Michael Callier still remembers his last game with the Oregon football team.
Playing against Texas in the 2000 Holiday Bowl, Callier sacked quarterback Chris Simms and made at least seven tackles. On Sunday, he tackled an even bigger opponent: The University School of Law.
Callier graduated with the Class of 2004 in the Hult Center, beginning the first step of his lifelong dream of becoming an attorney.
At 6 feet tall and 215 pounds, the former linebacker doesn’t look like an average law student.
“I’ve been wanting to go to law school since I was 13,” he said. In addition, a “few significant events” when he was a teenager further influenced his decision.
When he was 18, Callier attended a carnival in Portland. While standing around with his friends, a mounted police officer tried to break up the group.

“He says something about, ‘Better move your black ass,’” Callier said.
The officer began jabbing Callier in the back with a billy club and tried to push him into a wall, he said. A similar incident happened to him the next year at the same carnival.
After high school, he enrolled at a junior college in Santa Maria, Calif., and played football for the school in 1996. An injury knocked Callier out for his second season.
Joining the Oregon football team as a walk-on in 1998, Callier earned a scholarship in 1999 and started in 2000. The NCAA denied his petition to play in 2001.
As an undergraduate, Callier interned with Gov. John Kitzhaber’s legal counsel Henry Lazenby, and Lane County Circuit Judges Jack Mattison and Bryan Hodges. He was also a legal aide to Lane County Circuit Court Judge Lyle Velure.
Before being accepted to the School of Law, Callier played Arena Football.
At one point, while blitzing a quarterback, Callier said he thought to himself, “Damn, I hope I got into law school.”
He got in, of course, and studied business law. Today, Callier, 25, works for Nike and Tonkon Torp LLP.
Nearly 30 of his relatives flew in from across the country for a surprise family reunion Sunday. They gave Callier the loudest cheers of any graduate as he walked across the stage.
“I remember him being … real little and wanting to be a lawyer,” older brother Hakim Singhji said. “It’s remarkable to keep the dream.”

— Peter Sur