Michael Oher has one of the greatest success stories you may ever hear. Oher grew up in one of the poorest parts of Memphis, Tenn. and his earliest memory is walking along the side of a busy highway with his 12 siblings at age two. Oher’s mother was a drug addict and his father was murdered when Oher was very young. He attended 11 different schools in nine years and if Oher wasn’t staying in a foster home he was sleeping over at a friend’s house. Michael Oher was homeless.
A turning point in Oher’s life came at age 16 when he stood at a bus stop in Memphis wearing nothing but a t-shirt and shorts in the middle of a snowstorm. Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy spotted Oher as they drove past the bus stop. Leigh Anne told Sean to turn around and he did.
“She cried the second she met him, and it was over,” Sean recalled in an interview with USA Today.
The Tuohys took in Oher, allowing him to stay in their home in upscale East Memphis two blocks from Briarcrest Christian High School. They hired a tutor to address Oher’s severe academic deficiencies, paid his tuition and gave him a wardrobe and other essentials that he had lacked throughout his life to that point.
A year later Oher moved in with the Tuohys permanently. Before Oher’s senior year in high school, the Tuohys became his legal guardians. Oher finally had a family, including two siblings: sister Collins and brother Sean Jr.
“They’ve got big hearts,” Oher says. “To take somebody from my neighborhood into your house? Nobody does that. I don’t think I’d even do that. I’d help you out, but with a daughter and with all the violence and drugs where I come from … they didn’t have to do that. I owe a lot to them.”
While in high school Oher spent a lot of time with his new family and friends, but he also drew a special interest in football. Oher was 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighed nearly 340 pounds. He instantly became a standout offensive lineman during his two years of high school football. Oher was selected to play in the 2005 U.S. Army All-American Game and went on to play football at the University of Mississippi, the same college that Collins attended.
In 2005 Oher was named to the Freshman All-American and All-SEC Freshman teams. In 2007 and 2008 he was a First Team All-SEC offensive lineman. In 2008 he was also the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Year and an All-American selection.
In 2009 Oher finished school at Mississippi and entered the 2009 NFL Draft. Oher was one of nine players invited to the Radio City Music Hall in New York City for the NFL Draft where the Tuohys made sure they were in attendance. Oher was the 23rd overall pick and was selected by the Baltimore Ravens. In April 2009 Oher signed a 5-year, $13.8 million deal. Oher is currently listed at 6 feet 5 inches tall and 310 pounds and has started every game for the Ravens this season.
With a family around him who always believed in him and supported him, Oher has been able to go from rags to riches and live a life that is considered remarkable enough to be made into a movie. On Nov. 20, the movie “The Blind Side” will be released in theaters nationwide and is based off of Michael Lewis’s book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, which is about Oher’s life.
