"Roger Crawford had everything he needed to play tennis—except two hands and a leg.
When Roger's parents saw their son for the first time, they saw a baby with a thumb-like projection extending directly out of his right forearm and a thumb and one finger stuck out of his left forearm.
He had no palms. The baby's arms and legs were shortened and he had only three toes on his shrunken right foot and a withered left leg, which would later be amputated.
The doctor said that Roger suffered from ectrodactylism, a rare birth defect affecting only one of 90,000 children born in the United States. The doctor informed the Crawfords that Roger would probably never walk or care for himself.
Fortunately Roger's parents didn't believe the doctor.
"My parents always taught me that I was only as handicapped as I wanted to be, " said Roger. "They never allowed me to feel sorry for myself or take advantage of people because of my handicap.
"Once I got in trouble because my school papers were continually late," explained Roger, who had to hold his pencil with both "hands" to write slowly. "I asked Dad to write a note to my teachers, asking for a two-day extension on my assignments. Instead Dad made me start writing my paper two days earlier."
Roger's father always encouraged him to get involved in sports, teaching Roger to catch and throw a volleyball and play backyard football after school. At age 12, Roger managed to win a spot on the school football team.
Before every game, Roger would visualize his dream of scoring a touchdown. Then one day he got his chance. The ball landed in his arms and off he ran as fast as he could on his artificial leg towards the goal line, his coach and teammates cheering wildly.
"But at the 10-yard line, a guy from the other team caught up with Roger, grabbing his left ankle. Roger tried to pull his artificial leg free from the player's grasp, but instead ended up having his leg pulled off (Every problem has a soft spot).
"I was still standing up," recalls Roger. "I didn't know what else to do so I started hopping towards the goal line. The referee threw his hands up in the air. Touchdown. You know, even better than the six points was the look on the other kid who was holding my artificial leg."
"Roger's love of sports grew and so did his self confidence. But every obstacle gave way to Roger's determination.
Eating in the lunchroom with other kids watching him fumble with his food proved very painful to Roger as did repeated failures in typing class.
"I learned a very good lesson from typing class. You can't do everything-it's better to concentrate on what you can do."
"One thing Roger could do was swing a tennis racket. Unfortunately, when he swung it hard, his weak grip usually launched it into space. By luck, Roger stumbled upon an odd looking tennis racket in a sports shop and accidentally wedged his finger between it's double-barred handle when he picked it up.
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