Hightower doesn't forget what UR did for him

Tim Hightower intends to repeat history and defeat a deflating injury.

He missed most of his senior football season at Alexandria's Episcopal High because of a broken foot. Most college recruiters stopped tracking him.

"It seemed like the end of the world," Hightower said. A scholarship was his ticket to a college education. "Where am I going to go?" Hightower asked himself. For a while, there was no answer.

He started getting phone calls from Jim Reid, the University of Richmond's coach at the time, and Jeff Hanson, one of Reid's assistants. They visited Hightower in Alexandria.

"The next thing you know, I've got a scholarship to the University of Richmond, which I knew nothing about," Hightower recalled on Saturday, when he was inducted into the UR athletics hall of fame.

"It truly was a blessing. I went from this kid who was very unsure of his future, had no clue what the next day held, to being a kid with a support system, with a coaching staff, with teammates, who helped me become somebody who people respect."

Hightower developed into UR's career-leading rusher (3,712 yards from 2004 to 2007), and was selected in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL draft by the Arizona Cardinals. Acquired by the Washington Redskins before last season, Hightower started well before suffering a season-ending knee injury in late October.

Since surgery, he has dealt with rehabilitation the same way he runs the ball between the tackles: aggressively. His recovery is progressing well, Hightower said, and he expects to be ready for next season as a Redskin, though he has not yet been re-signed.

"I don't know how to throttle down. I don't know how to back off," said Hightower, Washington's leading rusher (321 yards on 84 carries) before suffering the torn ligament in his left knee.

"Some days are a little bit better than other days. You have those days when you wake up and you're a little sore, and you're thinking you're not doing better. And then you go out there and do something functionally that you couldn't do last week. That lets you know you're progressing."

Hightower and the other members of UR's 2012 Hall of Fame class were saluted by the Robins Center crowd at halftime of Saturday's basketball win over Charlotte. Ninety minutes after the game, Hightower and former UR defensive end Lawrence Sidbury, now with the Atlanta Falcons, were still sitting in folding chairs along with Spiders hoops players, signing autographs for a long line of children.

Hightower, 25, has acquired plenty of NFL workout gear, but he recently requested a fresh set of Spiders T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts from long-time UR equipment manager Ken Hart.

"Man, I wear that stuff with pride," Hightower said.