Courtesy of Laurina Conger
Tailback Charles Scott didn’t decide whether to return for his senior season at LSU until he heard from the behemoth who paves his path to the end zone. “Of course, I was looking at if Ciron was leaving,” Scott said in January. “If I’d have my big boy back.”
Scott’s big boy, LSU left tackle Ciron Black, has started 40 consecutive games at the sport’s most physically demanding position in a conference that has produced the past three national champions. If he had chosen to go to the NFL, no one would have blinked. But Black felt he had more to accomplish. He wants to receive his degree in December. He wants a crack at a second national title. He wants to play one more season for Mikey.
Like so much in college football these days, the friendship between Black and Mikey Conger began with a post on an Internet message board.
Hey Michael, I recently saw your story and wanted to have the honor to write in your guest book. My name is Ciron Black. I am the left tackle for the LSU Tigers football team. I’m also number 70 and I saw you wearing that jersey number, that’s a great number by the way. You know some people see us as heroes because of how we play but the truth is people like yourself are the real heroes. I see all the small problems I face are nothing compared to the hardships that you may go through. God has a plan for all of us and for some reason he put it on my heart to write you tonight … if it is at all possible I would love to talk to you. My number is xxx-xxx-xxxx anytime day or night if you need someone to talk to. Hang in there buddy and just know that anything is possible through Christ.
Your Friend,
Ciron Black
P.S. I would love to write your name on my wrist tape as I get ready to take the field on Jan. 7th for the national championship. Let me know if that is OK.
When Black, then a sophomore, posted that message on Mikey’s page at CaringBridge.org in December 2007, 8-year-old Mikey lay in a bed at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. A reaction to a chemotherapy treatment had rendered Mikey paralyzed, nearly blind and unable to speak. Doctors had told Mikey’s mother, Laurina, to plan on at least another year at the hospital. Knowing Mikey was an LSU football fan — his parents named him after Mike the Tiger — some friends of the family sent messages to several LSU players to keep Mikey in their prayers. Black, the son of two ministers from Tyler, Texas, did more than pray. After reading about Mikey’s battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on CaringBridge.org, he posted the above message to Mikey’s guestbook.
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Tailback Charles Scott didn't decide whether to return for his senior season at LSU until he heard from the behemoth who paves his path to the end zone. "Of course, I was looking at if Ciron was leaving," Scott said in January. "If I'd have my big boy back."