33-Year-Old Active Duty Navy SEAL Plays in His First College Football Game

The first Northwestern Wildcat out of the locker room Saturday, the one carrying the American flag onto Ryan Field in Evanston, hadn’t played in a football game for 14 years. Tom Hruby wore a different uniform for many of those years — that of a Navy SEAL — serving with SEAL Team 1 on missions in the Middle East, including Afghanistan and Iraq, Southeast Asia and other destinations still classified.

Now he’s a 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pound junior, as well as a husband and father of three boys, ages 4, 3 and 9 months, who’s taking a full class load and playing for the Wildcats. Well, practicing for the Wildcats. The U.S. Navy finally gave him permission to play in a game this week. After running onto the field with the flag before Northwestern’s game against Michigan Saturday, Hruby took the field on special teams.

“It has been 14-plus years since he played in a football game. That’s really special,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “Our locker room, our whole football family is ecstatic for him, especially with Veterans Day coming up this week.”

Fitzgerald called Hruby a “man’s man.”

Oh, and when Hruby isn’t playing football or in class, he’s an instructor at Great Lakes Naval Station.

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“I don’t feel like where I’m at today is some outstanding or amazing thing,” Hruby told the Chicago Sun-Times in August in an exclusive interview after he decided to try out for the team as a walk-on. “It’s just more of a challenging route ... the way I kind of think about finding and accepting and trying to take on these challenges that most people would probably say are impossible, one, or very unlikely or just plain dumb.”

Hruby moved around the Chicago area as a kid, graduating high school in Indiana before enlisting in the Navy. In 2006, Hruby completed SEAL training. After completing many successful missions and earning the right to go home, Hruby decided he wanted to get a college degree at Northwestern. And play football.

“Everywhere I go, I always feel like something needs to be harder, more challenging, or I’m just really pretty bored,” Hruby said.

His SEAL Team chief, David Goggins, told the Sun-Times he understands why Hruby went to college at his age, even if many others don’t.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, it’s just what’s the next challenge?” Goggins said. “Without a challenge in front of guys like Tom, what’s the point of living?”

» follow Tom Hruby on Twitter @TTHruby