Tray Crayton III is staying in the game

Photo by Tom Altany/Pitt Photography

In 1994, Tray Crayton III committed to the University of Nebraska, a football powerhouse that won the NCAA football championship that year.

His dream of playing in the National Football League (NFL) was inching closer to coming true.

But in the weeks leading up to leaving for Nebraska, one of his closest cousins was murdered, and, soon after, Crayton learned his girlfriend was pregnant.

It was tough leaving behind familiar faces, and the transition from sunny California to cold Nebraska proved burdensome for Crayton. Despite being part of Nebraska's 1995 NCAA championship run, isolation crept into every part of his life.

"The pressure went from a rock to a hill to a mountain," says Crayton. "All I knew was to push it down and fight through the feelings."

Crayton decided to leave Nebraska to be closer to his family and infant son, Tyler. But he wanted just one more shot to prove his NFL worthiness. In 1996, through a trustworthy former Nebraska athletic director, he was given a chance at the school that shaped his character forever - the University of Pittsburgh.

"Pitt allowed me to play football, be a student and be a father," says Crayton. "I'm everything Pittsburgh."

Today, Crayton is the founder of Triumph with Trai, a personal online brand focused on community healing through spiritual awareness and enlightenment. Through weekly blogs, YouTube podcasts and an emerging social media presence, Crayton talks about tackling anxiety, fear and life tragedies head on. In July, Crayton published his first book, "Battled and Bruised," a memoir focused on the spirituality he called upon to face countless challenges.

Despite his lifelong devotion to helping others, Crayton's current venture was not planned or expected but birthed from a series of traumatic and life-changing dilemmas, including a life-threatening illness, a broken dream and a long road to earning a college degree.

His story begins in Oceanside, California, a tight-knit and hardworking northern suburb of San Diego. Crayton's parents met at an Oceanside High School track meet and married at 19. Soon after, Crayton's father, Clarence Crayton Jr. underwent an overnight religious awakening that eventually led to him founding Faith Temple, which served a community struggling with poverty and gang violence.

At Faith Temple, Crayton learned the importance of perseverance and integrity. But as the youngest of five siblings and the baby of his 50 cousins, he also learned the value of regular family gatherings and the camaraderie and development that came with team football.

By sixth grade, Crayton had his life planned out. After an illustrious NFL career, he would transition to helping people solve their inner problems though his Christian background.

With the guidance of his father and two older brothers, Chris and Garret, Crayton excelled in the ultra-competitive Oceanside area high school football scene. He played quarterback for powerhouse Oceanside High, alma mater of numerous NFL players, including Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau.

In four years at Oceanside, Crayton won three California Interscholastic Federation state football championships, finished as a top-50 ranked player in the country and amassed recruitment offers from dozens of NCAA Division I schools, including that one from Nebraska.

But it wasn't until he left Nebraska and found Pitt that Crayton finally felt at home.

"Pitt was everything I dreamed of," says Crayton.

Pittsburgh became the place where Crayton raised his son, met his best friends and flourished on the football field - even attracting the attention of then New York Jets defensive coordinator and now six-time Super Bowl champion head coach, Bill Belichick.

"Tray was a major part in the revival of a struggling Pitt football program," says E.J. Borghetti, executive associate athletic director of communications for Pitt. "His character speaks volumes, and he's always represented our program in an impressive way."

Despite success at Pitt, he was not selected in the NFL draft following his senior season.

"It devastated me to my core," Crayton wrote in his memoir. "It wounded my ego and bruised by spirit."

Even though he wrote that he felt "betrayed by God," Crayton, who left Pitt without graduating, did what he was trained to do. He picked up the pieces. He first found a career in semi-professional football and then turned to corporate sales, citing his natural enthusiasm as an attractive force in the sales world.

In 2020, while working in suite sales for the Los Angeles Chargers and at the "high point" of his life, Crayton suddenly contracted Prevotella melaninogenica, a rare mouth infection.

He was given two weeks to live.

Unable to receive visits from his family because of COVID-19 restrictions, Crayton lay in his hospital bed calling upon his religious background for salvation. After three surgeries and months in the hospital, Crayton's doctors successfully removed the infection.

"God told me to help others," says Crayton. "It made realize the world is bigger than just me."

Everything suddenly became precious, says Crayton, and the grueling recovery period gave him time to brainstorm his next move. Despite his physical ailments, emotional distress and low self-esteem, Crayton found inspiration to finish the degree he started at the University of Pittsburgh 20 years earlier.

He decided to pursue a BA in legal studies from the College of General Studies. After hearing his story, Pitt agreed to pay for his remaining classes, upholding the promise made to 21-year-old Crayton when he signed to play football.

It was a daunting task for Crayton, whose educational confidence had been drained over the years. Jennifer Kaplan, a student support coach at Pitt, tutored Crayton throughout his writing-intensive law classes.

"It's amazing to me that the guy who first told me 'I'm not good at writing,' reached out to me a year later and said, 'I wrote a book, will you read it?'" says Kaplan.

He completed 10 classes in a single year, maintaining a 3.8 GPA, and is now a proud Pitt alumnus and a college graduate - a goal he hoped to achieve since he was a child.

Crayton devoted his newfound passion for writing and education to helping others "turn stones into steps" through his book and online brand.

"Tray's story is this consistent shaping and re-shaping," says Kaplan. "It's really telling that he felt supported enough at Pitt to come back after all those years."

It was a decision that changed his life - and one that cemented an immeasurable appreciation for Pitt within Crayton.

"Pitt matured me to be who I am today," says Crayton.

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