LIKE IT IS: Rucker puts his early life lessons to good use

— For some, living in a van with mom and four siblings, moving from town to town in southern Arkansas, any place mom could find work, could have left a deep life bruise.

Not for Marcus Rucker, the youngest of the family.

"We were raised in that van and the church," he says, laughing easily today. "It really makes you close as a family when you live like that.

"God gives everyone different journeys. That was my family's, but Mom was keeping us together, and that was the main thing for us."

He's quick to add: "We may not have had a TV, but we never went to bed hungry. It might have been hot dogs, but Mom [Rosalind Davis] made sure we had some sort of roof over ourhead and food."

In that van, using public facilities, mom was teaching her children life lessons.

Among those lessons was that success is there if you want it. So, Rucker grew up finding reasonsto succeed. He also learned that while they did not have material wealth, they were rich in emotional love.

As regular as their daily prayers was mom telling her children that education is the key in life.

"I'll never forget in junior high finding the word 'nomad' and thinking, 'That's us, we're nomads,' " Rucker said. "We're in the dictionary.

"I'll tell you what is strange to me, though, was like I spent my entire first-grade year in Camden and I can still remember the faces and names of kids in my class, but if I meet them now they have no idea who I am."

Rucker was easily recognizable last Saturday when he graduated with a degree in economics/sports management from Rice University, one of the true academic giants in this country. He is the first in his family to complete college.

Rucker, along with Gary Anderson Jr. and Rick Campbell, was recruited to play football for Rice by then-head coach Ken Hatfield, and they were three of the 88 athletes who received their diplomas.

By the time Rucker was in junior high, the family had settled in Magnolia. What he remembers most about his first day of football was he knew nothing.

"We didn't have a TV, so I didn't know what the positions are," he said, laughing again. "I asked my friend Gabriel Bass what I should play and he said receiver or running back, so that's what I wrote down."

As a senior, he rushed for 2,132 yards and 22 touchdowns for the Panthers. He was a firstteam member of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's All-Arkansas team and was named all-state.

If anything, it seems Rucker's childhood has taught him to cherish and embrace challenges, and if one listens closely, they hear his mom teaching her children to do the right things.

"My freshman year at Rice, I was ready to come home," he said. "I couldn't believe how hard the classes were [he graduated from high school with a 3.8 grade-point average] and how big and noisy Houston was.

"I'm a small-town guy. I called home and Mom - you have to understand, she taught us to make decisions, as she always did - had a series of questions, and the next thing I knew we had talked through my homesicknessand I was ready to go."

It was a good thing, too. There was no redshirt year for him. He started three games and played in all 12.

He stayed a backup running back through his junior year and then was asked to move to linebacker.

"Coach kind of tricked me," he said with another laugh. "In the spring he told me if I moved I could play both ways. All summer, though, he told me to stay in the defensive playbook. I never ran the ball again.

"It was just another time God had a different plan than me, but knowing that, I was able to make the transition with a smile on my face."

Especially when he was racking up 65 tackles and being named honorable mention All-Conference USA at outside linebacker.

As soon as last year's NFL Draft ended, Rucker got a call from the Seattle Seahawks but ended up signing a two-year contract with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League, to which he will report for his second season Saturday.

"Graduation was a big deal, but I don't have time to celebrate. I'm still chasing my dream," he said quietly.

Just like his mom, who nowdoes alterations for a cleaners in Little Rock but also makes adjustments to wedding dresses and prom gowns on her own.

"As long as I can remember, she's been a great seamstress and she's always wanted to own her own shop," Rucker said.

When asked if he could look back over his life and change one thing, what would it be, Rucker didn't hesitate.

"My first semester at Rice I had only a 2.4 GPA," he said. "I should have done much better."

Sometimes people look at their childhood as a reason for failing. Rucker looks at his with a smile.

"I cherish the memories of those days together in the van, church, wherever," he said.

One thing is clear, though.

"Unless I get married and have five kids, I'm staying away from vans," he said.

Rucker laughed again, long and loud.

Winners aren't born, they are developed, and Marcus Rucker is a champion winner.

Sports, Pages 34 on 05/18/2008

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