A former Eagles football player who has suffered two spinal cord injuries is doing his part to prevent others from suffering as much.

N.C. Central University alumnus Maurice Spencer has established the Spencer Foundation. It is dedicated to research aimed towards developing effective treatment for spinal cord injuries.

In the early 1970s, Greensboro native Spencer played defensive back for NCCU’s football team on a full football scholarship.

He graduated from NCCU with a degree in biochemistry. He consistently made the dean’s list and won other scholastic honors. He was the first defensive back in the United States to be drafted into the National Football League.

“I had the keys to my new Porsche in one hand and my diploma in the other,” he said. “I was feeling good about the world.”

In 1974, Spencer left North Carolina as a second round draft pick to play right cornerback with the New Orleans Saints after he graduated from college.

In his eighth season of play, at 29, Spencer was in a car wreck that left him paralyzed from the neck down.

“It was like a three-car crash and I was in the middle of it,” said Spencer.

He went to Duke for a posterior cervical fusion procedure. Dr. Frank H. Bassett III took care of Spencer and helped him through the rehabilitation process.

“It was really depressing, and I kept praying and working hard and screaming and crying until one day I felt a twitch,” said Spencer.

He continued his rehabilitation at Duke Rehabilitation Center and returned to professional football the following season.

Yet after sustaining another spine injury two years later, Spencer chose to retire from professional football. He eventually became an associate producer with NBC Sports.

Spencer, however, wanted to give something meaningful back. So he founded the Spencer Foundation.

Spinal cord injuries are among the most disabling in the United States.

Each year more than 10,600 people suffer permanent paralysis of their arms and their legs.

A total of 191,000 people are living with the disabilities caused by these catastrophic injuries.

Health care costs come to nearly $10 million each year, and funding for the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation of victims of spinal cord injury is very limited.

The Spencer Foundation hopes to change this.