It was just another summer day at the San Antonio gym for the Northeast Conference’s Newcomer of the Year, working to make 2009-10 finally Long Island University’s year, when Julian Boyd suffered cramps in his arms, legs and everywhere.
“He comes home with sunken eyes and literally looked like he was dying,” said Terrel Thames, Boyd’s stepfather. “He was in bad shape.”
At the San Antonio Hospital, they put Boyd on an IV, told him that his kidneys had failed and there would be no basketball until they found out why. Endless tests began, though he could have made the diagnosis of a broken heart on the spot.
“My world was shattered,” said Melodi Boyd, Julian’s mother. “My son had a heart condition and he was inconsolable, had lost the most important thing in his life.”
There could be no second opinion on that, only, finally, a conclusion at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan of Non Compaction Cardiomyopathy.
“You try to tell him life is more important than basketball,” Thames said. “I love seeing him on the court, but I didn’t want it to be the last time I ever saw him.”
All a 19-year-old knew, though, was that November had turned to February and there was another doctor to see, then one more.
“I thought I would be doing tests my whole life,” Boyd said. “I’m so happy God gave me a second chance. I will use the time to the highest power.”
His dunks, rattling the chandeliers at the Blackbirds’ old home, the Paramount Theatre, across the street from the appropriately named Wellness Center, represent the nth degree of gratitude.
The possessor of a 27-5 NCAA Tournament qualifier without a member averaging more than 27 minutes, Coach Jim Ferry says you measure the Blackbirds not by the almost 13 points per game by Boyd, their most talented player, but by the size of the collective heart. Ironically the guy who missed last season with an enlarged heart, who is now taking an ace inhibitor a day and enjoying every day on the court more than the last, taught teammates life lessons.
“Julian was on the bench, made every trip, shot more free throws last year probably than any player in the nation while this team rallied around him,” Ferry said. “When we got him back we were another whole level of team, and honestly his talent is another issue. Just how everybody came together to support him made us better. I couldn’t be more proud.”
In Ferry’s ninth year, the LIU student body and faculty finally is feeling the same way about a team without one player from New York City. The Blackbirds had been bad enough, long enough when Ferry took over that Clair Bee and the 1939 NIT champions meant nothing to local prospects. So the coach took his pitches to Maryland, Canada, Minnesota and Texas, where Boyd, an Air Force brat with enough sense of adventure to want the big city, was ready to blossom.
He never dreamed that he was picking New York for its wealth of esteemed medical opinions or for its number of shoulders in Brooklyn to cry upon.
It’s still not over for Mom when she hears about high school players dying after hitting game-winning shots.
“I worry, but the best of the best doctors have cleared him,” she said.
Happy he’s alive, she’s not going to take her son’s life away.
“It would have been great to just come back and play, but we won a first championship in 14 years,” Julian said. “It all worked out.