Injured Luther College football player Chris Norton returns to the football field

Chris Norton (center), surrounded by other members of the Luther football team

Luther College student Chris Norton, who sustained a severe spinal injury in a Luther football game last October, on Saturday stood at the 50-yard line of the Luther football field.

Norton had been named honorary captain of the Luther football squad for the Saturday football game--the Luther home opener.

When Norton sustained a fractured neck and compressed spinal cord injury in the game against Central College, he was told he had a three percent chance of ever having movement below the neck.  Since then he has worked hard to defy that three percent prediction.

On Saturday he went to mid field in his wheelchair--and then stood up for the coin-toss.

Norton was accompanied by his family and by the therapists at Mayo Clinic that have been in charge of his rehabilitation.  In mid-August, physical therapists were able to monitor Norton's leg muscles while he exercised on a Lokomat machine and while over-ground walking. They discovered that most of his nerve signals were firing.

 Chris is now back on campus, taking three classes while also continuing his therapy at Mayo Clinic two days a week and in Decorah three days a week.

Members of the Mayo Clinic therapy department on the left; Norton's family on the right

The crowd gives Chris Norton a standing ovation

Chris Norton, surrounded by his mother, father and two sisters