Bucknell University Athletics
Journey Brings Andrew Lair to Bucknell
9/21/2006 8:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 21, 2006
By Todd Merriett, Bucknell Athletic Communications
Everybody can picture the devastating images beamed around the world late last August that showed the horrific destruction in the New Orleans area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. An entire city was nearly wiped off the map. People died, lives changed, homes were destroyed and billions of dollars of damage was incurred.
Now, imagine seeing those pictures of the Gulf of Mexico lapping over the roof of your house while you are more than 1,000 miles away nestled against the calm Chesapeake Bay.
Bucknell sophomore quarterback Andrew Lair had to experience that unfortunate sight.
While most people were scurrying away from Bayou Country, Lair longed to return to the South. There was just one problem. He was not enjoying an end-of-summer vacation with friends and family. Instead, he was at the beginning of a journey that would last a minimum of nine years, and possibly many more. He was a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy.
Less than a month removed from a draining boot camp, and only a week before his first college football game, Lair made a difficult choice that would impact his future. He asked to leave the Naval Academy for the opportunity to go home and help his family. He was granted permission with the understanding he would forgo his chance to return.
Lair made the life-altering choice immediately and joined his family in Tennessee, their temporary home after fleeing New Orleans.
"I went through boot camp and two-a-days and then the hurricane hit back home," explains Lair, Bucknell's starting quarterback in the first two games of this season. "I had to get out of there (Navy) to go home and help my family. It is something I just had to do."
Following a one-month stint in the Volunteer state, the Lair clan moved on to Florida for a couple of months so his father could obtain a license to continue running his successful mortgage company. While in the foreign locales, the Lairs saw many displaced neighbors as New Orleans natives were living a nomadic lifestyle in the months following Katrina.
When New Orleans opened back up in early winter, the Lair family returned home, but not to their house. Like most of the neighborhoods, buildings and houses in the New Orleans area, the Lairs' homestead was destroyed by the immense flooding spurred on by the hurricane. Luckily, they were able to set up a new residence and begin to get their lives in order again.
In fact, with help from his father, who played football at LSU, Lair began to look at the possibility of returning to school. With Navy out of the picture, the search was on.
"I did not want to go to a (Division) I-A school," remembers Lair, who had also considered Southeastern Conference powers such as LSU, Arkansas and Mississippi while in high school at Brother Martin High School. "I wanted to go someplace smaller with good academics. We contacted Columbia, Lehigh and Bucknell, among others. I came for a visit to Bucknell and fell in love with it. Now, here I am."
Lair enrolled at Bucknell and began taking classes last spring. While most college kids halfway through their freshman year are still learning to live away from home, Lair had already gone through two life-altering changes within the previous six months. Those experiences only helped to mature Lair as his first spring practice approached.
The graduation of Dante Ross left the quarterback position open and Lair quickly solidified his position as one of the favorites for the job. His impressive play continued during preseason practice as he waged a battle with junior Terrance Wilson, the starter in last year's season opener. Lair supplanted Wilson as the week-one starter in the thrilling 31-28 overtime win against Duquesne. Unfortunately, Lair was not on the field to celebrate the first Bison victory since last October, a time when he was still living a nomadic life, as he sustained a hip injury just before halftime.
While it might seem there could be a quarterback controversy developing, there is nothing further from the truth.
"It has been a great competition between friends," explains Lair. "It's not like we started to hate each other when I won the job. Anyway, he gets playing time too, I just happen to open the games."
Before suffering the injury against the Dukes, Lair showed why he won the starting assignment. He ran seven times for 40 yards, including a nifty 38-yard touchdown scamper where he juked one defender to the ground about 20 yards from the goal line. Lair also completed both his passes for 48 yards, including a 33-yard strike to Rashod Bumpers on the first play of the game.
Lair returned to the starting lineup in week two against Lafayette, and while the result was not nearly as good with the Bison suffering a 31-0 loss to the Leopards, he made it through the contest unscathed by injury.
He followed that with an outstanding performance against Cornell in his third career start. The player, who has three years of eligibility remaining after this season, totaled 99 yards passing and a team-high 77 yards on the ground during last Saturday's solid 20-5 victory against the Big Red.
Even though football and classes are taking up much of his time now, come next summer Lair, who has not declared a major yet, will head home to a transformed New Orleans. He worked on recovery efforts this past summer with his cousin and uncle, who owns a crane service. He expects to do the same next summer as the recovery efforts continue.
"It is just people being good people," comments Lair about seeing all the volunteers helping New Orleans recover. "It shows the goodness of people and brings up your spirits after so much despair."
Lair says the pictures on TV didn't do the devastation justice, but expects to see improvement every time he returns home. At least now he has the opportunity to spend time at home. If he had stayed at Navy it would have been difficult for him to lend a hand due to the enormous time commitments heaped on midshipmen.
While it was a difficult decision, Lair does not seem to regret leaving Navy. In fact, he seems content with life's events bringing him to Bucknell. Unexpectedly for someone that was planning to spend a good chunk of his young-adult life in the navy, he is lukewarm to continuing a military affiliation despite Bucknell's impressive ROTC program.
"I will look around at the possibility of staying connected with the military," says Lair, who is related to former Army Heisman Trophy winner Felix "Doc" Blanchard. "I might look into Officer Candidate School following graduation, but right now I am just worried about college."
And football. At least until his next trip home.
