ATLANTA - No one seemingly would have less desire to attend today's University of Georgia spring football game than Devon Gales.
After all, it was between Sanford Stadium's famous hedges last Sept. 26 that the Southern University wide receiver suffered a spinal injury that cost him the use of his legs following a collision with then-senior Bulldogs kicker Marshall Morgan.
Nearly seven months later, Gales remains confined to a wheelchair with little feeling in his lower limbs as he prepares for another round of physical therapy at the Shepherd Center, where he already has put in close to 1,000 hours of rehabilitation work.
Yet as the 22-year-old Baton Rouge, La., native stared out the window of the Atlantic Station apartment he and his family temporarily call home, he broke into a wide smile when asked if he would watch the G-Day game.
"Oh, I won't just watch it, I'll be there," he said Thursday morning. "And when I get out of this (wheel)chair, I want to go out for the Bulldogs. I want to play for Georgia."
It was going to be a guarantee game like so many others that Southeastern Conference schools play before getting to the heart of their league schedule. Southern would receive $650,000 and quietly take its licking to help keep its football program ticking in the FCS's Southwestern Athletic Conference.
"We were ready," Gales said as he recalled the wet, unseasonably cool day. "This would give us a chance to show we could play with an SEC team."
As Gales and the rest of the Jaguars warmed up, UGA head trainer Ron Courson - who worked under former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga trainer Doug May during the football coaching days of Buddy Nix and the basketball run of Mack McCarthy - met with Southern trainer Lovie Tabron and team doctor Donald Carson, whose father Harry Carson had a Hall of Fame career with the New York Giants.
"You just kind of go over different scenarios that could happen during the game," Courson said. "The last thing we discussed was spinal injuries. What to do has dramatically changed in the last year in terms of protocol."
As the third quarter wound down, the Bulldogs had performed as expected. They led 48-6 as Morgan kicked off to Southern return man Mike Jones. Perhaps because, in his words, "I'm always the first man down (the field on kickoffs), Gales was almost 5 yards ahead of Jones when he attempted to block the UGA kicker.
Said Gales: "After I hit him, everything locked up. I couldn't open my fingers."
Added Courson: "It happened right on our sideline. I knew almost immediately something was wrong. As soon as I got to Devon, he said, 'I can't feel anything.'"
Back in Baton Rouge, Devon's dad, Donny, who played fullback for the Jaguars in the 1990s, and his wife Tish - who became Devon's stepmom when he was 4 - were watching the game on television. Their younger son Dalen (12) and daughter Teah (7) had their own sporting events that day, so the parents stayed home.
When the accident happened, Tish almost immediately said, "It was Devon, Donny. That's Devon."
Donny wasn't so sure.
"I think it's (No.) 43," he said, knowing that Devon wore No. 33. But Tish was sure she'd seen Devon's black ankle brace on the fallen player.
"We started saying prayers," Donny recalled. "We were in a state of shock."
Courson and his team, plus Tabron and Dr. Carson, proceeded with caution but as swiftly as possible. Gales was rushed to Athens Regional Medical Center, Courson having called ahead to the Georgia team's neurosurgeon, Dr. Kim Walpert.
In the meantime, the school phoned the Galeses back in Louisiana.
"We got the phone call from UGA about 3 o'clock," Tish told a UGA film crew in December. "They asked us if we could be on the 5:11 flight to Atlanta, and we were."
Courson met the family at the Atlanta airport and drove the 90 minutes back to Athens. The next day, a distraught Morgan made his way to the hospital, along with several UGA teammates, including Nick Chubb.
"Dr. Carson sat Marshall down and told him he'd watched the video of the collision," Courson said. "He told him it wasn't his fault, that there was nothing he could have done to prevent it."
Later that Sunday, then-Georgia coach Mark Richt met with Devon and the family. He told them, "You're part of the UGA family now, and we're going to take care of you."
In an email to this newspaper earlier this week, Richt wrote that he's attempted to stay in contact with the Gales family since taking the University of Miami job and that the one positive from Devon's injury was "I got to get to know a beautiful kid and his family."
Yet telling someone you'll take care of them and doing it are two different things. From the beginning, Georgia and Southern supporters from Athens to Baton Rouge started foundations and fundraising drives to help with expenses large and small, everything from hotel rooms to meals to medical expenses. The Georgia team wore No. 33 stickers on their helmets. Tickets were provided to UGA, Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Hawks games. The Atlanta Braves sent gifts. Herschel Walker, Falcons coach Dan Quinn and Falcons wideout Harry Douglas all visited. Akins Ford in Winder gave Devon a Dodge Challenger in Southern University blue.
Said Donny Gales: "When Herschel visited, my mom wouldn't quit hugging him."
But by far the biggest individual gesture of help and hope came from the Triumph over Tragedy Foundation, which promised the Galeses a handicap-friendly home in Baton Rouge. Founded in 2011 by brothers Wesley and Reggie Jones, the foundation is raising much of the money by selling "Gales" shirts and hoodies on its website - givetotriumph.info - with the distinctive Georgia "Power G" used as the first letter in Gales.
Said Reggie Jones as he eyed the potential for 90,000 fans inside Sanford for G-Day: "Can you imagine if each of those 90,000 fans would take just five minutes to go online and order just one ($20) shirt? Think of all the people in similar circumstances we could help. Spinal injuries are the most expensive injury one can have. We feel like this house is extremely vital to Devon being able to go home and live a productive life."
The initial response to the T-shirt sales was so overwhelming that the foundation's website temporarily crashed. One 96-year-old woman in Louisiana on a fixed income called Jones, wanting an address to send a donation. A few days later, a $25 check arrived.
"The entire Bulldog Nation, and lots of other people, have fallen in love with this family," Jones said.
There remains a chance, however small, that Gales might actually one day be able to move about without the need of a wheelchair, which is what keeps his football dreams alive.
"Devon has a C6 incomplete," Jones said of the injury. "Which mean the spinal cord has been pinched. If it's severed, unless God intervenes you'll be paralyzed for life. There's nothing doctors can do. But when it's pinched, there's still a chance he could regain normal function."
Said Gales: "I do have some feeling in my legs. I know I'm getting better."
Added Shepherd Center board chairman James Shepherd - who was paralyzed while body surfing in Costa Rica, which caused his parents to start the center in 1975 - during a December interview: "When you first get around Devon you see someone who's very quiet, very spiritual, very engaged in his faith. But underneath that you can see this fierce competitor. He's kind of a quiet cheerleader in the gym for others, whether he's joking or pushing."
His Southern U. teammates fiercely cheered his return to Baton Rouge in early March. The Jaguars presented him with a game ball from the Georgia contest, and Southern announced that his education would be paid for through graduate school.
Added coach Dawson Odums: "(Devon's) a member of this football team as long as I'm head coach."
Still, as Courson said of the entire Gales family: "Obviously, they've had a life-changing event. This doesn't just affect Devon, it affects their entire family. We've just tried to take care of the family as best we can."
Indeed, Tish had to leave her teaching job to stay with Devon at Shepherd during his first five months of rehab. Donny said UPS has been generous in giving him the time off he needs, but with two younger children at home, bills rolling in every day and the handicap-accessible house still months from completion, the stress mounts.
"I've begun to read Job a lot," Donny said with a small smile.
The whole family has leaned on their faith, especially Devon.
Asked if he felt anything positive had come from this, he said, "It's brought me closer to the Lord. It's gotten me reading the Bible more, and it's brought me closer to my family."
Where this ultimately ends no one knows. Most experts believe Devon is at least 18 months from the logical end of improvement. And the kindness of former strangers has been returned. When Georgia running back Nick Chubb blew out his knee at Tennessee two weekends after Devon's injury, Tish Gales was one of the first to reach out to the Chubb family.
But whatever Devon's ultimate fate, Donny Gales says he'll never forget the compassion shown his entire family by Bulldog Nation.
"I don't have any tattoos on my body," he said. "But if I ever get one, it will be a 'Power G' on my arm because of all the love and support that UGA has shown our family."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com