Tackling Multiple Sclerosis

William Franklin Hickson III grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, a college town with a strong middle-class community of African-Americans. If he and his friends were not going to football games or watching football on television, they were playing football. They even had their own league—the FYFL—or the Front Yard Football League. As one of the first black players in the youth sports programs at the Orangeburg Recreation Department, he learned valuable lessons about teamwork, leadership, and respect. A high school injury prevented him from enjoying the type of college career he wanted—and so he turned to coaching. In the early 1990s, however, he began suffering health problems and was given the nonspecific diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. In this memoir, he shares his golden opportunities to lead, his big dreams and disappointments, his setbacks and achievements—and how his faith, determination, optimism, and love for family led him to succeed in his chosen profession. Join the author as he opens up about his inspiring fight against MS and how a lifetime of football and faith helped him move the chains.