Barry Sanders Jr - Sanders's mother, Aletha House, gave him her father's name as a middle name to deliberately separate her son from his father. But Sanders does not correct strangers when they incorrectly call him Barry Sanders Jr. His given name was a last-minute ...

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BARRY SANDERS JR
POSTED BY EIZ ON THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2012, 7:14 AM
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Sanders's mother, Aletha House, gave him her father's name as a middle name to deliberately
separate her son from his father. But Sanders does not correct strangers when they incorrectly call
him Barry Sanders Jr. His given name was a last-minute ...
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BARRY SANDERS JR
POSTED BYO EIZ N THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2012, 7:14 AM
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James Sanders planted his feet and
bounced right, leaving a defender
grabbing at air. His broad shoulders
w i t h s t o o d a n o t h e r a r m-t a c k l e a s h e
hurried upfield, where he found himself
s u r r o u n d e d . T o e v e n h i s m o t h e r’s
surprise, Sanders then hurdled his own
blocker, sprinted for a 64-yard touchdown,
and escaped the shadow of his own
name, if only for one play.
“That’s the run that made me think, this is
his father’s son,” said Andy Bogert, who coached Sanders for four years at Heritage Hall High
School in Oklahoma City.
The run, during the semifinals of the state playoffs in Sanders’s freshman season, was an
introduction, a burst of bottled-up potential and athletically divine DNA. It was a step out of the
shadow of his father, the Hall of Famer Barry Sanders. On Wednesday, Sanders took another step,
signing a national letter of intent to play running back at Stanford.
Sanders is hardly the first son of a famous athlete to try his hand at sports. Trey Griffey, son of the
second-generation baseball star Ken Griffey Jr., committed to play college football at Arizona on
Wednesday, which was national signing day, and offensive tackle Kyle Long, son of the Hall of
Famer Howie Long, signed with Oregon out of a junior college.
But few inspire comparisons like Sanders, who shares a name, a sport and a position with his
father, who won a Heisman Trophy and shattered N.C.A.A. records at Oklahoma State.
Sanders’s mother, Aletha House, gave him her father’s name as a middle name to deliberately
separate her son from his father. But Sanders does not correct strangers when they incorrectly call
him Barry Sanders Jr. His given name was a last-minute decision by Sanders’s paternal
grandmother, Shirley.
After Sanders’s breakthrough run, as others saw similarities between father and son, House could
still tell the differences between them. Sanders’s strides were too tall to be his father’s, and the