You Can't Take His Dreams Away

SAN BERNARDINO >> Dave Stevens, the only athlete born without legs to play college football and minor league baseball, will speak about “Overcoming Adversity” when the next Conversations on Diversity presentation takes place on Thursday, May 12, at Cal State San Bernardino (CSUSB). The event will be held at the campus’ Santos Manuel Student Union Events Center from 12- 1:30 p.m. Sponsored by the University Diversity Committee, the public is invited to attend the free discussion. Daily parking at CSUSB is $6 per vehicle. “I talked to a (New York) Yankee scout and he said, ‘There is no real reality of you ever getting in,’” said a young Dave Stevens in a video posted on his "Impossible Dream” website.” “I just said, ‘Well you can’t really take my dream away from me.’” A three-sport athlete (football, baseball, and wrestling) at Wickenburg High School in Arizona, Steven set three state records: most take-downs in a single wrestling season (118), most career baseball walks (96) previously by Bob Horner, and the season record for walks (46). After high school Dave went on to attend Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn., where he was a varsity letterman in football from 1987-1990. He was also a varsity letterman in baseball in 1987, in which his team went to the Division III national tournament. He has also tried out for the Minnesota Twins and Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB), and the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. He played minor league baseball for the St. Paul Saints in 1996 and has the noble honor of pinch-hitting for Darryl Strawberry. His MLB dreams continue as he is a frequent guest of the Tampa Bay Rays, taking part in batting and field practice as well as throwing out the first pitch at many baseball games. Currently an assignment editor for broadcast media company Regional News Network (RNN), Stevens worked for 20 years as an assignment desk manager and content editor for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN). He won seven National Sports Emmy Awards for contributions to many ESPN shows such as Baseball Tonight, Sports Center, and Sunday NFL Countdown. Featured in dozens of interviews on media outlets including NBC’s “The Today Show,” CBS’s “This Morning,” ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and Reader’s Digest, Stevens is also currently a part of the Wounded Warrior Amputee Football team. In 2013, he was “drafted” by the Wounded Warrior Amputee Football Team (WWAFT) as a non-military recruit to help motivate the veterans and able bodied athletes and has played quarterback and defense vs. the NFL Alumni teams. He considers himself “A Half Brother” to the team and is proud to be a part of such an amazing organization. As a single father of three boys, Stevens recently got engaged at the WWAFT Super Bowl Halftime show. His passion is sports but he also tells his life story as a professional motivational speaker.