Near-Tragedy Can't Stop Carr

Spare Robert Carr, the Ivy League’s dean of tailbacks, any and all queries about “records,” “trophies” and “stats.”

Don’t ask him about the 3,374 rushing yards, the 4,316 all-purpose yards, the 723 rushing attempts and the 1359 kickoff return yards—all Yale school records.

Don’t worry about the 176.78 all-purpose yards per game, fourth in Division I-AA. Forget about the 125.44 rushing yards per game, fifth in Division I-AA.

“That’s for the parents,” says Carr, the Bulldogs’ senior running back. “I really haven’t focused on that kind of stuff.”

Polite and deferential, sure, but Carr’s act isn’t an act. Those are the words of a man whose accomplished résumé almost didn’t happen.

“I’m just thankful for the simple things,” he says. “Like waking up and getting breakfast.”

Last summer, Carr lost consciousness and nearly drowned in the waters of Lake Candlewood, Conn.

A capable swimmer, Carr was just “out there having a good time” with Yale defensive end Don Smith and some friends when he coughed, choked, and began to sink.

“The last thing I remember,” Carr says, “was just going down.”

For nearly four minutes, he was submerged in cold water. His friends desperately searched the lake bottom, but with no luck.

That’s when Brandon Roy, 19, a total stranger who awaited his friend’s turn on a nearby rope swing, came to help.

Roy snatched Carr from the lake bottom. Another onlooker, Nick Nunnally, an emergency medical technician, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

“I don’t remember any of that,” Carr says.

In his first game back after the accident, a Sept. 18 opener against Dayton, Carr bruised the Flyers’ defense for 172 yards on 37 carries.

And the rest, as the record books can attest, is history.

The accident and comeback have been well-chronicled—first on ESPN over the summer and then in autumn features for USA Today, Sports Illustrated and NBC’s The George Michael Sports Machine.

Carr says his mother kept a copy of the SI article—a full-page feature in the Nov. 1 issue accompanied by two photos.

In the national spotlight, meanwhile, Carr has performed exceptionally.

He’s second among all Ivy Leaguers—to possible Payton finalist Clifton Dawson—in rushing yards this season with 1,129, a career high.

He’s broken nearly every school record imaginable.

And he’s planning on writing his senior thesis in history, his area of study.

“It’s a lot of work,” he says. “I’ll focus on it after the season.”

With that time only days away, the senior from Baytown, Texas, approaches football’s final days—and his final Harvard-Yale match—with a dose of sentimentality and plenty of enthusiasm.

“More pumped up than anything,” he says. “I just want to get a win.”

And after that? He plans to prepare for future football, wherever it may be.

“I’m not ready to hang it up,” he says. “I’ll probably get an agent.”

With a Yale degree, the fallback options are numerous.

“If that doesn’t work I’ll probably go into banking,” he says.

Records, wins, jobs or not, Carr can rest assured that he maintains his most valuable possession—his life.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.