IOWA CITY | One courageous step after another, Brett Greenwood led the Iowa football team into battle Saturday night.
Taking the field at Kinnick Stadium for the first time since suffering an anoxic brain injury four years ago, the one-time walk-on who developed into an all-Big Ten defensive back was at the front of the Hawkeyes’ swarm as the team took the field for its game against Pittsburgh.
With teammate Pat Angerer and Iowa strength and conditioning coordinator Chris Doyle at his side, Greenwood fought off the emotions of the moment as he was welcomed to a thundering roar from the crowd.
Five days after celebrating his 28th birthday, Greenwood then positioned himself to lead the Hawkeyes onto the field.
With a walker to guide him, he demonstrated the strength and mobility he has worked to regain and Iowa players took the field by following Greenwood’s pace to a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd.
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“To see the progress Brett has made, it illustrates the same determination we saw from him as a player,’’ Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “He’s an amazing young man.’’
It was four years ago this month — on Sept. 9, 2011 — when Greenwood collapsed during a late-afternoon workout on the Pleasant Valley High School football field where he starred as a prep.
Working to stay in shape just days after he had been trimmed from the Pittsburgh Steelers roster, he went into sudden cardiac arrest, something that was determined to be a result of a heart arrhythmia. Athletic trainers on the scene performed CPR and used a defibrillator before an ambulance arrived.
Greenwood was airlifted to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where he was put into therapeutic hypothermia and a medically-induced coma that lasted 27 days.
Because of a lack of oxygen, Greenwood suffered an anoxic brain injury.
Initially, the prognosis was that Greenwood’s life wouldn’t be much of a life.
Greenwood has proven the medical experts wrong.
Through his determination, the walk-on who became a four-year starter and all-Big Ten free safety is making strides.
He has slowly been regaining his short-term memory, a challenge not unusual for many who have dealt with the type of anoxic brain injury that the now 28-year old endured, but Greenwood has shown the same fight off the field that he displayed on it as a competitor, first for the Spartans and then for the Hawkeyes.
He now walks with the assistance of physical therapists, as he did one week ago when joining former Hawkeye teammate Angerer in walking to midfield for the pregame coin flip as honorary captains at the Bettendorf-Pleasant Valley football game.
A teammate in every sense of the word, Angerer has accompanied Greenwood to Iowa City on several occasions where the work and encouragement of Doyle in the Hawkeye weight room has proven beneficial.
When it was announced Thursday that Greenwood would serve as the Hawkeyes’ honorary captain, his one-time high school rival was among the first to comment on social media.
“He’s done more for me than I have ever done for him,’’ Angerer wrote on Twitter. “It’s great being able to watch one of your heroes beat the odds.’’
