OXFORD, MS -
By Lori Brown - bio | email
OXFORD, MS (WMC-TV) - Michael Oher returned to the town where he became known around the nation, as the kid who beat the odds, while playing football for The University of Mississippi.
He signed about 800 books at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi Tuesday night.
"It's unbelievable, Oxford is my hometown. And I went to school here, loved every bit of it, I'm happy they came out," Oher, now offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, said.
"I just want to let them know that you can make it and you can make it on your own. You can do anything you want, because I was in a terrible situation at one time. I got through that, you can do anything if you put your mind to it."
The Baltimore Raven's player became known around the nation when he was featured in the best selling book "The Blind Side". That book turned into an Oscar winning blockbuster staring Sandra Bullock.
Oher's fourth grade teacher came to get her book signed.
"That's why, when I saw him in the movie, I thought, 'Oh, is this the same Michael that I taught?', Verlene Logan said.
Oher wrote about Logan in Chapter 7.
Oher writes quote, "I just knew that she was the teacher who was determined to make all of us in that inner-city school believe in ourselves."
"I tell the whole class all the time that, 'Can't never could, ain't never would,'....The thing I noticed about him was how fast he was on his feet."
His professor from Ole Miss said Oher was an attentive student who always volunteered to read and act out passages in class.
"Now I understand, I didn't know his story at the time, but I understand it was an effort to show people how much he had already overcome," Ethel Minor said.
After the signing, Oher talked with Action News 5 again outside the store.
"There will be people watching this story tonight who live in some of the same areas that you used to live in when you grew up. What do you want to say to that kid," A reporter asked.
"That anything's possible, I was in their shoes and I know how they feel and I was down a lot of the times and I stayed positive, and didn't do the wrong things, just stayed away from the negative people."
Oher said he wrote the book because of the thousands of letters he received from people telling him how much of a role model he is for them.
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