"McCullough, who was raised by his adoptive mother, Adelle Comer, in Youngstown, Ohio, first met Smith when he was 16 years old. At the time, McCullough was being recruited to play football for Miami University in Ohio, where Smith was the running backs coach. From the very beginning, Smith was determined to play an important role in the young recruit's life."
"Smith himself had played for Miami of Ohio and went on to play eight seasons in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and San Diego Chargers before he coached at Miami. His path eventually led him back to the Seahawks, where he became a running backs coach. As for McCullough, he too went to the NFL, though his stint was brief; he suffered a knee injury that tanked his dreams of a pro career."
"Many years after they first met, when McCullough had taken up coaching and became a husband and father himself, he embarked on a journey to find his biological father. He discovered through his adoption records that his birth mother lived just minutes away from him and set up a meeting with her. "So I said, 'Well shoot, who's my dad, you know?'" he recalled. "'And she said, 'Your dad is a man named Sherman Smith.'""
Deland McCullough met Sherman Smith at 16 when McCullough was recruited to play football at Miami University, where Smith coached running backs and acted as a father figure. Smith had an eight-season NFL playing career and later coached with the Seattle Seahawks. McCullough reached the NFL briefly but a knee injury ended his playing ambitions and led him into coaching. Years later, McCullough searched his adoption records, found his birth mother nearby, and learned that Sherman Smith was his biological father. Smith had known the birth mother as a teen and immediately embraced McCullough as his son.
Read at TODAY.com
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