Perhaps more than any other story in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, Barton Dodson’s incredible journey illustrates the enormous impact sports can have on the human condition. As a child in Grundy County, Dodson enjoyed all sports, particularly basketball. But at sixteen, his athletic dreams were shattered when he broke his neck in a diving accident. Bart suddenly was a quadriplegic, paralyzed below the mid-chest level. He underwent emergency treatment at Chattanooga and rehabilitation at Louisville, but the diagnosis was the same: he would be totally dependent for the rest of his life. A young man of great character, Dodson was unable to accept this fate. He began working hard to regain as much function as possible, until he had become almost totally independent, limited only by heights beyond his reach and barriers such as curbs. A 1988 MTSU graduate, Dodson began his amazing sports career in 1979. A friend invited him to a wheelchair track meet. Not satisfied as a spectator, he became a participant and won two silver medals. By 1988 he was Tennessee’s only representative competing for the United States in the Paralympic Games at Seoul, where he won two gold, one silver, and two bronze medals, including one in a 26-mile marathon. But Dodson’s crowning achievement as an athlete came at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona, where he won eight gold medals and set eight world records! A truly amazing accomplishment from a truly inspiring human being.
