The coolest paraplegic ever.

I had never heard of Mr. Zupan until I heard him on Jim Rome's radio show this week.

I would like to think if I had the misfortune to be confined to a wheelchair, I would have an attitude similar to Mark's.

IGN: Interview: Mark Zupan (from July 2005)

Mark Zupan is definitely the coolest quadriplegic we know. Breaking his neck didn't stop him from becoming an Olympic competitor. Of course, it's the Paralympics and the sport is quadriplegic rugby, but when you see the film Murderball, you'll see that these guys could kick any able bodied athlete's ass.

Of course, he is a paraplegic, not a quadriplegic. Quadriplegics are paralyzed in both arms and both legs.

Murderball is the original name for what is now called quadriplegic rugby. Players with limited use of all four limbs wheel their specially designed chairs into each other, trying to score goals. Zupan, the star player on the USA team, becomes the star of the movie with his charismatic bad boy persona.

"The first allure was always the contact," Zupan said of Murderball. "Where else can you hit somebody as hard as you possibly want to or can in a chair? I mean, that's been always the first thing that you sit there and say, 'Yeah, this is why.' The competitive aspect, I played college soccer before I was hurt, and just to be able to jump back into something that you could be so competitive at or you can achieve, to get to the Paralympics, that's the first really big achievement that you can have. It's the second biggest sporting event in the world. To be a part of it and to get a metal for that, it's unreal. I wouldn't have been on the Olympic team for soccer. I wasn't that good. I was fair. I had a good work ethic."

With such a full contact sport, there are inevitable injuries, but since he survived a broken neck, Zupan does not worry. "It's just like any other sport. The worst thing that I've done is I've broken a rib. You hit your head, that's fine. But it's nothing to worry about. It's just like if you wanted to play football or soccer. You may twist an ankle, you may hurt your knee. There's no real worry of getting reinjured."

Zupan is quick to correct the assumption that a quadriplegic could not feel an injury anyway. "Not necessarily because your body reacts. I feel pain everywhere. A lot of guys in chairs do feel their legs. But if you don't, there's a thing called disreflex, so you know if something happens, say, you can't feel your foot or your leg and your body reacts. You know something's not right and you survey what's going on. You survey how you're sitting, if your feet are positioned properly, if you're sitting on something like a tack pinching you. So your body has a way of telling even though you can't feel it. You'll start sweating, because guys in chairs usually don't sweat, so if you start sweating, disreflexic reaction, you figure it out. It's just something that you learn."

It appears that little will dissuade Zupan from putting his body at risk. "There's no fear. I'm not scared of getting hurt. I'm not scared of pretty much anything. If you live your life scared, what's the fun in living it? To tell you the truth, if you were scared you were going to get hit by a car, would you cross the street? You've still got to cross the street to get from point A to point B. So being scared, no. Is this fun? Hell yeah, it's fun. It's changed my life."

Though Zupan and his Murderball teammates come off as a tough guys, the film strikes a balance between their achievements and the real tragedies of disability. The filmmakers follow a recently injured quadriplegic, Keith, and his journey through adjustment to eventually trying out for the rugby team. Zupan said that Keith represented the side of him that was long gone by the time filmmakers followed him with a camera.

"Keith is supposed to be a young me. That's the s**t we went through. They weren't filming 10 years ago to say, 'Look, this is some of the stuff that we've gone through and we've seen.' We're shown as these just guys that bust a** and what have you. To see Keith, just to see the s**t that goes through his head, the stuff that he sees, I think that associates yes, there's triumph but yeah, it was hard and it wasn't the easiest thing that we've ever dealt with. It's probably the most difficult thing. But once you come to grips with your accident or what you've gone through and are able to go and focus on something else, then you get to where we are today."

Murderball shows that not only can quadriplegics play sports, but they can also have sex and otherwise navigate the able bodied world. Zupan hopes the film erases "every misconception you ever had about somebody in a chair. I think this thing nails it. Look, I'm a normal person. Yes, we have sex, like to go out, hang out. We're normal people. Don't be scared because we are in a chair, that you think we're fragile or 'I can't talk to him, he's in a wheelchair.' Well, f***, it's just a wheelchair. People don't understand that. They think, 'Oh, wheelchair, something's wrong with their head,' just you're not right. Well yeah, we may be a little twisted, but no more than anyone else."

Here is Mr. Zupan's story:

Mark Zupan was born on May 20, 1975, in Cleveland, Ohio to Thomas and Linda Zupan. His father an entrepreneur, and his mother a professional businesswoman provided a comfortable upbringing for Mark and his younger brother Jeff.

Mark excelled both in academics and sports, playing varsity high school football and soccer. His soccer prowess earned him a scholarship to Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Mark was not alone when he registered at FAU. His best friend and football teammate, Chris Igoe also enrolled at FAU. They shared a dorm and embarked on all that college had to offer; sports, girls, and all the good times they could muster.

Mark played on the varsity soccer team where he lived up to his scholarship billing. On a cold wet Florida night on October 14, 1993, Mark and his team mates were celebrating at the college hangout, Dirty Moe's after trouncing a rival team. Chris was more then a spectator; Chris was a participant in the celebration.

Dirty Moe's aptly named for its remote location and dimly lit parking lot was packed that evening. Chris eventually went his own way to pursue other interests while Mark congregated with his team. Nickel beers and dollar shots were a Dirty Moe's tradition, which was not lost on team.
Around midnight, Mark wandered out of the establishment and found refuge in the bed liner of Chris's black pickup truck. Eventually Chris was asked to leave the premises and preceded home not knowing that Mark was nestled in the back of the truck.

Highway I-95 is notorious, but never more so then that fateful night. Chris's erratic driving was noticed by an off duty policemen and his girlfriend. They proceeded to follow close behind him all the way to a fence post, which eventually claimed Chris's truck.

For several hours after the accident the trailing policemen, tow truck driver and Florida highway patrol hovered around the ill-fated truck. No one saw Mark, including the policeman who had witnessed the accident.

For the next 14 hours, Mark's parents, friends, family and police thought the losing rival soccer team might have abducted Mark. It wasn’t until a passerby discovered Mark clinging to a branch in a canal, that the truth came to be discovered.

Marks story is one of survival. Mark's ordeal: surviving fourteen hours clinging to a branch for life, hypothermia and quadriplegia to become a Georgia Tech graduate, civil engineer, two time quad rugby national champion, 2004 quad rugby player of the year, world class Olympic quad rugby bronze medal winner, and spokesman for team USA all show what a positive mind can do. His story will be told in a forth-coming book and in motivational speeches by Mark and Chris delivered to college and industry campuses across the country.

http://www.myspace.com/halfmanhalfcar

The bottom line, kiddies? Mr. Zupan is a real man. When faced with adversity, he did what real men do. He persevered.

Bless and protect him, Lord.