The Homeless Husky: Meamber Relies on James Wisdom to Deal With Tough Times

Tim Meamber was a throwback football player, a big and fast middle linebacker from Yreka, California, who played the game aggressively, unafraid to throw his body at anyone.

No one unnerved him -- or so he thought.

Meamber had most of the then-Pac-10 schools recruiting him and was leaning to play for the Oregon Ducks when Don James walked into his home.

For some reason, Meamber began to sweat profusely in front of the Washington football coach. He wasn't sure why he felt so uncomfortable all of a sudden. He took it as a sign.

"This man's presence was so powerful," he recalled. "I decided right then, 'I'm going with this guy.' I never sweated like that in front of (WSU's) Jim Walden."

Meamber went on to become a three-year starting inside linebacker for the Huskies, a team co-captain and a first-team All-Pac-10 selection as a senior, plus a third-round NFL draft pick for the Minnesota Vikings.

He turned out to be the defensive playmaker that James and all of those other Pac-10 coaches envisioned. Teammates remember him playing and partying harder than anyone else, doing everything to the excess.

Today, Meamber is 57, living in a van and homeless in Arlington, Washington, 40 miles north of Seattle. His unchecked lifestyle has caught up to him. His speech often is inaudible. He twitches nonstop. His body has been badly damaged by football and substance abuse.

He deals with possible chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and Parkinson's disease, brain disorders likely caused or spurred by a football career that proved overly physical and lasted nearly a decade and a half, from the youth leagues to the NFL.

"You knew the game took a toll on him," said Jeff Jaeger, a former UW teammate and first-team AP All-America kicker who lives in Seattle's suburbs. "You could tell by looking at him."

Meamber struggled with drug addiction for the three and a half decades that followed his playing days. He's entered substance-abuse rehabilitation nearly 10 times. Drugs or drug dealers almost killed him. Certainly cocaine and methamphetamine sent him down a treacherous path.

His time spent at Washington from 1981 to 1985, playing football and obtaining a degree in speech communications, might represent the most stable portion of his life.

"The greatest thing I ever did was go to that university," Meamber said.

Growing up, this California kid was never coddled. Not at home, not on the athletic field. Toughness was always required. He dealt with a lot of family tragedy.

When he was nine months old, his mother was killed by a train while driving with her sister overnight to a relative's house, creating a big void in Tim's life growing up.

His father, now deceased, played briefly as an Oklahoma linebacker and worked in several jobs in Northern California before he went to prison for financial improprieties.

Jon Meamber encouraged his son to excel as a football player. He also squandered Tim's NFL signing bonus on some farflung business deal, leaving his son with a huge tax bill and no money to pay for it.

Husky football kept Meamber as grounded as much as anything and gave him a sense of accomplishment, if measured only by the postseason itinerary. He played in the Rose Bowl against Iowa as a freshman, in the Aloha Bowl against Maryland and Penn State as a sophomore and junior, and in the Orange Bowl against Oklahoma.

Yet he always had to push limits while in the spotlight, wearing this as a badge of honor.

"I'm probably the wildest guy out there," he told an Oklahoma reporter before the 1985 Orange Bowl. "Some guys think I'm a little nuts."

Meamber played alongside fellow UW linebackers Joe Kelly, Fred Small, Reggie Rogers, Ron Hadley and Joe Krakoski, all guys talented enough to play in the NFL. However, this group didn't get off easy once football ended.

Small and Rogers died fairly young, with Small killed as a motorcycle cop in a freeway accident and Rogers fighting drug addiction to the end.

While these Huskies did great things on the football field, the game proved hard on everyone, according to Krakoski, now an information technology business strategist and a certified yoga instructor. It was the mindset that was required to succeed.

"As a defensive guy, you're pushing yourself all the time and we don't know the middle," said Krakoski, who lives in Virginia. "It's how far over the edge can I hang and get better, to help my team win and be the best? You have to constantly push that edge."

Meamber did that at all times. He recalls violently punching a football out of a player's hands and causing a fumble at Michigan during a 20-11 victory in 1984. He joined in an obscene post-game chant directed at Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler that drew the ire of James, who was always a respectful opponent. The players and the coach had to talk this one out.

"We got our point across and he got his point across," the linebacker said of the Michigan moment.

Meamber was an integral part of dominant UW football teams that went 39-9 over his four years, including 11-1 when he was a senior. The Huskies capped that season by beating the favored Oklahoma Sooners 28-17 in the Orange Bowl in Miami.

The Huskies linebacker acted and played a lot like Brian Bosworth, who started as a freshman at linebacker for Oklahoma that night. One wore No. 42, the other 44. Neither lasted very long in the NFL because of injuries. Meamber played just four more games before suffering a career-ending knee injury for the Minnesota Vikings.

Football seems so far away now. Meamber hasn't attended a game at Husky Stadium in several years, something he would like to do again. He hasn't had anything to do with the university since 2016, when his '84 team was inducted to the Husky Hall of Fame.

Meamber wasn't happy at all that he wasn't permitted as a co-captain to speak to the assembled HOF gathering, with people fearful he might say something inappropriate or simply talk too long.

Outside of his scars and various football wounds, Meamber doesn't have much to show that he even played for the Huskies. He gave away all of his team rings, watches and keepsakes to relatives and friends.

Meamber, however, depends on his football memories to survive his ongoing homeless experience. The legendary James, deceased for seven years, left a strong impression on him with his life's teachings.

"I think about him every day," the former linebacker said.

In their Thursday team meetings, James used to implore his players to make the world a better place, even if it meant just going out and collecting some garbage that others left behind.

"If I see piece of garbage, I pick it up," Meamber said. "It's a Don James moment. I pick some up every day. I've got you, coach."