Few can match the achievements that former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms can check off from his football career. He owns a Super Bowl ring. He appeared in two Pro Bowls during his 14-year NFL career. He holds the record for highest percentage of completed passes in the championship game. And after he retired – and the Giants retired his jersey – Simms moved on to a successful second career in broadcasting.
But even after all those career highs, Simms was still missing one thing: a college degree.
This weekend, 36 years after leaving Morehead State University – located two hours east of Simms’ hometown in Springfield, Kentucky – he returned to campus to receive his bachelor’s degree. He was just two classes shy of his diploma, and Morehead State worked with him to complete his requirements.
“It’s something I just wanted to get done,” Simms said. “It’s been hanging out there.”
For Simms, who grew up in a family of eight children, Morehead State provided an opportunity no other university offered: an athletics scholarship that allowed him to attend college and play football. Simms says he was serious about pursuing a professional career from his early days at Morehead State, and if he had not pursued that path, he likely would have wanted to remain close to the game as a teacher and football coach.
“Going to college gave me the chance to lead a different life away from home,” Simms said. “I’ll never forget the fact that they gave me a football scholarship. I’ll never get over that. That was the only way that I could go to college. It was the perfect school and the right situation.”
