Watching any basketball player slam into the padded wall just beyond the hoop would make most people wince but watching Reggie Strong do it makes one worried he might shatter. He’s far from porcelain ware, however. He’s more like the bionic man.

Today, Reggie largely is pieced together with metal rods and bolts. He wasn’t supposed to live. He was told he would never walk again, let alone play basketball. The naysayers didn’t know Reggie Strong. He defied the doctors for his return to life and the game he loves at Moraine Valley.

Reggie grew up on the west side of Chicago with two older sisters and one brother. He was not a kid who could sit idly. His parents enrolled him in karate and football before he tried swimming. By age nine, he found basketball. That led to stints playing ball at Farragut Career Academy, St. Joseph High School and Orr Academy. As he approached high school graduation, Reggie was being recruited to compete at DePaul, Purdue, Southern Utah University, Miami of Ohio and Saint Louis University. He ultimately planned to go to his neighborhood school – DePaul University – before COVID-19 stopped the world.

Instead of pursuing a degree during the pandemic, Reggie took a break from education, exercised to stay fit and briefly played exhibition basketball in Armenia before competing in a Chicago men’s basketball league. Reggie comes from an athletically skilled family. His older brother made it into the NBA D League (before it became the G League – minor league basketball), one sister ran track and played volleyball on scholarship at Western Michigan University and myriad other relatives played professional golf and baseball.

“On my dad’s side there were 13 kids, and they all did next-level athletics. My dad boxed, and he did it all. Reggie is a carbon copy of my dad,” explained Clarence Strong, Reggie’s father.

In April 2023, Reggie’s Chicago team traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, for the league championship tournament in a three-game matchup. His team won its first contest on April 14. A few hours later, he and some teammates were walking around town. While crossing the street, a car sped through a red light at 60 mph, slamming into Reggie and catapulting him as he slid and twisted several feet across the pavement. He couldn’t move. Teammates ran to pull his body off the busy road before a semi-truck nearly ran him over, pulling out already loose hair on his head. Then, Reggie blacked out.

Clarence, a dedicated supporter of his son’s athletic endeavors, was in Memphis for the tournament and received the devastating call before phoning his wife, Dianne, who was working in Chicago.

“One of the coaches called me, and I knew something was wrong. He told me what happened, so I ran down to ground zero to see him. Reggie was mangled and twisted; it was just a horrible sight before he went to the hospital. I couldn’t think. Everything slowed down. It was a nightmare, and I couldn’t wake up because it was reality. It really tore me apart,” Clarence choked up. “You never want to see your kids or loved ones in that situation, suffering. It was really hard for me because my oldest son was killed years ago, and I had to bury him. And here I am looking down at another son, and I said, ‘This is not happening.'”

“I was working in Chicago at Mercy Hospital and got the call. [Clarence] called me crying and told me Reggie was hit. I’ll never forget that sound, his cry. It haunts me,” recalled Dianne, a medical surgical registered nurse. “I froze. I didn’t know what to do because I couldn’t get down there fast enough. I asked Clarence one question, ‘Was Reggie breathing?’ He told me yes, and I told him, ‘We have a chance.'”

Sirens blaring, an ambulance rushed Reggie to a Memphis trauma center. He underwent immediate 14-hour surgery to repair his (dominant) left hand, which was nearly ripped apart in the accident. Lying immobilized in a hospital bed, Reggie had two broken legs after one femur popped through his skin (as did his right humerus bone), tendons and cartilage torn in both knees, and 300 stitches along with scrapes, bruises and swelling. Fortunately, he did not have any internal organ damage.

“When I finally walked in the hospital to see Reggie, he looked right at me and told me, ‘Now that you’re here, I can make it,'” Dianne stated.

“I gave it to God. I woke up in the hospital in a full body cast. My dad was there with bloodshot eyes. My older brother had died, so I was the only son left,” Reggie recalled. “My dad watched doctors put me back together with tools and drills. That was the first of 15 surgeries.”

Relegated to the hospital for a month, Reggie was patched together with eight bolts holding his upper right arm intact, a rod in his right leg and nails through his pelvis and knees. To stave off bed sores and infection, his parents moved his limbs regularly. When he was able to sit in a wheelchair, he’d be pushed over to the window. “I knew I’d get back out there, I just didn’t know when,” he declared.

Pain was a constant. Added to broken and torn limbs, Reggie also had a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line inserted in his neck and his body was swollen from trauma. He took pain medications that made him sluggish and lethargic – atypical for the previously healthy and lively 21-year-old who weight trained with his body-building father and focused on clean eating. Once Dianne was at the hospital, her nurse instincts kicked in. She knew the OxyContin prescribed was addictive and feared the repercussions. It also caused Reggie to sweat excessively and become listless. She advised stopping the pain meds.

“I stopped taking all medicine two weeks after the accident. I was already against it anyway. I took Tylenol but was still in a lot of pain,” Reggie recollected.

“The minute we stopped the OxyContin, he started coming around to his usual self, talking, and the sweating stopped,” Dianne added.

Without any major pharmaceutical aids, Reggie routinely stared at the wall, trying to convince himself he wasn’t in pain. He played mind games, meditated and later journaled and read to control his anguish. He pictured himself back on his beloved basketball court.

“In Tennessee, they said I’d never walk again, never play basketball again. That’s how bad it was. However, I have an optimistic mindset. I focus on what I have, and that’ll get me to what I don’t have,” he explained.

Once Reggie was able to go home, his family scrunched him like a broken accordion into a vehicle along with all the required hospital equipment for the seven-hour drive. “My limbs were bent, and they had to unfold me out of the car. It was super, super painful. I had deep nerve and tissue pain,” Reggie recalled.

Back home, he went to Loyola Medicine’s Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, where Dr. Miller continued to put Reggie back together. Although he endured five surgeries by then, he needed more work done. “It was hard and mentally draining. It was rock bottom. Literally, my parents had to do everything for me. I was bedridden, staring at the ceiling,” Reggie said. “The doctor said people who have certain surgeries may be able to walk, but it wasn’t guaranteed. I thought about the possibility of walking and living again.”

By the summer, Reggie began physical therapy. After a couple of months, however, he was ready to start his own recovery because of his exceptional progress. He was in a wheelchair doing simple workouts at Planet Fitness and completing exercises he learned with the therapists. In January 2024, he could roll himself around the house in a wheelchair and attempted to stand.

“I wouldn’t hear no for an answer. I was forcing myself to stand without falling over,” he laughed.

Stooped over at the waist with slightly bent knees, Reggie began to “stand,” or hover, for mere seconds before falling back into the chair, sometimes when his parents weren’t watching. That was all he could muster, but he was persistent.

“This dude here is relentless, resilient, the words go on and on. He gets that from both of us. Dianne is strong as well,” Clarence revealed. “When the doctor said he wouldn’t walk, I said, ‘This guy is a walking miracle. This is Reggie Strong.’ When doctors said he is not playing ball again, Reggie and I looked at each other and said, ‘Okay, you must not know who I am.’ I refused to believe what the doctors said, and we were right.”

A year after the accident, Reggie was down to 120 from 190 lbs. He continued to practice standing and later took his first shaky steps with a walker despite immense pain. His dominant hand remained in disrepair, to which the doctor suggested becoming righthanded. Reggie wouldn’t have it. He continued reclaiming his physical strength.

He was healing so well that one of his doctors asked to use photos of Reggie’s mended limbs in a class he taught at Loyola University.

“He was way ahead of schedule,” Clarence added. “Every time he saw doctors, they were amazed. They said they never saw anyone progress like Reggie.”

Reggie continued his steady physical training. A few baby steps led to walking, then to running, then to skipping flights of stairs. By summer 2024, Reggie started training kids to play basketball at Shoot 360, a club in Naperville, while shooting hoops himself. That’s where former Cyclones men’s basketball Assistant Coach Aaron Green spotted him, and they started talking about college ball.

“I’ve known Reggie since 2017 when he was a freshman at the prestigious Farragut High School. I was coaching at Romeoville High School, and we played them at one of the top tournaments in Illinois. He scored 16 points against us, and at the time we were No. 4 in the state! I followed him through his high school career with all the ups and downs,” Green recalled. “Fast forward to 2024, I walk into the gym and see a kid shooting on the sidelines. Me of course as a coach always recruiting, I ask who he was, he tells me, and I instantly remember him. He’s not even supposed to be walking yet, and he was already doing elite ball handling drills. On that day in 2024, I offered him a spot on our team. I knew as a coach, anyone strong enough to make it through what he’s been through, he was special and definitely built mentally different.”

“When he started going to the gym on his own and playing ball, that’s when I knew he was going to be back on the court,” Dianne smiled. “God put some incredible people on his team to take care of Reggie. If it wasn’t for them, it wouldn’t have turned out like this. There were some dark days, but Reggie never said anything about pain or complained.”

By January 2025, Reggie enrolled at Moraine Valley and became a redshirt on the Cyclones basketball team. “From day one I was going to games and practices. I knew I needed to get my rhythm back. It was different playing with 18- and 19-year-olds,” he explained.

Reggie officially played collegiate basketball for the first time in fall 2025. A 6-2 starting guard, he’s the elder statesman on the team at 24 years old. “I like being the wise philosopher, as my teammates call me,” he laughed.

In the first two months of the season, Reggie averaged 15.5 points per game and was 69.8% from the free-throw line. His manifestations from the days he spent staring at the ceiling finally are coming true. “Everything I wrote in my notebook is happening. Even the date is right,” he exclaimed. “I feel great, and I love this school. I’m super excited to play.”

“Reggie is everything a coach loves. He’s coachable, shows up every day ready to work, and is unbelievably tough both mentally and physically because of his life experience and everything he’s been through,” said Cyclones Head Coach Kyle Huppe.

When Reggie is on the court, he’s not the typical even-keeled, polite and gracious young man he projects in the campus hallways. He’s dangerous.

“I’m a different person; I’m on a mission. Being one of the team captains, I’m going hard for myself and my team. I really want to win,” he said.

These days, Reggie sails from one end of the court to the other, like he never had to relearn how to walk. His ultimate goal is to play at an NCAA Division I university before going pro. But he also is eager to earn a degree (he earned a 3.1 GPA this fall) and potentially return to the classroom teaching statistics or business. With athletics in his blood, he wants to become a coach as well, dispensing the wisdom he gained far too young. Until then, he’ll keep hustling and defying the odds.

“This is what I wanted for Reggie – to play college ball,” Dianne beamed. “I want to be here to see all his dreams come true. And I’m pretty confident he’ll do it. We’re so proud of him.”

“I’m so excited for him. He already exceeded expectations,” Clarence added. “He’s going to do big things. I’m confident he’ll do exactly what he says.”