Henry Hali did not own a pair of shoes, ''not even flip-flops,'' until seventh grade. In his early teens, he earned $1 a week washing dishes and sweeping for Peace Corps volunteers. ''Four dollars could feed a family for a month,'' he said.
In the early 1970s, with the help of missionaries and the Peace Corps, All American football lineman Tamba Hali was able to pay $75 for annual tuition, room and board at a high school near Monrovia
Before football, Penn State player knew a real war
As a boy, All American football lineman Tamba Hali lived amid the carnage of Liberia's civil war.
BY MICHELLE KAUFMAN
mkaufman@MiamiHerald.com
Running full-bore toward a grunting 300-pound lineman is not at all scary to Penn State defensive end Tamba Hali, whose third-ranked team faces No. 22 Florida State on Tuesday night in the Orange Bowl game.
Scary is being a 7-year-old boy in Liberia, ducking into bushes and diving under beds to avoid mortar shells, watching armed rebels loot neighbors' homes and rape teenage girls, being enticed with warm meals to carry guns, dribbling a soccer ball past a pile of dead bodies.
Scary is being a 10-year-old immigrant on his first day of school in Teaneck, N.J., 4,500 miles away from his mother, unable to read or write a word of English, blinking back tears when cruel kids make fun of his accent.
Scary is spending 12 years wondering when -- or, God forbid, if -- you will see your mother again.
Hali recently petitioned to bring his mother, Rachel Keita, to the United States, and enlisted the help of attorney Scott Paterno, son of Penn State coach Joe Paterno. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., also is working on his behalf, and former President George H.W. Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have been contacted.
There were hopes the reunion would take place in time for Tuesday's game, but it appears that won't happen. ABC was trying to set up a remote interview with Keita and rig her house so she could watch her son play for the first time, according to Henry Hali, the player's father, who lives in New Jersey and is not married to Keita.
`BULLETS WERE FLYING'
''There were times, when bullets were flying near our house, that I felt life was not so meaningful anymore,'' Hali, a senior All-American, said. ``I saw friends getting killed. I didn't know if I would survive each day.''
Hali was 10 when he fled war-torn Liberia with three siblings to join their father, a chemistry teacher at Teaneck High School and Fairleigh Dickinson University. They crossed a bridge over the Cavalla River into the Ivory Coast with their mother one night, not knowing a painful departure from her was ahead.
Henry Hali spent four years plowing through paperwork to get his children out of Liberia, and it finally happened in 1994.
''Immigration did not make it easy, but I was not going to leave my kids over there and let them be enticed to join the rebel activity,'' Henry Hali said. ``. . . I wanted them to come here, be safe, and make something of themselves, as I had.''
DIDN'T HAVE SHOES
Henry Hali did not own a pair of shoes, ''not even flip-flops,'' until seventh grade. In his early teens, he earned $1 a week washing dishes and sweeping for Peace Corps volunteers. ''Four dollars could feed a family for a month,'' he said.
In the early 1970s, with the help of missionaries and the Peace Corps, he was able to pay $75 for annual tuition, room and board at a high school near Monrovia. He excelled in science and math, and in his senior year, he earned his tuition by teaching seventh-grade science.
He continued his education at Cuttington University in Liberia, which was founded by the U.S. Episcopal church. In 1978, he came to the United States and got his master's degree at Fairleigh Dickinson. He returned to Liberia for a few years and moved to the United States for good in 1985.
When Tamba and his brothers, ''Big'' Tamba, Saah, and sister, Kumba, arrived in New Jersey, their father bought Hooked on Phonics to help them learn English. He also forbade them from playing with toy guns. More than 200,000 people were killed in Liberia during the 14-year war, which ended in 2003.
''My dad was all about education as the key to a better life,'' Hali said. ``That is the main reason I chose to go to Penn State. I visited Miami, USC, Syracuse and Maryland, but Penn State was graduating 84 percent of its football players and that meant a lot to my family.''
Hali's father joked that he steered his son away from UM because ``there were too many beautiful Cuban girls down there, and I was afraid Tamba wouldn't concentrate on his studies.''
SIBLINGS DOING WELL
All the Hali siblings are doing well. Tamba's older half-brother, ''Big Tamba,'' is assistant manager at a Walgreens in New Jersey. Saah went to Caldwell College on a soccer scholarship and graduates in May. Kumba just graduated from high school and is applying to colleges.
And ''Little Tamba'', who is not-so-little at 6-3 and 267 pounds, is a likely first-round pick in the 2006 NFL draft.
''Football is not what I envisioned for Little Tamba when he came over, but I am happy for him because he will be graduating college with a journalism degree, and will probably make more money playing football in one year than I've made all my life,'' said Henry Hali, who will be in the stands for the Orange Bowl. ``This is why you have to look at how someone ends, not how they begin.''
