Each day, Hawaii wide receiver Marcus Kemp takes a knee and gives thanks to the inspiration he remembers only through fading pictures.
"My mom got me into (football) because that’s what he did," said Kemp, referring to his father, Ronald Jermaine Kemp, who died at age 25 in 1999. "She thought I would be good at (football), and it would give me a connection to him. I ended up falling in love with the game. I fell in love with what he did. I wanted to be just like him. He definitely inspired me to get to where I am."
The elder Kemp, who played wideout and safety at Dixie State in Utah, was married with two sons when he suffered an aortic dissection.
"It’s a hole in your aorta," Kemp said. "They thought they fixed it, but there were complications, and he passed away the next day."
Kemp was 3 years old.
For 15 years, on the anniversary of his father’s death, Kemp, his brother and their mother would scribble messages on a card. The card was attached to helium-filled balloons, then released toward the sky.
"When you’re young," Kemp said, "you think it goes higher than it does. It really helped us when we were young. It turned into a tradition."
After joining the Warriors in the summer of 2013, Kemp tried to maintain the balloon tradition.
"It wasn’t the same," Kemp said.
Kemp said he has one memory that persists. He was jumping on a bed, and then into the arms of his father. "That’s it," Kemp said. "I don’t know if it’s real because I was young."
He added: "I don’t know his voice. I’ve only seen pictures. Back home at my house, I have a big picture of him with me and my brother together. That’s really how I remember him."
Kemp said he mostly resembles his mother, Karen Vasquez Kemp Martin. But Kemp and his brother have traces of Ronald’s features in their faces.
"To his family," Kemp said, "we give them peace to know he’s in us."
Kemp said he wore his father’s No. 4 at Layton High in Utah. At UH, running back Steven Lakalaka, who entered the program a year earlier, had the No. 4 jersey.
"Lakalaka has history with that number, too, and he was here before me," said Kemp, who wears No. 14,. "so I put a ‘1’ in front of (the 4), so I still have (my father’s number)."
Kemp played the first two games this season despite a stye infection that partially blurred vision in his right eye. In Saturday’s game against San Diego State, Kemp ran into the end zone on a Hail Mary pass at the end of the first half. The ball ricocheted off an Aztec defender’s shoulder pads and fell into the hands of Kemp, who was facing skyward.
"I know if he were here he’d want me to to do everything to be better than him," Kemp said. "That’s what I think about. If he were here, what would he think about the man I am. That’s what pushed me to get to this level. Probably the biggest inspiration in my life is family, and he’s a big part of that. Family is always on my mind."
