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Most people at Grand View know Jerry Lowe. At 225-plus pounds and with more than 1,100 rushing yards for the Vikings this season, Lowe is difficult to overlook. However, there is more to Lowe than just football. What most people don’t know is Lowe’s background and how he journeyed from Sierra Leone to the states and then to GV. 

Sierra Leone, Africa is a country torn apart by corruption and poverty, two things Lowe knows all too well. Growing up in a poverty-stricken area in a orphanage, Lowe had a rough early life. 

“Growing up, I would sometimes only eat one meal a day,” Lowe said. “I would wake up, do chores, go to school, get firewood for cooking and then I would finally eat.” 

Despite these challenges, the orphanage that Lowe lived in was clean, and the workers took care of everything for the children. Although he was living in clean conditions, everything else in Lowe’s life was a mess. Lowe’s father was killed during the war before Lowe was born. His mother struggled with everyday tasks, which made raising Lowe difficult. Because of this, Lowe was assigned to a nearby orphanage where they fed and took care of him. 

Lowe’s childhood was anything but easy, but there was always someone looking out for him.

Lowe was supported by a sponsor family that would send money to the orphanage to help him with living expenses as he grew up. 

“Most children in the country have a sponsor back in the states. My sponsors decided that they wanted to adopt me. I remember that we had to drive to court to get approved, and that took six hours, but on the way back, I was shaking because I was so nervous and excited,” Lowe said. “They threw a party at the orphanage, and I remember the night before I was going to leave, I didn’t sleep at all. I was so excited to come to America.”  

Even though he was approved to be adopted by his American family, it wasn’t an instant fix for Lowe. There was a processing delay that took two months. This left Lowe and his adoptive family anxious. 

“I remember just counting the days every day,” Lowe said.

The adoption took four years, but Lowe was officially adopted on August 6, 2012. 

As different as the cultures are between Africa and America, Lowe said he didn’t have many struggles when he arrived to the states at age 16. 

“I already had friends when I got here through Facebook, but it was the school part that was a challenge,” Lowe said. 

Sierra Leone, Africa, and Tama, Iowa, have drastically different academic regimens. The vast differences are part of the reason that Lowe ended up at Grand View instead of other schools that offered him scholarships. Lowe said that reading and vocabulary were his biggest academic struggles. 

“Iowa, Iowa State and other big schools like that had offered me scholarships to play football,” Lowe said.

But Lowe ran into problems with transcripts and the foreign language policies of those big universities. 

Once the GV football program found out that Lowe still had his options open, they offered him a scholarship, and he accepted. Lowe is currently seventh in the nation for rushing yards and 10th in the nation for rushing touchdowns. He helped propel the Vikings to a 7-2 record this season. Lowe believes that his upbringing has contributed to his success on the football field.

“Jerry is a very unique kind of guy,” GV’s quarterback Ben Ferkin said. “He’s very blue collar; he doesn’t say a word and just goes to work.” 

Jerry takes a simple approach to life. 

“When I was in Africa, I didn’t have access to video games and stuff like that,” Lowe said. “We would just run around and play all day.” 

Lowe played soccer growing up, but he had no idea how to play American football. He was introduced to the sport when his American brother brought him to a football camp. Lowe told the coaches that he played soccer, so they put him as a kicker to begin with. After losing many games in a row, he asked his coaches if he could get more involved. His coaches allowed him to return kicks and on the first return, he ran it for a touchdown. From then on, he knew where he belonged on the field. 

Lowe has been through a lot growing up, but he said he has no regrets with how his life has played out. Lowe is happy and grateful to be here in America and he is thankful for friends and family, which mean the most to him.