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The University of Mississippi Athletics
A Survivor
10/12/2007 | Football
By Whitney Tarpy
Athletics Media Relations Student Assistant
For junior wide receiver Mike Wallace, life has not been a glass of lemonade.
During his short college career, Wallace and his family has faced troubling situations one after the other.
However, instead of bringing him down, Wallace stood up to his challenges to prove that he is a survivor.
The first test for his family and for many families in the New Orleans area was the unknown wrath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
After his family spent five months in Dallas, they would return to something that looked totally different than when they left. Wallace said that the roof of his house was caved in, along with a lot of other damage.
"What I saw was bad, Wallace said. "It was crazy, because it was home. I've never seen it like that with trash everywhere and houses all messed up. It was real bad."
As time passed, Wallace's family started to get everything turned around in New Orleans. Although many of their belongings were damaged, they were able to save some of them; however, for Wallace, he was just thankful that everybody in his family was safe and ok.
Almost a year after Hurricane Katrina, Wallace lost something that many people hope to never lose. He lost his brother.
"It was tough on me because he was family," Wallace said. "I knew it was going to be tough, but the guys on the team were there for me. I went home and when I came back, they were there to lift me up."
Although all of his teammates were there to pick him up when he needed it, Wallace felt a special connection to former Rebel Patrick Willis during this time. Before Wallace's brother's death, Willis was in the same position as his younger brother passed away that summer.
"I felt closer to P.Willie because he had been through this before," Wallace said. "He was there to tell me how he dealt with it. He was a big help with that."
Wallace also said that the coaches were a big support for him as well. He said that every coach told him that if he ever needed anything or just someone to talk to that they would be there for him.
The death of his brother did not slow Wallace down on the football field. Wallace started every game in 2006 and led the team in many categories, including catches with 24 and receiving yards with 410.
This season, Wallace has been part of a resurgence in the offense. He has hauled in a touchdown pass in four straight games and has five scores over that span. Wallace is leading the league in yards per reception (24.3) and ranks third in receiving yards per game (92.4), while the offense ranks fourth in passing (250.4) and efficiency (139.3).
After experiencing the death of a family member, Wallace has been able to help others on the team deal with hard situations, like wide receiver Shay Hodge.
"With Shay, it's a whole different situation," Wallace said. "It's still family, but I can't imagine how it feels to lose a child. It would be harder for me to deal with losing a child. But I still tried to help Shay out by telling him to keep his head up and helping with everything I could."
Wallace's positive outlook after his brother's death shows just how much of a survivor he is, but Wallace knows that his strong attitude came from how much he still had to be thankful for in his life.
"It was hard at first just because I lost a member of my family," Wallace said. "But I just thank God for being alive, still having the chance to play football and being here to help my mom out. I just want to make things better for my mom. That's the main thing I learned from this."
