At age 5, an older boy lit Sam Bracken’s left arm on fire.

When he was 9 years old, he became addicted to drugs and alcohol.

By age 13, he decided it was time to get clean and pursue his dream of playing sports.

After suffering from numerous family hardships and homelessness in high school, he was awarded a full-ride football scholarship to play under Coach Bill Curry at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1981. Sam set out to create a new life for himself, his few possessions packed into a single orange duffel bag, a bag that became a symbol of years of struggling.