FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

This story of Bill Blanchard, who was paralyzed while playing high school football and never gave up.

Most of you have either seen or heard of the movie and TV show “Friday Night Lights. It is about a High School Football team in Texas that played their games on Friday Nights under the Lights. In this fictional story, the quarterback is injured during a tackle and is paralyzed. This chapter depicts the true story of Bill Blanchard and his injury and real life battle as a quadriplegic for almost 50 years. On August 31, 1970, senior defensive back, Bill Blanchard, made a headfirst tackle on a running back during football practice. It happened 5 feet from where I was standing and almost 50 years later I can see the play developing in my mind in slow motion. Bill didn’t get up, and the coaches immediately knew this was not an ordinary injury. The ambulance and paramedics arrived and Bill was taken to a nearby emergency room. There, they quickly realized they could not help and he was transported to the hospital for surgery. Practice was over and we all went home hoping and praying for good news.

The next day, we received terrible news. The bone in Bill’s neck had shattered and caused severe damage to his spinal cord. Most likely he would never walk again. He was 17 years old. Over the next couple of weeks, the initial diagnosis was confirmed, and we all knew Bill would be confined to a life as a quadriplegic. This was not supposed to happen to a high school senior. This was the time in his life that he should be driving his parents crazy, applying to college, having fun with his 5 brothers and sisters and enjoying his senior year.

For the guys on the team, it was a life-changing event. For Bill and his family, it created a challenge of monumental proportions. Bill would need life-long care and would be confined to a wheelchair. Many of Bill’s dreams and aspirations for the future were now uncertain and new plans needed to be created.

The rest of the season was a fog of ups and downs, tears and laughter, and deep emotional scars for players, coaches, the student body, and parents. I vividly remember the homecoming game. We played on a Friday night at Kezar Stadium where the 49ers played. During halftime, with the support of one of his nurses, Karmen, Bill came to the game in an ambulance strapped to a gurney with his head held firmly in place. I don’t remember who we played or the score, but I do remember a roar from the stands that could be heard for a mile as he was wheeled into the stadium. Bill’s determination to make it to that game became his lynchpin of fighting through his injury to build a new life for himself. For me, the accident was a scene I would never forget and many years later it became even more personal. My son Dylan was playing football as a middle linebacker. He made a tackle and went down on the field on the fifty yard line. I was in the stands and I could only watch as the refs and coaches moved all of the players off the field to the sidelines. All I could think of was this is Bill Blanchard all over again. I ran down to the field and saw that the paramedics were holding his neck while an ambulance drove onto the field. In the stands you could hear a pin drop. My heart stopped as terrible thoughts rushed through my mind. And then started again as I saw him move his legs and was told he might have broken his neck but the spine appeared to be ok. His biggest concern was that the paramedics were cutting away his jersey and he was worried he would not get the same number the following week. As he was wheeled into the ambulance, he gave a thumbs up and I knew we had dodged a bullet.

I mention this story as I am positive almost every parent has faced a potentially frightful situation with their children. Sometimes we have been lucky to dodge that bullet and other times like Bill’s parents and many others like them— not so lucky. The car crashes, the ski accidents, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time have changed lives forever and left us with challenges we never asked for or expected. I often say life is what happens when you are making other plans and it is certainly true. If this happens to you, may you find the courage to get through it; if it happens to a friend, don’t be shy about checking in and helping. I do remember the principle at Riordan High School saying as he addressed the student body after Bill’s accident, “Men, what you do for Bill and his family today, tomorrow and for the next six months, means little compared what you do for the next 50 years.”

Back to Bill’s story Bill graduated from Riordan High School in San Francisco with his class and went on to get a degree in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. He has always lived independently, and spent most of his adult life in Berkeley. He went on to work at

UC Berkeley as a Director/ Coordinator for the Physically Disabled Students Residence Program. There, among other responsibilities, he supervised a staff of 12 Special Assistants who provided personal care for UC students with “severe” physical disabilities. At the same time, the students developed their abilities to hire their own attendants, decide their own directions and eventually live and work independently in the community. Obviously Bill had first-hand knowledge of and empathy for the needs of physically disabled students and was determined to help them learn to be self-sufficient. Bill, also, represented the Residence Program on panels and at conferences for educators. During this time, he was a board member for “Last Call” a Berkeley Emergency Services Program for people with disabilities (known now as “Easy Does It”). After his retirement, Bill served as Secretary and then President of the Shattuck Avenue Lofts Homeowner’s Association. He volunteered at North Berkeley Senior Center, assisting blind and sight impaired Seniors with information on services and activities; the Suicide Prevention Hotline, and SF Sex Information Call In Center. He took a number of classes on various subjects at Berkeley Community College and UC Berkeley’s Life Long Learning program. He was an activist “by necessity” and participated in the 25-day occupation at the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977, resulting in the signing of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act which guaranteed accessibility to all government buildings, educational institutions and programs that receive federal funding. I asked Bill how he happened to be there and his story is incredible.

“I heard there was going to be a protest at the Federal Building, however, that morning I had an interview for an internship in a counseling program sponsored by UC San Francisco. Immediately after my interview, I headed for the demonstration because I believed in the cause for which we were fighting. When I got to the building there were almost 200 people who entered the building and the police had blocked off all access and would not permit anyone else into the building. I found out that one of the people in the building had made a call to get additional clothing. I arranged with her attendant to let me try to bring her the clothing. I drove my wheelchair up to the front door and a police officer stopped me from entering. When I explained I was only trying to deliver clothing to a person in the building, the officer told me to “wait here!” as he went to get permission. Not that I’m in a habit of disobeying authority, but as soon as he was far enough away and with his back turned to me, I headed for the elevator and went up to the 4th floor to join the other demonstrators who were now occupiers. I got away with it. No one had expected a long occupation and no one brought food, clothing or supplies with them much less their attendants to help them with bodily functions. I spent the first three nights sleeping in my wheelchair before I graduated to the floor. For the next 25 days over 100 people with

various disabilities as well as some able bodied supporters remained in the building. People learned to help each other, and then eventually supplies and attendants were allowed in and we essentially took over the fourth floor of the building. We stayed until section 504 was signed into law guaranteeing future generations access to federally funded programs.” In a book written about all of the crazy stuff that happened in the 60s and 70s, Bill is quoted about his experience over those 25 long days and nights, “As I look back on it, the 504 sit-in was an exhausting, uncomfortable, often boring, wonderful experience. I lost weight, didn’t really develop new friendships, lost out on my internship at UCSF, and generally threw my life into temporary disarray. But, given the same circumstances, I would do it again in a heartbeat. It felt so right to be one of the tiny cogs that helped drive the big wheel. The discomforts I experienced meant nothing in comparison to the importance of 504 legislation being signed.” Throughout his life, Bill lived a modest life and never took more than his fair share of any government program. As he got older his medical needs and daily assistant needs got greater. Upon his full retirement in June of 2018, Bill lost a major source of income, UC sponsored Long Term Disability payments. Bill used those funds to help pay for his daily attendant care needs required for a quadriplegic to live independently. The loss of these funds threatens Bill’s ability to live independently in his home. In addition, concurrently with this loss of income, both his needs for, and the cost of, attendant care are rising.

Bill anticipated this loss of income a year before it happened and diligently cut back on his expenses at home. For example he cancelled his cable TV subscription and still uses a ten year old computer. Bill diligently researched other ways to replace the income in order to pay for attendant care, through social services and public benefits, but to no avail, as the options were either disqualifying or share of cost prohibitive.

A recent serious illness, surgery, and hospitalizations have left Bill recovering in bed since January of 2018, and the need for attendant care increasing even further than anticipated and his newly reduced income will now barely cover the cost of basic attendant care, if that. In addition to Bill’s normal daily routine of an attendant getting him out of and into his bed into and out of his wheelchair daily, and helping with his morning and evening hygiene and medication regimes, attendant care is needed when he is bedbound to bring him meals, turn him in his bed to prevent pressure sores, help with the same daily hygienic and medication regimes including assistance with respiratory therapies and wound care. Now that Bill is 65, and has lost some of the medical assistance he was getting, he has found himself in another battle for survival. The fact that he has lived almost 50 years as a quadriplegic is truly amazing; the fact that there is not more

financial assistance for a guy like Bill is a tragedy.

In mid-2018, two lifelong friends of Bill, Dave Mahoney and Dan Hayes along with Bill’s sister Rita began an effort of reaching out to the San Francisco community where Bill grew up with the goal of raising enough money for Bill to slightly improve his life style and give him the financial security for his medical expenses. At the writing of this chapter the outpouring of support and friendship to Bill is a bit overwhelming. We are quite confident we will raise enough money to help pay Bill’s medical expenses that are no longer covered. Just like the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” at the end when the entire town of Bedford Falls comes together to help George Baily (Jimmy Stewart) the people that have watch Bill live his life with dignity and class have stepped up to help him.