Pat Tillman Biography

“Passion is kind of an important word for me, whether it’s playing sports or whether it’s just living or whatever you’re going to do. In my opinion you should be passionate about it or else, why do it?” These words spoken by Pat Tillman exemplifies the type of person he was. He was a hardworking person who earned many awards. He died in the biggest sport of all.

Patrick Daniel Tillman was born November 6, 1976 in San Jose, California to Mary and Patrick Tillman. Tillman was the oldest of the three sons. When Tillman was a kid he always did the right thing. Tillman took offense one day when a friend of his was being bullied so, Tillman beat the aggressor up so bad that he was sentenced to thirty days in a juvenile detention center. Tillman excelled in football while going to Leland high school. Pat lead his high school team to the central coast division. Tillman’s talent on the field earned a scholarship to Arizona State university to play football. Tillman was not that big going in to play college football. He was only 5 feet and 11 inches and weighed two hundred pounds. Pat was extremely successful on the field and highly successful in the classroom. Tillman helped his team make it to the rose bowl along with an undefeated season as a linebacker for Arizona State University. One of the many awards Tillman won was the Pac-10 Defensive player of the year. He was also selected as the most valuable player of the year at Arizona State University. Another award Tillman won was the Clyde B. Smith Academic Award. He won that award in 1996 and 1997.

After graduating college, Tillman entered the 1998 NFL draft. Pat Tillman was chosen by the Arizona Cardinals in 1998 during the draft. Eventually Pat secured a starting spot on the Cardi...

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...he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting." These words spoken by Mary Tillman angry at the administration, angry at the military for covering this up that she was so disgusted by the way they handled this. Tillman was a football star with a 3.84 GPA.

In Pat’s lifetime he was a great football player who set records in the Arizona Cardinal family. He was respected by his fellows teammates during his football career in 1998 to 2001. He was also a great student in the classroom. He won many academic awards while he was at Arizona State University including the Clyde B. Smith Academic Award in 1996 and 1997. When Pat joined the army he did not want to be treated special. The sergeant made sure that happened by telling the commander of Pat’s platoon to treat him like everybody else.