Former UT receiver Jordan Shipley on fire that nearly killed him and faith that saved him. 'A miracle'
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AUSTIN - Jordan Shipley was awake by 5 in the morning one Tuesday last January and ready to get to work clearing land in a remote area at his ranch northwest of Lake Buchanan.
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First, he had to take his son to school On the way, his inquisitive, then-5-year-old, Swayde, had a question for his father.
"Dad," he said, "when are you going to go to heaven? And who's going to take care of me if something happens?"
Shipley chuckled at the serious-minded nature of his child and wasn't sure how to answer. But the question sure resonated by the time his day was done.
Just hours later, Shipley would find himself in the burn unit of Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin.
He had to be air-flighted to the hospital after 21% of his body had suffered third-degree burns in a fire that engulfed the skid steer loader he was driving and that the 40-year-old barely escaped with his life.
The greatest wide receiver in Texas Longhorn football history wondered if this was to be his last day on earth.
His condition seemed dire at the time and stunned Longhorn Nation.
Trapped in the cabin of the bulldozer after a loose ember sparked a major fire, Shipley wondered if that one-way trip to heaven might actually come much sooner than he'd planned.
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"The door wouldn't open," he said. "It was stuck. I was scared. I was praying and screaming. I was yelling ‘Please let me out, Lord' at the top of my lungs."
Shipley knows now that quite literally when God closes one door, he inevitably opens another. Or unsticks one.
Shipley finally was able to unjam the door and free himself. He still had to walk 45 agonizing minutes and then flag down a co-worker who drove him to a Burnet hospital before an emergency flight to Austin. During that impromptu hike, he heard the skid steer blow up after the flames reached the engine. The fire burned all the skin off his hands.
Shipley shared his horrific, near-death experience Wednedsay and the Christian faith that gave him the wherewithal to remain strong through this life-altering event.
"I was stuck in a place where I'm about to end my life, thinking what's my wife going to do?" he said, his mind racing. "My kids are about to live their whole life without a dad."
The pain was so severe those first few weeks of recovery, he had trouble sleeping. He'd have nightmares for two months. His wife, Sunny, was so shaken by the trauma that she has become claustrophobic and doesn't want to fly.
At the hospital, the attending surgeon emotionally prepared Shipley to be ready for a series of skin grafts to repair the burns on both arms, legs, hands and even the side of his face. Doctors told him he could expect to spend at least three months in the hospital.
Eleven days in the ICU later, Shipley was released.
No surgery. No grafts. No problem.
Seton surgeon Jayson Aydelotte told him, "I don't know what kind of crazy people are praying for you, but If I was a betting man on this, I would have lost a lot of money."
Shipley, however, was betting on himself. And his deeply rooted Christian faith that was sustained by an outpouring of support and prayer from all parts of the world.
"We were all scared to death," former Texas quarterback Case McCoy said Wednesday. "And heartbroken. Talk about the power of prayer. A lot of people are a fan of Jesus, but it's a whole ‘other thing to be a follower."
Shipley found himself as the grateful recipient of well wishes and encouragement in an outpouring of support not just from his Longhorn family but from all over the world. He received health and wellness products, letters and cards constantly.
"I saw people I know praying who don't ever pray," he recalled to more than 330 people as part of the Toolbox Christian outreach ministry at Austin Country Club. "The fact that I'm here is a miracle."
Not that he hadn't seen some adversity before, if not this severe.
While he was a legendary athlete in high school at Rotan and then Burnet as a back-to-back 3A state champion before become a record-breaking receiver at Texas, his career didn't immediately take off as a freshman.
Since one of the Longhorns' all-time threesome of Roy Williams, B.J. Johnson and Sloan Thomas had moved on, Shipley was told by head coach Mack Brown just three days into practice in 2004 that he'd be a starter. That didn't last.
The next week he blew out his knee. The following year in 2005 Texas reached the mountaintop with its most recent national championship under Vince Young, but Shipley wouldn't catch a pass from the legendary quarterback. He pulled a hamstring in the second week of two-a-days and later needed a second knee surgery.
"So I missed two whole years," Shipley said, dubious about his playing career. "And I'm thinking, like really, God? You're going to work all things for good?"
Yes, but on God's timeline, not his. He eventually made up for lost time.
He set a rivalry record with his 96-yard touchdown kickoff return against Oklahoma. He caught 11 passes for a school-record 273 yards against UCF. He would become an All-American in 2009 and catch two touchdown passes in that painful loss to Alabama in the national championship game when quarterback Colt McCoy left the game with an injury on the game's fifth play. Shipley would finish his six seasons with 3,191 career receiving yards and 16 touchdowns.
No telling what his worth would have been, had NIL been activated then.
"I'd have tried to get another year or two," Shipley said, laughing. "I'd have stayed as long as I could."
He didn't play an active role in the title year in 2005, but he sees a special quality in this year's Texas team that beat Ohio State last week to won its first game over a No. 1 ranked team since he and McCoy teamed up to whip Oklahoma in 2008.
Shipley watched at home when Texas came back with a 20-point fourth quarter to win the game in the final 25 seconds.
"You want to talk about mass chaos," Shipley said. "There were kids running around. My brother (Jaxon, also a former Longhorn receiver) was fired up like an understatement. He was running around the house, chest-bumping and high-fiving everybody. It didn't look good for a while there, and then all things came together for good."
Shipley sees a transformed Longhorn team, which takes on Texas State at DKR on Saturday night. He appreciates the lack of false starts and holding penalties, stumbling blocks for Texas in previous seasons. The offensive line looks much improved to him. He loves the receivers and thinks they can be elite.
"They played like a championship team," Shipley said.
His near-death experience revitalized him as well and fueled a drastic change in his perspective and priorities. His burned flesh looks more like a weird "birthmark," he says. His hands have healed. He'd lost about 15 pounds during his recovery but has regained them and weighs 202 pounds.
The change internally is even more dramatic. He no longer judges success by the number of ranch properties he can sell. He plans to live without regret and make an impact for the spiritual kingdom of God.
He constantly speaks to his boys Swayde and Shield about the importance of God in their lives, such that he jokes they will get a splinter or small cut and pray for healing. They know God saved their dad, and they are following his lead.
As serious as the experience was, Shipley has found reasons to laugh.
When a song recently popped up on his phone and the accompanying video showed a raging fire, 5-year-old Shield asked if that was the same fire that threatened to burn him to death. Shield also is fond of telling people he meets who are curious about Jordan's experience, "Yeah, my dad got fired."
Well, kinda.
He's certainly been through the fires.
"I take every moment I can get with my family now, and it's changed everything about the way I think about time and work-life balance," he said. "I know enough that I'm not in control. God is. A lot of times I think he uses struggles that we have to walk through to bring us closer to him."
Oh, and he's learned one other thing from the last nine months.
"I know if my son asks me that question (about heaven) again," Shipley said, "I'm staying home and sitting on the couch."
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