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Recognition from President Obama at Rutgers graduation left Eric LeGrand ‘speechless’

PISCATAWAY – One of the great motivational speakers in the nation was speechless.

Eric LeGrand — the former Rutgers football star and champion of spinal cord injury research and awareness — met President Barack Obama for the first time Sunday in the bowels of High Point Solutions Stadium prior to the start of the university’s commencement ceremony.

“It was insane,” LeGrand told Gannett New Jersey. “I didn’t even know what to say. I was like, ‘Thanks, Mr. President,’ because I was in shock over what he was saying to me. And then I had to turn my (wheelchair) around to take a picture — and I wanted to make sure I didn’t run him over.