Where are they now? - Perry Tuttle Perry Tuttle appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he caught the winning touchdown pass as Clemson defeated Nebraska in the Orange Bowl and the Tigers won the 1981 national football championship. But that sort of fame, or anything else, Tuttle said during a convocation talk recently to Erskine College students, falls short of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. "Playing at Clemson, winning the national championship, being a number one draft pick, playing pro ball—all that is garbage compared to what God wants you to be," he said. Tuttle, a motivational speaker who runs the Tuttle Sports Institute in Charlotte, N.C., made a couple of good-natured jabs at his alma mater's arch rival, the University of South Carolina in Columbia. "I hate Columbia—not because of the city but because I hate the Gamecocks," he said with a wide grin. The father of six children—three boys and three girls—Tuttle said he met his wife while he was playing in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons. "Loretta has a master's degree in journalism," he said. "When I sent her my first love letter, she sent it back with red ink all over it." Sporting an "Erskine College" sweater vest, Tuttle told the students about life in pro football. "It's a very strange lifestyle," he said. Perry Tuttle was a first-team All American wide receiver and all-time Clemson leader in career receptions, reception yards, single-season yardage, and most yards receiving by a junior. At the end of his career with the Tigers he was the all-time Clemson leader in career receptions, with five receptions for 56 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown pass in Clemson’s Orange Bowl victory over Nebraska. This final catch of his career as a Tiger made the cover of Sports Illustrated. Perry was a first-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills. Having been released by the Bills, he spent time with both the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before moving to the CFL where he went on to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, where he helped that team to Gray Cup Championship in 1990. He was inducted into the Winnipeg Hall of Fame in 1997 and was named to Clemson’s Centennial team in April, 1996. Perry is involved in various business ventures and speaks frequently at conferences and special events. He resides in Charlotte with his wife Loretta and their six children. Chaplain of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats and an ambassador for NFL Outreach, Tuttle talked about Moses' response to God when the Almighty told Moses to go to Pharaoh and "tell him to let my people go." "Moses kept giving excuses," Tuttle said. Finally, Moses relented and asked God who he should tell Pharaoh was sending him. God replied, "Tell them I Am sent you," Tuttle said, so that His name would be remembered from generation to generation to generation. "Is there a student here so desperate to see Jesus Christ that you'd get up at four o’clock in the morning and yell, 'Holy God,' across one side of campus?" he asked. He used the "Orange" and "White" cheer done by Clemson cheerleaders at home football games as an illustration. "One cheerleader will yell, 'Orange!'" Tuttle shouted "One cheerleader will yell, 'Orange!'" Tuttle shouted from the stage, then ran to the other side of the stage and said, "Another cheerleader on the other side of the stadium will yell, 'White!'" Tuttle said that cheer has been yelled from generation to generation to generation at Clemson. "Are you at a point where you're willing to shout out His name so that it will be remembered from generation to generation to generation?" he asked. Tuttle, who spoke to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Wednesday night, said he talks to college students all the time and he has found there are several "wounds" that most young people are battling with. He said one is the "absent father wound." Tuttle said his own father was an alcoholic and never came to watch him play football at Clemson "because there were too many white people there — he was a racist." Nor did his father ever watch him play during his 10-year professional football career. "Two months before he died, "Tuttle said, "he wrote me a love letter telling me how much he loved me. That was when I became a man—I had been waiting all that time to hear him tell me that he loved me." He said another wound students suffer from is a lack of vision. "I'm amazed by how many students lack a lofty vision," Tuttle said. He encouraged them not only to get jobs, but also to "have a passion for who God wants you to be." Lastly, Tuttle said young people deal with the "all alone" wound. "You've got to connect," he said. "It's funny how many people you know, but how few people know you." Tuttle said his heart longs for young people to "fall in love with Jesus Christ." "If you abide in Him, His name will be echoed from generation to generation to generation," he said.