USD Magazine Fall 2005

“I never doubted myself, so I was persistent,” says Clark. “My belief in knowing what I was capable of doing kept me going — that and my love of the game.” Many times, Clark was the only one who believed. He was always athletic, but he never looked much like a stereotypical jock. As a kid, he was into gymnastics, skiing, basketball, football and, of course, baseball. But he always had something to prove. Case in point: As a sophomore at Sunset High School in Beaverton, Ore., Clark weighed in at an unimpressive 145 and stood 5-foot-7. But he was convinced he had the tools to be the football team’s starting quarterback. Who did this short, skinny kid think he was? But Clark believed. He weeded basketball out of his activities, focused on football and baseball only. And when senior year rolled around, he took the field as the team’s starting quarterback. THE LESSON CLARK LEARNED FROM FOOTBALL WAS fortuitous when it came to baseball. Although he turned in a solid high school performance on the diamond, Clark was overlooked by the major colleges. That might have been it, had he not been so confident. “I had the desire to play the game, so I knew I had to find a way,” he says. “At the time, it was something I had to explore, to see how far I could go.” So in the fall of 1990, Brady and his father, Steve Clark, put together a homemade press kit and sent it to 40 or 50 colleges. A couple of smaller schools in the Northwest offered scholarships, but Clark wanted to be where the climate would allow him to play year-round. Father and son hit the road, and in the midst of their travels, stopped by USD and talked to then-coach John Cunningham. “All we were asking for was the opportunity for Brady to perform, to show what he could do,” says Steve Clark. “In Brady’s mind, that one chance was all he needed.”

IT WAS WITH DEEP ANTICIPATION AND EXPECTATION THAT CLARK AND HIS FAMILY AWAITED DRAFT DAY. AND THEN, NOTHING.

34

USD MAGAZINE