Derrick Pearson is the owner of KNTK-FM which is a sports radio station known as 93.7. Derrick has been a football, baseball, and basketball coach which gives him a background to discuss sports on the radio. He has also spent time as a sportscaster and television host. The quote below comes from Derrick.
“Prejudice is a thing that exists, but we all know better. We know we should not pre-judge.” -- Derrick Pearson
Derrick Pearsons told us that he has lived a full life and is thankful for his life. A few years before moving to Lincoln he had been a coach for several sports. His body had taken abuse through these sports. He needed surgery, and learned that he had two blood clots. He also had been a full body cast. He had to learn everything over, like walking, using your hands, etc. Before surgery he had some acupuncture to help relieve the pain. When he did get home, he realized that some of the blood flow was not like it use to be, he couldn’t breathe well. They moved him to the hospital (only 7 minutes from his home) and discovered 20 blood clots from the acupuncture, three were in the heart and four in the lungs. The hospital chaplain stayed by his bed side for four days, even the four specialists couldn’t figure out what was wrong or how to treat his condition. He had to rely on FAITH. As he said, he lived a full life, and his FAITH is what got him through all this and gave him a purpose and reason for life.
In the meantime, four years later, he found his biological father, whom in his 55 years he never met, that he had four brothers and three sisters. He also learned that in some of his ball games he played against his own brother and his best friend was his first cousin. He learned that he is related to 19 former Presidents of the United States. He said that he probably had more grandmothers than he ever thought about loving. We need to be thankful where LOVE is welcome. LOVE is something that can impact people every day, it is powerful. If we do LOVE right those actions we take are for the greater good.
Derrick said we need to LOVE our children, do everything with a smile and make sure our actions are done with LOVE. We need to work together. Rotary’s Four-Way Test says it all.
As for his radio station KNTK-FM he started working there when they came to Lincoln and was the lowest paid employee. The owner wanted to sell and so Derrick brought it and turned it into a sports radio. He said sports crosses all barriers. He has found a way to use many of the Husker athletes to come in and just talk and learn how to become a broadcaster. He currently has 32 athletes from UNL who come in to learn broadcasting. Even some of the coaches come in to spend time with Derrick and talk about sports on the station.
Derrick has used his own life history to find a way in asking us to think about the face of America. When we do think about the face of America take time to look at our ability to care more super heroes and learn about the games we play and the people who play them.