Remembering Mack and supporting Penn State Men's Soccer
Remembering Mack and supporting Penn State Men's Soccer

Mack’s Story on WBUR’s Only a Game

We are so grateful for the wonderful and sensitive retelling of Mack’s story and how soccer has been a part of our joy and healing. Bill Littlefield, Karen Given, and Alexander Schroeder were wonderful to work with and Bill, as always, provided his warmth to the story.

It is a podcast so be sure to click on the audio link to listen to it. The transcript begins,

“I mean, if you have Mack in goal, like, you gotta work hard still,” Quinn Murphy says. “But you can trust him that — he’s yelling at you to get in the right position, and making sure your team doesn’t give up easy goals.”

Murphy, a thirteen-year-old soccer player, knows the value of a good goal-keeper. So did Vladimir Nabokov. He once wrote: “The goal-keeper is the lone eagle, the last defender. Less the keeper of a goal than the keeper of our dreams.”

Nabokov didn’t have Mack Brady in mind. Not literally at least. He was dead long before Mack was born. But hold what Mr. Nabokov said in mind anyway, okay? Humor me.

Anyway, according to Mack’s mother, Elizabeth Brady, the love of soccer came early to her son.

‘I Will Stay’

“He has an older sister, Izzy, who is about six years older than he is,” Elizabeth says. “And we were actually taking Izzy to a soccer summer camp, but he was too young. And when we got there, Izzy decided, ‘I’m not sure this is for me.’ And he was standing there in the midst of the soccer camp, and I think he was probably 2, and he was, like, ‘I will stay. I will stay! I’ll go in her place!’ This is something he loved. And he would be in the backyard with his soccer ball, and he always had his ball with him. So we just went with his energy.”

The full transcript and audio can be found at WBURs site: Grieving Family Finds Joy — And Healing — In Soccer.

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