers you may notice that some of the folks are wearing GT shirts. That is because as Jon said in a post game interview the Tech fans are a class act. Georgia Tech is located in Atlanta and as such the people were aware of the Abbate story.
I am a Wake alum and a fan of all WFU sports. I watched every game in which Jon Abbate played. He did not stick in the pros since they thought he was "undersized," but he was one of the greatest linebackers I have every seen. It seemed that every time the PA guy would announce who made a tackle. Abbate's name was in there. WFU would never have come close to a championship or even a good season if it wasn't for Jon-he was simply a thing of beauty on the field. Our coach, Jim Grobe, had to keep him off the fiedl during spring practice because he was so wicked that Grobe feared he would injure the entire offense before the season began. Great player-great story. Oh, and I agree about GT-always liked then. Never saw anything from their fans but class. I love Cremins, Hewitt, Johnson, Gailey and the rest.
ReplyDelete