Eight-year-old Terence Scott sits in his mother’s house in the Knoxville, Tenn. neighborhood Christenberry Heights, waiting for the man his mother told him would be coming to pick him up.
The house is full of females – Terence’s mother and four sisters – and Terence is the only male. Terence’s father has drifted in and out of his life, never a consistent presence.
His mother works as many as three jobs at a time to support the family and his sisters are always off doing their “girl stuff.” Terence is often left to himself.
At the same time, 25-year-old University of Tennessee student Steve Kruger is driving across Knoxville, anxious to meet his new “little brother.” Steve benefited from the same kind of mentor relationship as a child when his parents divorced, and wants to give something back.
He pulls up and out runs eager Terence, but things aren’t immediately comfortable.
“At that time I hadn’t really been exposed that much to white males,” Scott said. “So when I first met Steve I was just trying to figure him out.”
They drive to McDonald’s and order lunch, then Steve sits back and chats with some other adults as Terence plays. This goes on for a few hours, then Steve takes him home. As Terence gets out of the car he hesitates for a moment.

“I can remember when Steve dropped me off, looking back behind me and asking if he would be coming to do something with me again the next Sunday,” Scott says. “For once in my life, I just enjoyed myself. To be with a man that was just there to watch after me and have fun.”
The next Sunday Steve is back, this time taking Terence to the park to play football. Steve envisioned a game of catch; Terence wants to play one-on-one, where Steve takes the ball and Terence tackles him.
“I remember just dragging Terence all the way across the field with him holding on to my ankle,” Kruger says. “Nowadays if he wanted to tackle me he could probably break every bone in my body.”
These activities may not sound like much, but to a young boy with no male role models, they meant the world.
“I was just shocked by it, because he really wanted to spend time with me,” Scott said. “Here I had my father who made me and didn’t want to spend any time with me, and all this man wants to do is spend time with me.”
The two quickly grew close.
“It was a really different relationship from day one. That kid was so enthusiastic,” Kruger said. “You would have thought I was the greatest thing that had ever walked through his door, just to pick him up.”
This bond forms quickly in many of these relationships, said Jude McKay, Eugene’s Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America director.
“Successful matches become significant bonds, and not just to the youth,” he said. “They really end up adopting each other in a very healthy way.”
The relationship would prove crucial to Terence, a boy who was about to slip through the cracks.
Because Terence was often overlooked in the crowded school system, where he had been passed along through grade after grade without having been taught what he needed to know.
“Here I was in the third or fourth grade, not able to read,” he says of his childhood. “I couldn’t read a Dr. Seuss book if you asked me to.”
There again, ready with his time and attention, was Steve.
“Steve caught on to that and started getting me the tutors and extra study time because the school system wasn’t paying attention to that. They were just sending me on through school,” Scott said.
In high school, Terence’s guidance counselor decided he wasn’t cut out for college, and that could have been the end of the story. Thankfully, Steve was there to give Terence the confidence he needed to decide the counselor was wrong.
“My mother, who doesn’t have a lot of college experience, believed her, because this woman had college experience,” Scott said. “I had Steve, who had college experience, saying, ‘No, he will go to college, he will be successful.’ There were a lot of guys that didn’t have that. I was very fortunate to meet Steve at an early age and have him push me along and expect the best out of me.”
Steve succeeded in instilling that confidence in Terence, and when nearby Marshall University came recruiting him, his dream of going to college and playing football on the Division I level looked like it was about to come to fruition.
But the day before national letter of intent day, Marshall’s head coach called to tell Terence they wouldn’t have a scholarship for him after all. The program was inking several other receivers the next day, and because he was a ‘Prop 48’ recruit (his high school courses weren’t at an acceptable level, requiring a year of college-level enrollment for eligibility), he was the odd man out.
“It broke me,” Scott said. “At that time everybody in Knoxville knew that I was going to go to Marshall and now I have to walk up to school with the news cameras and everybody there and tell them I wasn’t going to Marshall. That was a depressing time in my life.”
Again, Steve was there, and he remembers the disappointment of that day well.
“When that coach called me and told me they wouldn’t be signing him it was like a punch in the stomach,” Kruger says in a voice choked with emotion. “He was devastated; you could hear it in his voice over the phone and then later on when he came over to the house he just broke down and cried and my wife and I just held him.”
So Steve and Terence set out again to find a way for him to accomplish his dreams. Through coaches at the University of Tennessee they linked up with the coaching staff at a California junior college, College of the Canyons.
Steve gave Terence his wife’s car and Terence and his best friend drove cross-country to California. Steve flew out and met them there, to help get Terence settled.
But just a few weeks later, Terence was on the phone, again in tears. His coach had noticed something bothering him and had sent him away to get his thoughts together with the advice to “call somebody.” Terence was homesick, all alone for the first time in his life.
“The only reason I didn’t go back home is because I couldn’t find the I-40 Interstate. I drove around trying to find it a couple of times and if I had, I’d have been back in Knoxville.”
Who else would Terence call but Steve?
The time for tough love, however, was now, and Steve didn’t mince words.
“If you want to come home you can, but you and I both know what you want, and if you want it, you’re going to have to deal with this,” Kruger told him. “I promise you there w
ill be a day you will be glad you stuck it out.”
He did, and a few weeks later, once the football season started, he was on the West Coast to stay.
And it paid off, as he had several Division I suitors after his two standout seasons in junior college, including both USCs – Southern California and South Carolina – but Terence decided on Oregon because it reminded him of Knoxville and he liked the offense. Steve was pleased with the decision because the coaches had assured him of the program’s commitment to academics.
“Growing up, people tried to tell him, don’t put all your hopes on playing in the NFL someday because the odds of that happening are small,” Kruger said. “I’ve always told Terence, ‘If you want that badly enough I’m not going to tell you that you can’t do that. But I want you to also get your education so if you don’t make it to the NFL then at least you know football gave you something, and that’s your education.’”
Now, Terence stands just 15 credits from his degree and with a highlight reel that is sure to attract some attention from NFL scouts. He leads the Ducks in receiving this season with 40 catches for 533 yards (13.3 ypc) and four touchdowns. He has helped in the run game as well, taking eight carries for 126 yards and a score.
And when he ran out on the field for Senior Day at Autzen Stadium on Saturday, Steve was there at midfield, beaming at him.
“It was a great emotion to run out and see him there to meet me at the 50, because a lot of the stuff that I’ve been through he’s been a part of it and helped me overcome all of that,” Scott said. “It was a great moment but we both know that we’re just getting started. If my body stays healthy, you will see me somewhere playing on Sundays. That’s not cockiness or anything, that’s just confidence in myself.”
And if not? Well, Terence will be giving back what he got as a child from Steve: attention and guidance.
“I was one of those young kids that was standing on the side of the mountain and I could see the sunlight, but I didn’t know what it was and I had somebody to guide me to where I could see what the sunlight was,” he said. “I want to be that for that young person that knows there’s something beautiful on the other side of the mountain, but they don’t know which way to go or how to get there. Once you get to the other side there’s so much hopes and dreams.”
[email protected]