By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.—Hudson Hayes and Brian Byers crossed paths by chance.
By choice, Byers recently cemented that friendship.
A huge personalized banner to Hayes – an avid Georgia football fan — featuring Bulldog stars Elijah Holyfield and Mecole Hardman, brought a wide-eyed “Awesome!” response from the Union City Elementary School student when it was unveiled Friday.
Byers’ gesture of kindness toward Hayes, whom he met while a driver for the Northwest Tennessee Transit Authority, was “just something I wanted to do,” insisted the 1989 UCHS graduate who has two children of his own (Jalei and Bradyn) currently enrolled at UC Elementary.
“We first communicated through sports when I was driving with the Transit Authority and I’d sometimes pick him up and take him to doctors appointments. My heart just went out to him.”
Hayes, who has a very rare skeletal dysplasia syndrome and is confined to a wheelchair most all the time, is not shy about his love for UGA. His Halloween costume was a full Bulldog home uniform and he readily tells everyone within earshot about his loyalty to the ‘Dawgs.
A second Byers gesture – a pair of personally autographed gloves featuring the signatures of Holyfield and Hardman – even further thrilled Hayes.
Holyfield is the nephew of one of Byers’ best friends and the connection helped set up the authentic gifts during the aforementioned camp, held in Atlanta.
“I just want to set a good example for my own kids and I thought this would just be a cool thing to do,” said Byers, who was accompanied by his wife, Angela, and his children when presenting the banner and gloves to Hayes. “Even though I’m a die-hard Tennessee fan, football gave Hudson and I a connection.
“I told him I was going to take care of him one day.”
Indeed, he surely did.
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