Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Band of Brothers
9/3/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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A set of brothers from New Jersey are making an impact on the Wildcats offense in 2014, and building on a life-long friendship in the process. Skip Myslenski explains the special bond between Cameron and Garrett Dickerson.
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There was Cameron Dickerson, the older brother, and Garrett Dickerson, his baby brother, and from the time both were walking their father Ralph Dickerson made certain competition was part of their bloodstreams. They faced off regularly then in all sorts of games in the backyard of their home in New Jersey, where on this afternoon they were matched up one-on-one with their dad as the permanent quarterback.
They were young then, like maybe eight and four, but here one would accept a pass and charge at the other, and the other would charge back and try to bring the receiver down. "One time what happened, I guess I tackled Garrett and Garrett got mad and started crying," now recalls Cameron Dickerson, the `Cats redshirt-junior wide receiver. "My dad probably won't ever tell this story. But what he did, he just sat back and let us fight.
"I don't really remember (the details). Cameron would because he was older," Garrett Dickerson will later say. He is the 'Cats' promising true freshman superback and here he continues, "But it makes perfect sense. My dad definitely let us duke it out that one time and then said, `OK. You guys have that out of the way. Now you're going to be brothers for each other, and you're going to support each other, and you're always going to be there for each other.'
"That definitely set up our relationship going forward. We were always going to be there for each other no matter what."
Cameron Dickerson loved basketball when he was a young boy. That was his game, and LeBron James was his guy, and through so many years he envisioned himself as a college hoop star. But, he admits, he couldn't really shoot, and then he was confronted with another bit of hard reality when he entered Bergen Catholic High School. "I was like, 'All right. Doesn't look like I'll be tall enough to play basketball. So maybe football might be my thing.'"
He had not played an organized game in that sport until he was in the seventh grade, and that year and the next he had been consigned to the offensive line by both his size and the weight rules governing his league. But now, at Bergen, he switched to receiver, surrendered himself to football and even without any kind of gaudy stats, received offers from Vanderbilt and Indiana, from Harvard and Duke as well as the 'Cats. "I never thought I'd get to the Big Ten level," he now says, thinking back. "I always thought maybe I'd be Ivy League or something like that. But it worked out for me."
"Not really," Garrett Dickerson will say when asked if he was surprised his older brother evolved into a football scholarship athlete. "I knew Cameron had a love for football. We both had a love for basketball and football. I guess I split off from basketball a little earlier than he did and realized that football is really my passion. But I'm not surprised. I knew he was always passionate about the sport, loved it, put the time in. The fact that he made that decision and decided he wanted to go ahead with football wasn't a surprise to me whatsoever."
Nor was it a surprise that he himself followed the trail blazed by his older brother, playing down on the blocks in basketball ("I was a little shorter and pudgier when I was younger, so they had me working down there," he says); playing both tight end and defensive end in football ("We recruited him as both and he said he wanted to play superback, so that's where he's at," Pat Fitzgerald says); playing always, as younger brothers will do, to outshine his elder. "He always tried to one up me," Cameron Dickerson remembers.
"I used to play basketball. If I scored 20 points, he'd go out and score 25. When it came to football, he was always the football guy growing up. He was the big-time performer and I was the average guy when we were younger. He probably won't tell you this. But I bet you when he was playing he wasn't only playing for his scholarship. He was playing to live up to what I did in high school and be better. Quite frankly, when it's all said and done, I think he'll go down as the better player."
He was certainly the better player at Bergen and eventually he received offers from Stanford and Michigan, from Alabama and Ohio State, from Florida State and Michigan State as well as the 'Cats. As he was wooed, he recalls, "Cameron actually did a pretty good job of letting me feel out the waters, of letting me go through my own recruiting process. He kind of played the wall, I want to say, for a little bit. He'd throw in his Northwestern comments here and there. But he really let me feel it out for myself."
"I did my best to let him have his own process," Cameron Dickerson echoes. "I knew that he knew that I would be trying to get him here. The whole family knew that. So I tried to stay back, kind of let him go see what he wanted to see, and if it was meant for him to be here, he'd be here. Luckily it worked out."
"It's usually used against you in recruiting," Fitzgerald will later say when asked about the dynamic of that time. "'Don't you want to be your own man? Don't you want to do your own thing?' I look at guys and I tell them, `Think when you're 40 years old. Do you want to have your experience be unique from your brother's? Or do you want to have shared experiences that you guys will be fat-and-sassy talking about? Remember this? Remember that?' I'm never going to try and convince a guy, `Hey, you should play with your brother because your brother's here. You should play with your brother because this is the right fit for you. The added bonus to that is you get to play with your brother and your family gets to come watch one college football game instead of maybe your mom going somewhere and your dad going somewhere.'
"That's something unique and special. Think how special that is, having two Division I football players in the family, then having them play together. It's pretty unique."
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There is Cameron Dickerson, the older brother, and Garrett Dickerson, his baby brother, and from the time both were walking their father Ralph Dickerson made certain competition was part of their bloodstreams. But that lecture he gave them so long ago in their backyard, with that he made it equally certain that they recognized their bond and all that it means.
So now, as college teammates who together will face Northern Illinois on Saturday, their sibling rivalries and childhood fusses are nothing but distant memories, replaced here by a relationship as tight as a closed fist. "I would not be surprised at all. I wouldn't be surprised at all," Cameron Dickerson will say when asked he'd how feel if his brother's career eclipsed his. "He's playing as a true freshman. The sky's the limit for the kid. I'm excited to see what he can do not only this year, but three seasons after this."
"I don't really think about that at this point," Garrett Dickerson will later add when asked if he is still trying to outdo his older brother. "We're early in the season, I'm just trying to do my job and my focus going forward is what the team needs to do and what I can do to help the team."
"No. No," Pat Fitzgerald will finally when asked if he sees the brothers competing. "They talk way too much about them. It's like Batman and Robin."
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