Campbell means Courage at ECU

DALLAS, Texas – East Carolina’s Terence Campbell is this week’s nominee for the 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl/FWAA Courage Award, to be announced at the end of the season. Campbell, a junior offensive lineman from Maxton, N.C., has returned to action after undergoing emergency heart surgery in the winter of 2007.

Campbell was a starter at tackle in 2006, when he recorded 47 knockdown blocks, played 880 snaps and made Conference USA’s all-freshman team. But in February 2007, he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his heart after a scary episode when he began coughing and felt numbness in his arms and pain in his chest.

Two days later, he was undergoing surgery for a condition known as acute coronary thrombosis. Surgery removed the clot, but Campbell’s athletic future was in doubt. He wasn’t allowed to run or lift weights – much less play football – in 2007.

“That was hard to take,” Campbell told the News & Observer, “that I would have to live without (football).”

A scar remains on Campbell’s heart wall, but the organ’s function has returned to normal. Last January, he received doctors’ clearance to resume athletic participation, and chose to do so.

“When I first started (in spring practice), I worried,” Campbell told the News & Observer. “Any little thing would scare me. Now I don’t think about it. It feels like it never happened.”

Campbell has played a reserve role in ECU’s first three games this season, helping the Pirates to a 3-0 start that includes wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia. Because of injuries, Campbell is expected to start at left tackle this week.
*****from Jim Modlin, GREENSBOROSports.com*****

+++++The big one comes up on Saturday when East Carolina rolls in to Raleigh to take on the Wolfpack with the 12noon start at N.C. State’s Carter-Finley Stadium.+++++