By Tara Sullivan Globe Staff,Updated December 5, 2024
Ben Abercrombie, Harvard football player, loved nothing more than diving into the numbers of sports. Whether by adding to his own tackle total as a standout freshman safety or parsing the odds of victory for the other half of his Crimson heart, his hometown University of Alabama.
For as long as battles have been waged on the fields of play, numbers have helped tell the stories. But these days, a different set of numbers help tell Ben’s story, reflecting the challenges of a life forever altered on Sept. 16, 2017.
That’s when Abercrombie, playing his first career game for Harvard at the University of Rhode Island, broke his neck making a tackle. The freak collision left Ben paralyzed from the neck down, and left a family, a football program, a college campus, and an extended Boston community finding a new way forward.
Now, with an important milestone in that journey approaching, it is those different numbers that help quantify the heart and determination of this inspiring young man.
Three, as in hours it takes Ben (with the help of his parents, Marty and Sherri) to get up and ready for each day.
Seven, as in years Ben has spent as a Cambridge undergrad, taking one, two, or three (as he is currently) classes a term.
Seventeen, as in hours it takes for Marty and a friend to drive Ben’s customized van the 1,100-plus miles from home in Hoover, Ala., to the kitted-out dorm suite in Harvard’s Winthrop House.
There’s $37,000, about how much it costs for each MedFlight that transports Ben and Sherri, a registered nurse, and the motorized wheelchair across that same 1,100-plus miles.
Or $600,000, the amount in the Benson M. Abercrombie ‘21 Endowment Fund, available for yearly distribution to Ben or any Harvard student affected by catastrophic injury, and built by the hard work of the Harvard Varsity Club and its executive director, Bob Glatz.
Or six, as in the sixth annual fundraiser at Harvard Square’s El Jefe’s Taqueria this Tuesday, Dec. 10. Owner John Schall donates every penny of sales — on site, to go, or online gift cards — to the Abercrombie fund, efforts that along with the yearly Bowl for Ben or virtual 3.2k runs have filled the fund’s coffers.
And then there’s one.
As in one semester left until Ben graduates with a degree in economics. A spring 2025 milestone he never once lost sight of or let go of no matter what constraints his paralysis brought.
“When you’re in the middle of the journey, sometimes the days are long, but it seems like the weeks go by quickly,” said Marty, Ben’s dad. “It helps us, both me and my wife, to know that so many people are inspired by Ben and this journey. We kind of feel like we’re along for the ride. We support him, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Since Ben got injured, our focus has been on supporting him.
“I think now he’s just looking forward to the next chapter of life, what it may hold. We’re all ready to get across the finish line, to have a Harvard graduate. Most of Ben’s friends from college and high school have graduated, and he’s definitely ready to join them, to move on to the next part of his life.”
Perhaps he’ll join a financial services firm. Maybe he’ll someday represent athletes as clients, finding a niche in the sports arena he loves so much. He could enroll in new clinical trials to continue toward his goal of walking again. He’ll definitely continue therapies that help the diaphragmatic pacer he had implanted increase his functionality and, hopefully, get him off a ventilator.
And he’ll absolutely continue watching college football and staying in touch with friends through his computer, which he controls with eye gaze technology.
Doug Henze has known Ben since they were nine years old. The two played youth football together (with Marty coaching) before going to different Hoover, Ala., high schools. They took their first official flight to Harvard together to start their freshman year.
When Ben was the only freshman to make that fateful road trip to Kingston, Doug was back in the home locker room with teammates, cheering him on. When the gravity of the injury was known, he continued to watch his friend in awe.
“You could always see it, Ben was a really gritty, determined guy who was going to get things done,” he said. “Even after the injury, he was always talking about getting back up to Harvard, finishing his degree, getting it done. To see it from his parents, the way they uprooted their lives, the whole familial effort and the determination to get it done, I’m just proud of him, to know him from then to now.”
As Ben worked, the world went on. Harvard coach Tim Murphy, only steps away when Ben was injured, retired in January. But not before enjoying regular Tuesday post-therapy visits with Ben and his parents that became the highlight of his week. Not before growing close enough to the family that they spend Thanksgiving with him on Cape Cod.
“A lot of times as a coach, predictably and understandably, you do everything you can to inspire your student athletes. With Ben, it works completely the other way,” Murphy said. “I already miss the Tuesday morning conversations. I’m going to miss them when they’re no longer coming to Thanksgiving. But I think the good news is that, for him to accomplish what he’s accomplished under these circumstances is just amazing. And seeing that connection you have in our sport — those guys are his brothers for life.”
It’s the type of lifelong bond that was celebrated at the football banquet held after this year’s Yale game. Ben received a coveted Harvard varsity sweater and a vaunted Major H award, and watched as another Badger award (named in his honor) went to the player who showed tenacity and grit.
“That’s that Crim brotherhood,” Henze said, “where we all know what it’s like to trudge across that bridge in the snow to get to work. It’s amazing to see everybody willing to keep that going for Ben.”
That they have, opening the effort so far and wide that the world can join in, too. Come Tuesday, Andy Aurich’s current Harvard players will be pounding the pavement; impromptu Christmas Carols, pop song serenades, and not-so-gentle cajoling beckoning all passersby into El Jefe’s. Schall, who has made a life of helping others coping with paralysis much the same way his own brother, Mike, has since a high school car accident, hopes to break $50,000 in sales.
“It’s been a really great thing,” Schall said. “Probably a third of the Harvard undergraduate students come to the restaurant that day. I’m just hoping this year we can set a new record. Nobody walks down the sidewalk that they don’t pull into the restaurant. That’s all they have to do, just go eat. We do everything else. I say it all the time. It’s my favorite day of the year.”
It’s a day about helping, about giving, about believing, and about hoping. It’s a day about kindness and love.
“You watch the news, you see so many terrible things happen locally and around the world, but we get to see the positive side of humanity,” Marty said. “We get to see a lot of compassion and love, a lot of smiling faces around. They make you feel like you’re at home, even 1,200 miles away from home.”
It’s a day about Ben.
“At the end of the day, no matter what happens, Ben is still the same guy I’ve always known,” said Henze. “The same fighter I’ve always known.”
By spring, there’ll be one pretty big difference, though. He’ll be Ben Abercrombie, Harvard graduate.