Former University of Nebraska All-American and Heisman runner-up Tommie Frazier spoke to student athletes in Flowers Hall April 9 about life skills.

Frazier quarterbacked the Nebraska Cornhuskers for back-to-back national championships in the 1990s. He was 33-3 as a starter at Nebraska and accounted for 5,476 yards of total offense. Nebraska accumulated a 60-3 record while he was there.

He has traveled the country for about eight years and he speaks about handling pressure, dealing with a career-ending illness, working in the business world and being a husband, father and friend. His stories touch on teamwork, goals, leadership, adversity, peer pressure and choices.

“I have a story that everyone can relate to and also a story that many people thought was the greatest quarterback in college at the time, and I didn’t dwell on the fame,” Frazier said.“That’s what I try to get students to understand—that everybody is not going to play a professional sport—and get them to think about how to be successful away from sports.”

Every time Frazier gets to speak in front of student athletes, he tries to emphasize what is most important in college and what students should focus on first.

“Get an education, fight through it, don’t settle, don’t let anybody tell you can’t do something and also don’t make dumb decisions that can get you in trouble,” he said.

While at the University of Nebraska, Frazier experienced some of the highs of being a student athlete but also faced the biggest obstacle in his life. Frazier experienced a series of blood clots in his leg that hampered his football career and his NFL dream.

“When I was in Canada, I had another blood clot in my leg and learned that there is a difference in stupid and stupidity,” Frazier said. “Being stupid was telling myself to go out and still play knowing that if I did I could have died; there’s a time when everybody needs to call it quits.”

Frazier also talked about his decision to give up football and how he realized that life was more than just the sport.

“It was tough, but it wasn’t because it was something I needed to do,” he said. “I still had the ability to go out and see if I could do it, but I wanted to have a future.”

Frazier mentioned that even though giving up his dream of playing professional football was hard to do, he knew the obstacles that he faced made him the person he is today.

“I am a firm believer that the good Lord only puts things in front of you that you can handle, and if you couldn’t handle it, he wouldn’t do it,” he said. “Ever since then, my health has been great, and I have been enjoying my life with my family because it all could have been taken away.”