NFL star Russell Wilson recently received an honorary degree from Dartmouth University and gave an inspiring commencement speech.
Russell reportedly received the honorary degree at the New Hampshire-based Ivy League university’s graduation ceremony on June 12th.
“Dartmouth is proud to award you the honorary degree of doctor of humane letters,” Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon said to him at the ceremony.
Immediately after the Denver Broncos quarterback began his speech, he imparted words of encouragement to the graduating class as they moved on to their post-academic journeys.
“Thank you very much for that introduction. Usually, I just get introduced as ‘Ciara’s husband,’ so that was cool. And let me start by answering the question that is on so many of your minds: Yes, she’s here too,” he began.
Russell congratulated Dartmouth graduates and shared that his father, Harry Wilson, also graduated from the institution in 1977. He recited his dad’s favorite poem titled Mother to Son, written by legendary poet Langston Hughes.
The poem was first published in a quarterly magazine by the NAACP called The Crisis in 1922. It later appeared in Langston’s first poetry collection titled “The Weary Blues” in 1926.
“He memorized this poem. He would recite it all the time to my brother, my sister, and me. And he would do the voice because you gotta do the voice,” the Ohio native said.
He continued, reminding the graduates that life comes with challenges, as the poem stated. He drove his point home by mentioning that they had to attend school during a pandemic.
“On one hand, graduates, you don’t need me—or even Langston Hughes—to tell you life isn’t always easy or fair. Today, you’re graduating from an incredible school. But these four years probably weren’t the typical college experience you’d imagined. Shutting down when the pandemic hit. Missing your sophomore summer. Figuring out what the heck a Zoom call is.”
Later in his speech, Russell recalled his father asking him, “Why not you?” earlier in his life, as he was unsure if he could become a superstar football player one day.
“‘You know, you could play against the Manning brothers one day. You could play in the NFL.’ And I was a confident kid, but I must have given him a look like, ‘Are you sure?’ Because he looked right at me and said, ‘Why not you?'” he said.
The NFL player added that he asked himself the same question when he saw his then-future wife Ciara for the first time in a music video.
“Seeing this hot, long-legged singer named Ciara for the first time in a music video, her little smirk of a smile: ‘C’mon, Russ. Why not you?'”
The now-married couple published a children’s book titled “Why Not You,” which hit shelves back in March.
