great person through his good works and kindness. He shows this by his exceptional skill on and
off of the football field.
Walter Payton was born in Columbia, Mississippi on July 25, 1954. He was born to an
average poor family with his sister Pam, his brother, Eddie, and his father and mother. They
lived in a town called Hendrick Street where whites were wealthier than blacks and nobody
thought twice about it. Walter never grew up knowing what racism was, he just knew it was a
feeling. He knew when he should and shouldn’t do something, and that was just the way it was.
During the summer, Walter loved to make up games and new sports to play with his
neighbors. They would just go out into the fields everyday barefoot and play tag football, where
Walter learned to get his great speed and quick jolts. He learned how to avoid the tacklers all
through his life just from playing tag football out in the fields. During the summer, Walter would
always get into trouble with his brother Eddie. Walters mother, Connie Payton, in order to stop
Walter from getting into any trouble would order piles and piles of piles of dirt and would force
Walter and Eddie to get wheelbarrows full of that dirt to spread around in the gardens. They
would sometimes spend hours a day doing that. “That was the hardest work of all” ,says Walter,
“spreading the dirt around would build me up so much, there were no weights needing to be
lifted”.( Never Die Easy .19)
Walter attended high school in John J. Jefferson High, an all black school. It was right
next to the all white school, Columbia High. Than the U.S. Supreme Court decided to enforce
the integrate all schools by 1970. Walter was never the “big man on campus”. He was a drummer
for the high school band for his freshman year, before Jefferson and Columbia were integrated.
Than, Walters brother Eddie, persuaded Walter to join the football team. Eddie was already a jock
running back for Jefferson who was popular. Everyone thought that Walter had to gain some of
those genes from his brother. So Walter agreed and by his junior year was playing for Jefferson
High in a starting position at running back. Walter was a star the second he stepped foot on that
field. He never knew but he said it just came to him that where he needed to run, he ran, and
when he needed to lower his shoulder, he would lower it.
That’s when the two schools, Jefferson, and Columbia integrated. Nobody was too
anxious to integrate. They just thought they were going to get treated like dirt at the other school
and nobody would speak to each other. Walter, though was excited to show off his skills. During
the first practice of the season for the new Columbia High, Walter was called into a play. They
coach called in also one of the best linebackers on the high school team in. He was a senior and
nobody could get past him. The ball was hiked and Walter just ran. The next thing you knew, the
senior was laying on the ground shocked. He could not believe that a junior could knock him
down. That is when he realized that football was going to be in his life for a lot longer than he
could ever imagine.
