20 years later: How Leland High School Remembers Tillman

Story by Eric Matsumoto

Pat Tillman was an American hero who inspired the country by choosing to walk away from a promising NFL career to serve in the military.

In 2004, Tillman was shot and killed in Afghanistan from friendly fire. Most Americans know his story, however the students at Leland High School, Tillman’s alma mater, were not alive to have heard about Tillman firsthand. 

Therefore, the responsibility of telling that story falls to the faculty and staff to keep Tillman’s memory alive. Leland’s athletic director Mike Sparrer, a San Jose native who knew Pat’s brother Kevin, takes it upon himself to make sure students are able to learn not just what Tillman did, but the impact he had on the country.

“As someone who was in his early 20s, around Pat’s age when 9/11 happened, we lived it,” Sparrer said. “It’s a defining moment in our life. Kids these days, you have to remind yourself, weren’t alive…Our kids at Leland absolutely know Pat’s story, [but] I’m not sure they understand the magnitude of what was going on in the country.”

Leland uses Tillman as a tangible example of what it means to live life with strong values and character. Whether on or off the field, Leland encourages its students to see Tillman as a role model.

“We’re always encouraging students to influence others to do the right thing,” principal Harveen Bal said. “Clearly Pat, in his service to the nation and as a football player, was a team player. We talk about building each other and supporting each other through adversity.”

The senior student athlete who most exemplifies Tillman’s character receives an award named after him at the end of the year. The award recipient is determined not simply by their on field performance, but by their character and their contributions in the classroom and the community.

All around Leland there are other ways students see Tillman’s influence, through his name being seen throughout the school and the faculty who knew him and his values.

“We have a football stadium named after him,” Bal said. “We have staff members who have coached him and speak very highly of him. Our students have an immense sense of pride that he attended Leland High School and served the nation. So his legacy is alive over here at Leland High School.”

But Leland tries to tell the story of the First Team All-American linebacker to the football players in particular, as Tillman’s play for Arizona State and the Arizona Cardinals made it all the more impactful when he left to join the military.

“We play a Pat Tillman legacy classic as our first home football game of every season,” Sparrer said. “The first year we did it we brought in a jumbotron and we showed bits and pieces of one of the ESPN specials that they did”

Additionally, Sparrer is always looking for more opportunities for the players to connect with Tillman’s story in order to help them gain the deeper understanding of him that so many of the generations before know.

“We had an opportunity, I forget the year exactly, [where] we actually took our football team down and played a game against a team in Arizona,” Sparrer said. “When we went down there we got to see Kevin, he spoke to the team, we went to ASU, we went to the stadium, we saw the statue and I think that resonated with a lot of those kids on that team.”

For those who remember Tillman’s story and for those who are still learning of it, he serves as a reminder of what it means to have grit, perseverance, and strength.

“Whether it be Leland kids or any other of that age group, I think it’s important that they see examples of people who have endured through something,” Sparrer said. “Seeing someone who stands for something bigger than themselves I think is something that is important for kids to experience.”