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- Finely Tempered Thierry Brings Burning Desire To Bears
May 29, 1994 | By Fred Mitchell, Tribune Staff Writer.
OPELOUSAS, La. - When he was 4, John Thierry suffered third-degree burns in a small fire near his house.
Now the Bears' No. 1 draft pick will be going from the fire to the frying pan of NFL competition this fall. His history indicates he will survive this ordeal as well.
Life has not been easy for Thierry or his mother, Louise Duckless, in this tiny town 140 miles northwest of New Orleans.
Already the 6-foot-4-inch, 248-pound defensive end has defied the odds, emerging from Division I-AA Alcorn State in Lorman, Miss., to become the 11th pick in last month's NFL draft.
"John wasn't supposed to be nothing, but he made it," said Duckless, who knows firsthand about overcoming adversity.
She was one of 11 children of Mr. and Mrs. Burnies Duckless, who were hard-working crop farmers and strict disciplinarians. But Louise became a 19-year-old mother when she gave birth to John in 1971.
As Louise struggled to support her family, she married Saint Louis Dunbar, who was willing to marry her even though he knew she didn't love him. After one year, their relationship ended, but Duckless vowed she and her son would survive, along with stepdaughter Allison Dunbar.
Emile Fontenot became Louise's second husband when John was 11 and Allison was 10 and Fontenot's daughter, Tammy, was 8. The Fontenot-Duckless union produced Jerry and Crystal.
Duckless later worked construction in a salt mine, as a seamstress, at a hospital and as a teacher's aide.
"There was always a way I had to make it," Duckless said. "When Snoopy (John's nickname) was small, I didn't have much food in the house. There were times when we had oatmeal three times a day. We survived off of that.
"Many nights I would hold those two kids while I sat in my rocking chair and prayed to God. One thing I know how to do is pray."
Thierry was known as John Duckless until his junior year of high school. Then he took his biological father's last name.
"I kept up with John's progress all the way through college," said Joe Thierry, who works as an offshoreman for an oil company along the Louisiana Gulf Coast. "I knew he was something special. He's a very hard worker. I think he's going to be a great asset to the Bears. It's my dream to see John play in person (with the Bears)."
At Plaisance High School in Opelousas, Thierry's life changed forever when he met coach Murphy Guillory.
"I coached his dad also, and his dad was one heck of a football player," said Guillory, 62. "John would go to his dad's house and his dad would relate to him about his experiences in high school. I think that helped John.
Plaisance High School, with an enrollment of 200, has produced another NFL player.
"Carl Dunbar is playing for the New Orleans Saints now," Guillory said. "He was recruited by LSU. I think John patterned himself behind Dunbar. That was a big help for him."
Guillory thinks Thierry, who once played in a game with a broken arm, can make the transition to the NFL as well.
"I think John has the ability, he has the strength, he has the speed," Guillory said. "All he has to do is study his playbook. He can fill somebody's shoes there."
Thierry and Bears second-round draft pick Marcus Spears of Northwestern State in Louisiana are both from Division I-AA schools, and both were pre-med students.
"My mother and father always taught me to be prepared for anything," Thierry said. "Not everybody is blessed to go on to the next level of football. So you have to be prepared academically to have something to fall back on."
Said his mother: "John said he was going to school for both of us, since I couldn't go. I always told my kids to be a doctor or lawyer or teacher-something I couldn't be."
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