MacLaren Inspires at Kiphuth Fellowship Lecture

April 5, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--In front of a crowd of about 250, including many student-athletes and coaches, at Yale Law School's Levinson Auditorium, former Yale football star Jim MacLaren '85 MFA '89 delivered an inspirational 2007 Kiphuth Fellowship Lecture. MacLaren, who was presented the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2005 ESPY Awards, spoke for approximately 90 minutes about his decision to "Embrace Life."

MacLaren, who played defensive tackle for the Bulldogs from 1982-84, was training as an actor in New York in 1985 when he was struck by a 40,000-pound city bus. His left leg was amputated below the knee. MacLaren rededicated himself as a triathlete and became one of the world's best. He routinely finished some of the world's toughest races, including the New York City Marathon and the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, ahead of 80 percent of able-bodied athletes. Then, while competing in a race in 1993, he was hit by a van and broke his neck at the C5 vertebrae, leaving him a quadriplegic. MacLaren once again rededicated himself, becoming a motivational speaker, and in 2005 he created the Choose Living Foundation.

After introductions by Athletic Director Tom Beckett and Jon Litner '85, the President of Comcast Sports Net and MacLaren's teammate at Yale and lifelong friend, a video tribute shown at the 2005 ESPY Awards was played. MacLaren shared that award with Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, a soccer player from Ghana who was born without a right tibia. Yeboah rode his bike across Ghana for 10 days to raise awareness. He received that bike from the Challenged Athletes Foundation, an organization MacLaren started.

MacLaren now considers Yeboah his brother and explained in the video, "From my so-called tragedy comes this gift from across the Atlantic." MacLaren vividly recalls the 10-minute standing ovation he and Yeboah received as "bigger than anything" he's ever experienced.

MacLaren began his discussion by encouraging the audience to, rather than seeing him as amazing, look in the mirror and see themselves as amazing. "The only thing we all have in common is the human spirit," he said. "We never know what our lives are going to look like. As long as we accept what happens and move forward, we're always going to be O.K. You can change your reality simply by changing a choice."

He then explained how he considers himself a 43-year-old work-in-progress. MacLaren spent 63 days in the hospital last year, but has regained some feeling in his lower extremities. While he now has chronic pain, he has begun exercising his abdominal muscles, one of the areas where some feeling has returned. When asked about the accident, MacLaren doesn't mind sharing with people because, as he said, "We connect as human beings through our vulnerabilities and fears."

MacLaren has earned two master's degrees, and is currently working towards a Ph. D. in mythology and depth psychology. He reminded everyone to think about the Greek philosopher Socrates' quote, "An unexamined life is a life not worth living," and has used that knowledge to put his own life into perspective. "Ten years ago, I heard people in my ears," he explained. "Now I hear them in my heart."

MacLaren closed his lecture by encouraging those in attendance to take five minutes every day to think of something that makes them feel good about themselves. He never asks "Why me?" and is the happiest he's ever been in his life. Finally, MacLaren shared his favorite definition of the word success: "do you love and are you loved?"

Following the speech, Beckett presented MacLaren with the Kiphuth Medal and a football letterman's sweater.

The Kiphuth Fellowship was created in 1970 in honor of legendary Yale swimming coach Robert J.H. Kiphuth. The Kiphuth Medal has been presented on a semi-annual basis since 1981. Past winners include former Major League Baseball commissioners A. Bartlett Giamatti '60 and Fay Vincent '63 LLB, Arthur Ashe, and legendary Yale football coach Carmen Cozza.

A netcast of the lecture will be available shortly on yalebulldogs.com.