Marquette Moment
D-Wade recalls lesson
Former student's love of books takes center court
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Dwyane Wade is named 2006 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year "for symbolizing in character and performance the ideals of sportsmanship."
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It was the start of spring semester 2002 at Marquette. Dr. Paula Gillespie, visiting associate professor of English, walked into her classroom and was surprised to see Dwyane Wade. It wasn’t just that Gillespie was in awe of the budding superstar, but that they had become friends of sorts while she tutored him his freshman year at the Ott Memorial Writing Center, and it had been almost a year since they had seen each other.
The class was a memorable one for Gillespie. “There were some amazing students,” she says. “We read Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Toni Morrison. The students had a lot to say about the books they read, they had a lot of opinions.”
Fast forward to winter 2006. A poster promoting the NBA’s literacy program for kids, in partnership with Penguin Classics, is delivered to Gillespie’s office. Wade is front and center, holding a copy of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Of the book he read at Marquette in Gillespie’s class, he told USA Today, “I liked the story. It had love and loss. … how people overcame stereotypes.”
In September, Gillespie flew to Miami to meet with her former student, where they participated in a photo shoot together. “The first thing he did was give me a huge hug,” she says. “I asked him how his son, Zaire, was. Then I gave him some autographed books — The Company Car by C.J. Hribal and Montana 1948 by Larry Watson.” Hribal and Watson are Gillespie’s colleagues in the English Department.
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