42 Facts About Pat Tillman

At first, the Army reported that Pat Tillman had been killed by enemy fire.

Pat Tillman was the third professional football player to be killed in combat, after Bob Kalsu and Don Steinbrunner, who both died during the Vietnam War.

Pat Tillman posthumously received the Silver Star and Purple Heart medals.

The oldest of three sons, with Kevin and Richard as the other two, Pat Tillman played competitive football.

Pat Tillman went to Bret Harte Middle School and helped lead Leland High School to the Central Coast Division I Football Championship.

Pat Tillman then went to Arizona State University on a football scholarship.

Pat Tillman was very close to his family and high school friends.

Pat Tillman repeatedly mentioned in his personal journals during wartime service that he drew strength from and deeply valued his closest friendships, parents, wife and family.

Pat Tillman was very committed to his high school sweetheart, Marie Ugenti, whom he married shortly before his enlistment in the Army.

Pat Tillman was very close with his brother, Kevin, who enlisted with and served alongside him.

Pat Tillman started his college career as a linebacker for Arizona State University in 1994, when he secured the last remaining scholarship for the team.

Pat Tillman majored in marketing and graduated in three and a half years with a 3.85 GPA.

Pat Tillman earned many academic awards including: the Clyde B Smith Academic Award in 1996 and 1997; the Sporting News Honda Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1997; and the 1998 Sun Angel Student Athlete of Year.

Pat Tillman was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

Pat Tillman was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

Pat Tillman moved over to play the safety position in the NFL and started ten of 16 games in his rookie season.

At one point in his NFL career, Pat Tillman turned down a five-year, $9 million contract offer from the St Louis Rams out of loyalty to the Cardinals.

In May 2002, eight months after the September 11 attacks and after completing the 15 remaining games of the 2001 season which followed the attacks, Pat Tillman turned down a contract offer of $3.6 million over three years from the Cardinals to enlist in the US Army.

Pat Tillman resided in University Place with his wife before being deployed to Iraq.

Pat Tillman was deployed to Afghanistan, and posted at FOB Salerno.

In making the ultimate sacrifice for his team and platoon, Corporal Patrick D Tillman reflected great credit upon himself, the Joint Task Force, and the United States Army.

Jones reported that members of Pat Tillman's unit burned his body armor and uniform in an apparent attempt to hide the fact that he was killed by friendly fire.

Jones believed that Pat Tillman should retain his medals and promotion, since, according to Jones, he intended to engage the enemy and behaved heroically.

Pat Tillman's family was not informed of the finding that he was killed by friendly fire until weeks after his memorial service, although at least some senior Army officers knew of that fact prior to the service.

Pat Tillman blamed high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to Tillman's family and to the public.

The Army's Criminal Investigative Division was to determine whether Pat Tillman's death was the result of negligent homicide.

None of the investigations suggested that CPL Pat Tillman's death was anything other than accidental.

The deception surrounding this [Pat Tillman] case was an insult to the family: but more importantly, its primary purpose was to deceive a whole nation.

Pat Tillman's diary was never returned to his family, and its whereabouts are not publicly known.

One investigation of the autopsy report and photographs by two forensic pathologists in November 2006 concluded that Tillman was most likely killed as a result of fire from a M249 light machine gun.

Pat Tillman's father earned his Juris Doctor from Lincoln in 1983.

Plummer later grew a full beard and his hair long in honor of Pat Tillman, who had such a style in the NFL before cutting his hair and shaving his beard off to fit military uniform guidelines.

The gate which opens to the field features an image of Pat Tillman facing the field, looking as if he is leading the team out.

The racers traveled along the 4.2-mile course around Tempe Town Lake to the finish line, on the 42-yard line of Sun Devil Stadium in order to commemorate the number which Pat Tillman wore as a Sun Devil and which was later retired in his honor.

Various "honor runs", in locations such as Austin, Texas, take place around the country at the same time as Pat Tillman's Run and are supported by Arizona State University's Alumni Association.

Forward Operating Base Pat Tillman was close to the Pakistan border, near the village of Lwara in Paktika Province, Afghanistan.

In New Almaden, an unincorporated community adjacent to San Jose, where Pat Tillman grew up, a memorial was constructed near the Almaden Quicksilver County Park.

Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel, as well as center Nick Mangold, grew their hair in tribute to Pat Tillman, imitating Pat Tillman's trademark locks.

The stated fundraising goal is $3.6 million, the value of the contract Pat Tillman turned down when he decided to enlist in the military.

Reviews by The New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins of Jon Krakauer's book Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman noted that the book did well to compile the facts and "nauseating" details regarding the coverup of Tillman's death.

On October 19,2006, Kevin Pat Tillman broke his silence about his brother's death, lashing out at the Iraq War in a 660-word essay published on Truthdig, a progressive online journal of news and opinion.

The September 25,2005, edition of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported that Pat Tillman held views which were critical of the Iraq War.