Early life and College career

A graduate of Kennedy Catholic High School near Seattle, Utley attended Washington State University and was part of the Cougars team which triumphed at the 1988 Aloha Bowl, Washington State's first bowl victory since the 1916 Rose Bowl. He was also named MVP. That season he earned consensus All-American honors, only the second Cougar to do so. In 2004 Utley was elected into the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

NFL career

Utley was an offensive lineman with the Detroit Lions, picked in the third round of the 1989 NFL Draft. In his rookie year, Utley became the starting right guard for the Lions. He started the first five games, but was injured in the fifth game against the Minnesota Vikings. Utley was put on injured reserve for the rest of the year. In his second year, he fractured two ribs in the third preseason game. He was sidelined for the last preseason game and the first three regular season games. Utley came off the bench by playing in the second half of the next two games. He started in the sixth game, but dislocated his shoulder in the 3rd quarter. He finished the season playing only in the 2nd half for the rest of the season.

Paralysis

In his third year, Utley started every game and was the full-time right guard until a paralysis injury forced him to retire. An injury to his sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae occurred in a game against the LA Rams on November 17, 1991. Although he would later learn he was largely paralyzed from the chest down, Utley flashed the crowd a "thumbs up" as he was being taken off the field. The thumbs up sign has become the symbol for the Mike Utley Foundation, a foundation created in 1991 by Utley and his agent Bruce Allen to help seek a cure for paralysis.

Utley began rehabilitation at Craig Hospital, which specializes in spinal cord injuries. While the location of his injury makes him a quadriplegic by the standard medical definition, he has essentially complete use of his upper extremities, making him functionally a paraplegic.

Mike Utley Foundation

The mission of the Mike Utley Foundation is to financially support an effective function-restoring treatment for spinal cord injuries, to encourage through education that of adopting a rehabilitative lifestyle for the spinal cord injured and a public awareness of spinal cord injuries.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]