FSU started the season 1-0 on Saturday, but before the ball was even kicked off, one bigger victory had already taken place.
Ethan Pritchard came out of the tunnel Saturday night in a garnet No. 35, walking under his own power, leading the Seminoles onto the field.
It was a moment that felt like a miracle, something
that felt impossible a year ago. On Aug. 31, 2025, the night after Florida State beat No. 8 Alabama, Pritchard was shot in the back of the head while driving his family home from a cookout in Havana, a random act of violence in a case of mistaken identity. He was a freshman linebacker out of Seminole High in Sanford who had only been on campus for a few months.
“I turned the corner and shots rang off,” he told Stewert Moore of WESH last year. “I put the car in reverse and just backed up and after that, I don’t remember what else happened.”
Three hundred sixty-three days later on Saturday, he walked onto Doak Campbell Stadium with the team, greeted by the roars of a nearly sold-out stadium.
You could hear it from the press box before you could see him, the noise starting while he was still in the tunnel and growing louder when he hit the jumbotron. Pritchard soaked in the moment, cracking a smile through it.
“That’s one of the most remarkable experiences that I’ve ever been a part of,” head coach Mike Norvell said. “Ethan told me, I guess it was eight-nine months ago that, that he was going to do that. That was when he was confined to a wheelchair. To see his mental toughness, to see his work, to see his belief, his faith, every bit of it. The people surrounding him, he had a purpose of what he wanted to do. The good Lord, he guided and helped him along this journey. He’s our walking miracle. I’ve said that seeing him, being able to take part of that with him, something I’ll never forget. It was awesome for the crowd and the embrace for him was truly special. I definitely appreciate everybody for that.”
It was a long road back to walking onto the field at Doak Campbell for Pritchard, who spent weeks in the ICU at Tallahassee Memorial before going to Brooks Rehabilitation in Jacksonville. Wheelchair first, then a walker after that, all while he re-learned how to use his limbs.
“Learn how to talk again, learn how to eat again, and learn how to even people might think this is funny, but I had to learn how to sneeze again because I really didn’t know how to sneeze,” he told Spectrum News 13.
Pritchard got the chance to return back to Tallahassee to watch the Seminoles’ win over Virginia Tech last Novemeber and then was honored by FSU this April, when he was awarded the Doc Fauls Rise Above Adversity Award at the Golden Nole Awards. Norvell presented the award to him, calling him “a true walking miracle.”
“A lot of people thought it was over for me,” Pritchard said to WESH. “Just, you know, just to keep showing them that I’m still fighting, I’m gonna keep fighting, and I ain’t gonna stop.”
Saturday was proof of his fight. Going from wheelchair to walking onto the field within a year of a tragic moment, Ethan Pritchard has and continues to showcase a spirit that is truly unconquered.
