University of Alabama at Birmingham running back Greg Bryant was declared brain dead on Sunday after he was found shot on Saturday morning in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The 21-year-old and passenger Maurice Grover were discovered shot in a car on Interstate 95 at 4:45 a.m., according to West Palm Beach police. Grover, 25, was hospitalized with minor injuries. Bryant was declared brain dead the following day at around 1 p.m.
CBS 12 has reported that family members stated Bryant “did not survive his injuries,” but it has not yet been confirmed whether Bryant has died.
Detectives are currently searching for witnesses to the shooting, which has been ruled a homicide.
Bryant was a promising college football player with high hopes. He was driven to succeed, but his career has been tragically cut short. Here are 5 interesting facts about the young athlete.
He overcame academic struggles.
Bryant began his career at Notre Dame, where he ran for 303 yards and scored three touchdowns in 15 games, but he left after one season due to academic ineligibility. He then attended ASA College last season, where he played in one game. After being accepted to UAB, he worked hard on getting his grades up.
“Greg worked extremely hard this spring on the field and in the classroom,” UAB Coach Bill Clark said in a statement. “He told me his GPA this semester was the highest he has had in his life, and he was very proud.”
He was the biggest name at UAB’s first recruitment class since the school reestablished its football program.
The heads of the football department at UAB were excited to get Bryant on the team. Although the UAB team won’t play again until 2017, Bryant was allowed to enroll in January 2016, and would have therefore been eligible to play for the team, since he would have spent the required one academic year at the school.
He was living out of a hotel before coming to UAB.
Bryant was living out of a hotel with friends in Miami before being recruited to UAB. Before national signing day in February, he told the Associated Press that getting accepted into the school helped him get out of that situation.
“Coach Clark, he really did me a favor, because I was living in hotels in Miami,” Bryant said. “He said I could come in as soon as the semester was over. Any other school I would have had to wait another semester and probably be enrolled by December. I just bought into what coach Clark was saying and I got in with a 2.0 GPA.”
He was highly regarded by his coaches.
Not only did Coach Clark have kind words and memories of Bryant, but UAB football team life coach Timothy Alexander also spoke on how inspirational the young athlete’s spirit was.
“This guy did a complete 180,” Alexander told WBRC. “People counted Greg out. Greg counted himself in. It shows what one man can do when you believe in yourself.”
He was uplifting.
A peek onto Bryant’s Twitter page reveals several uplifting messages that he either wrote himself or that he retweeted.
“Remain yourself never switch neva’ change up,” he tweeted on March 26.
Bryant wrote on March 16, “Go get it keep ya head up n just stay focused.”
