Jackson, Tennessee native Brandon Rowland has excelled athletically and personally, despite immense adversity he has experienced since childhood. At the age of six, he was diagnosed with a rare blood condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation. Rowland was hospitalized, much of the time in extremely critical condition, for more than nine weeks. During his hospitalization, both of his legs were amputated below the knee, and he endured numerous skin graft surgeries and revisions to help his legs begin to heal and make prosthetics easier to use. His journey toward creating a “new normal” began through physical therapy and other subsequent surgeries; however, Rowland was determined that his story would not be one of tragedy, but of triumph.
And indeed, Rowland’s life has been full of personal and athletic triumphs. In middle school, he played basketball, soccer, baseball, and tennis all while running on padded knees. During his senior year at the University School of Jackson, he was inducted into the 1999 USJ Hall of Fame and invited to join the Jackson Generals, a wheelchair basketball team. Rowland received multiple scholarship offers from Division I wheelchair basketball programs but elected to attend the University of Tennessee at Martin.
During his time at UTM, Rowland continued to play basketball with the Generals. He led the Generals to two consecutive National Wheelchair Basketball Association championships and was named to the All-Tournament team. He was named Most Valuable Player of the national tournament in 2002 when he made 10 3-pointers in the national championship game and finished the game with 35 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds. That same year, he was invited to the United States Olympic Training Facility to try out for the U.S. Paralympic wheelchair basketball team, where he was the youngest invitee. Rowland was selected to be a torchbearer when the Olympic flame passed through Jackson on its way to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
After graduation, Rowland began to focus more on golf. He won the Canadian National Open Multiple Division Championship in 2005, three National Amputee Golf Tournament Multiple Division championships and was selected to play on six USA International Cup golf teams. He is the only multiple amputee to successfully qualify for the Tennessee Golf Association Mid-Amateur Golf championship.
In 2019, Rowland was inducted into the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame. Rowland works in sales and marketing with Fourroux Prosthetics and often does speaking engagements with civic clubs, churches, schools and medical groups. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Sara, and enjoys spending time with family and friends, hunting and fishing, playing golf and traveling.