At 10:56 p.m. on September 9, 2005, Court McGee’s heart famously stopped for eight minutes after the took too many drugs to mention. He turned his life around, with the help of a clinical social worker who got him into an intensive in-patient program. He has now been sober for over 3,000 days.
Then he won TUF 11, and has been fighting in the UFC at both middleweight and welterweight. Out with an injury in 2014, he has used the time to set up a non-profit Hope361.com.
McGee appeared recently on The MMA Hour to discuss the effort.
“Drug addition is non-biased,” said McGee as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMAFighting “It doesn’t matter where you came from, who you are, religion, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how much money or how little money you have, drug addiction is non-biased, and it tears everybody apart. So we want to be able to provide a tool for people to use for those who are afflicted around them.”
“I had felony drug charges. I was looking to do time, and those were my options. It was either being incarcerated or dying. I knew no other way to live. I was so deep in my addiction, I had no idea. But because of that guy who knew where to get help, that suggested I go to that treatment facility, I was saved.
“In a sense, we’re being that guy. This is what [addicts] do, this is how they maintain their recovery, this is where they got help, and this is what they do now. That’s what our website does. We’re acting as that person.
“The person who’s struggling may not get anything from the videos. But I promise you, the loved ones around them who are afflicted the most will see it. My family didn’t know what to do. We are giving them that. … It creates a direction for these people, for their family members or bosses or whoever. It doesn’t matter, whoever has somebody or knows somebody can get on this website, can get the inspiration from the videos, and get direction to where they can get help.”
Of late, with the launch of Hope 361, McGee has taken his message on the road, speaking everywhere from prisons in San Luis Obispo County to junior high schools in Emery County, Utah — any place where his story of inspiration may be of some use, even if it touches just one troubled soul out of one-thousand.
“360 degrees is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results,” McGee said. “But if you change that one degree … anything is possible.
“The [emergency] workers said I didn’t have a (heart) response for eight minutes and so I shouldn’t be here. But because of a few unusual circumstances, I was given a new direction in life. I was inspired by being of service to a wrestling team to start competing and it went from one thing to another, until pretty soon I’m fighting on the biggest stage in the world. I want to use this to create hope, inspiration, and give direction to those who are afflicted. And in doing that, it’s given me a life beyond my wildest dreams.”
