GoodSports: LaMichael Howell, Disaster Hero
Tornadoes earlier this month left North Carolina homes and lives destroyed. One exhibit: Shaw University, a Division II school in Raleigh, which was so wrecked that classes were canceled the rest of the semester.
LaMichael Howell, a three-year captain and cornerback for the Shaw football team, drove to campus after losing power at his apartment.
He found his student union in pieces, power lines covering the ground like ivy, and dumpsters upside-down. The football field’s goalpost crossbar was bent straight up. He found students with dorms they could no longer live in, kids with nowhere to go.
Howell gave them one. He spent all day in his gray Crown Vic shuttling students from campus to his tiny apartment. He drove around, yelling into the wind, “Hey! You need a place to stay?”
By the time darkness came and navigating the carnage was undoable, Howell had 12 new roommates. Some he was meeting for the first time.
He let them stay two days until they found ways home. He shared his bed with a teammate and put an extra mattress on the floor and cooked bacon, eggs and biscuits for everyone in the morning.
He was known around campus as the starting cornerback. He and the Bears went 7-0 in conference this past season, Howell’s third conference title with Shaw. He had 35 tackles, 18 assists, an interception and nine deflections.
But last week he became just another guy at a devastated school, giving a few kids here and there a little hope amid the chaos.
If you feel so compelled, you can send donations, which are tax-deductible, to Shaw University Disaster Relief Fund, Mechanics and Farmers Bank, 13 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh, NC 27601.
Comments | Apr 25, 2011
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