40th anniversary of Buoniconti injury highlights enduring friendship and charity in sports

Forty years after a college football collision left Marc Buoniconti paralyzed, the Citadel linebacker and his teammate Herman Jacobs have transformed a tragedy into a lasting partnership that spans football, trauma care and philanthropy. The 40th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner in New York this week will honor the pair’s shared journey—from a brutal hit in Johnson City, Tennessee, to a life’s work aimed at curing paralysis and improving lives affected by it.

During warmups for the Citadel's Oct. 26, 1985 game against East Tennessee State in Memorial Center, Buoniconti — a 19-year-old linebacker and son of Miami Dolphins Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti — felt uneasy. Team doctors and trainers had taped neck rolls and strapped a brace to Buoniconti’s neck, tying it to his face mask and shoulder pads to stabilize his neck. Thompson, a star defensive lineman and a teammate who would become a lifelong friend, recalls the moment. “Marc, you can’t play like that. You’re gonna break your f—ing neck,” he said at the time. The pregame brace reflected program constraints of the era, not the modern standard of protective equipment.

Third-and-1 on the seventh play of the game, the play that would alter two lives forever, unfolded with Buoniconti pursuing Jacobs on a sweep to the right. A blocker tried to cut Buoniconti, and their bodies collided in midair as Jacobs leaped for a 9-yard gain. As Buoniconti landed, a teammate dove to engage Jacobs and the players met in a collision that forever changed them both. Buoniconti describes the moment: “Our linebacker [Scott Thompson] dove and got his legs and literally Herman’s flying in the air, cartwheeling forward toward me. I dove as he dove. I think I hit his upper butt area, which was like iron. And, bam!” Buoniconti remembers falling to the turf in a moment that felt almost muffled, followed by a realization that he could not move. “I said to myself, ‘You’re paralyzed.’”

The official diagnosis would be a dislocation of the C-3 and C-4 vertebrae with a severe spinal cord injury. He was conscious as medics stabilized him on the field before being loaded into an ambulance. His parents arrived later that night at a Tennessee hospital to find a moment of stark choice and resolve. Nick Buoniconti, a star in his own right with the 1972 Dolphins who finished 17-0 that season, pledged to do everything in his power to help his son. The promise would become a mission.

In the years that followed, Nick Buoniconti and Dr. Barth Green founded the Miami Project/Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis. The effort grew into a global nonprofit that has raised more than $550 million for research and care, funding studies that span acute trauma response, cellular biology, and approaches that could unlock cures not only for paralysis but also for Parkinson’s disease, MS, ALS and Alzheimer’s disease. Marc Buoniconti, who would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, became the organization’s president, preserving his father’s legacy while expanding the fight beyond a single injury.

Buoniconti’s path was shaped by the family around him. Nick Buoniconti’s fame brought attention, but the elder Buoniconti also used his platform to teach resilience and purpose. “My father was my hero,” Marc said. “He sacrificed a lot of his life to help me and billions of others.” The younger Buoniconti has carried that ethos into the charity’s work, and into his own life—one defined by advocacy and recovery rather than limitations.

Herman Jacobs, the running back involved in the 1985 collision, faced his own arc of fallout. Jacobs never returned to football with the same vigor after the hit and ultimately walked away from the NFL scouting scene. In the years that followed, he endured the fallout of guilt and blame, including the death of his twin brother in a separate tragedy and a personal struggle with purpose after the accident. "I blamed myself for years and held on to the guilt for years,” Jacobs says now, describing a period of deep hardship. He found a way forward only after reconnecting with Buoniconti and acknowledging that the accident was not his fault.

The two men began rebuilding their relationship in the mid-2000s. The turning point came when a Citadel reunion in 2007 brought Jacobs and Buoniconti back into each other’s lives. Buoniconti invited Jacobs to join him in Miami, where Jacobs moved in and began assisting with Marc’s care. The two formed a bond that would go beyond forgiveness into genuine partnership and mutual purpose. “If you want to be in my life and you want to be a part of this movement, you’ve got to understand that God has a plan and brought us together for a reason,” Buoniconti told Jacobs as they began to heal together.

Jacobs, now 61, found a new calling in the kitchen. He is the kitchen supervisor for the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa’s Ybor City, where he oversees operations and helps ensure the proper flow of dining services. The role offers a counterpoint to his past, a way to channel discipline and care that he developed through his long friendship with Buoniconti. As for his bond with Marc, Jacobs describes it plainly: “We’re brothers.”

The relationship helped heal more than personal wounds. The Miami Project/Buoniconti Fund, led by Marc Buoniconti, continues to push research forward and fund patient care initiatives that broaden understanding of spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. Since its inception, the organization has invested in a spectrum of studies—from first-responder treatment to cellular biology and potential therapies that could unlock cures for paralysis and related conditions. Buoniconti has long said his father’s legacy is not just about football triumphs, but about turning tragedy into lasting impact.

On Monday, Buoniconti will mark his 59th birthday by attending the 40th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner at the New York Hilton Midtown. The event, co-hosted by Gloria Estefan and Bob Costas, honors a roster of sports icons—Albert Pujols, Dominique Wilkins, Warren Moon, Dwight Howard and Thurman Thomas—and supports the Buoniconti Fund’s continuing work. Tickets are still available through the charity’s website or by phone. Scott Thompson, the treasurer of the Miami Project/Buoniconti Fund, will be in attendance, and Herman Jacobs is expected to be there as well.

In reflecting on the decades since the injury, Buoniconti emphasizes a shared message rooted in resilience and purpose. “Crazy forces brought us together and we’ve both bettered our lives by being together,” he said. The two men’ s story—a paralyzing moment on a college football field and a lasting friendship that catalyzed a movement—serves as a reminder that sports can be a catalyst not only for competition, but for healing, collaboration and discovery.