East St. Louis, Illinois, consistently ranks at or near the top of national listings in unemployment, poverty and violent-crime rates.
Nobody has to look for trouble there. It typically is more a matter of being lucky and wise enough to outrun it.
Tony Pierson, fastest member of the Kansas University football program, has done it and is closing in on a degree. Given that he came out of such a woefully underfunded school system, he has made many proud of him for staying on the course.
“Anybody associated with our program that knows Tony on a day‑to‑day basis is a Tony fan,” KU interim head coach Clint Bowen said. “I don’t know how you couldn’t be. The young man is as polite and good‑hearted a guy as we’ve had in the program for a long time. He’s a special individual, works extremely hard in the classroom, on the football field.”
And then Bowen paid Pierson as nice a compliment as can be stated about one of his players.
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