KALAMAZOO, MI - He has played a gang member, a police officer and the President of Earth, but before wearing all those hats, Flint native Terry Crews snapped up his helmet as a walk-on member of the Western Michigan football team.
The football player-turned-actor went on to earn an athletic scholarship for the Broncos and led the team to one of its four Mid-American Conference titles with an all-conference season in 1988.
The 6-foot-3, 245-pound linebacker eventually was selected in the 11th round of the 1991 NFL draft and spent three seasons in the league, but his Division-I football career began with a walk-on tryout at Kalamazoo's Waldo Stadium.