SYRACUSE, NY — For nearly two decades, Syracuse Orange football legend Floyd Little and his wife, DeBorah, were as happy as a married couple could be. From their desire to encourage young people and travel the world to their leadership and entrepreneurship, it was a perfect match.And for DeBorah, Floyd was more than just a loving partner. He was also an amazing teacher.“He just was a major encouragement,” DeBorah said. “Someone said he never met a stranger, and that’s because when he would meet someone, he’d be hugging them, putting them in a headlock or slapping them on the back within five minutes of meeting people. He was just very, very friendly.”DeBorah said her and Floyd’s lives were intertwined. When Floyd died of cancer in January 2021, however, DeBorah said she was devastated. As she told TNIAAM: “what do I do now?”Soon after Floyd’s passing, the inspiration came.“It’s time to give back, it’s time to get up, (and) get out of the house.”TNIAAM had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with DeBorah to hear more about her story, how she met Floyd and, more importantly, the work she has done and continues to do to carry Floyd’s legacy forward and inspire those in need.The second week of November 1997 is the one where the two ultimately collided.On Tuesday, DeBorah had just won her race for Syracuse City Council. Days later on Saturday, she had met Floyd, who DeBorah said would return back to Syracuse University to support some of the school’s events.“Apparently he saw my photo on my lawn signs campaigning, and wanted to know who I was, and some of his friends were speaking highly of me,” DeBorah said. “A mutual friend insisted that we meet. He introduced us, and Floyd and I were very good friends, (and) talking a lot for the next two to three years.”Just like that, the seeds had been planted for them to live together and eventually get married.Both had different careers before they started dating. DeBorah worked with United Airlines, while Floyd owned car dealerships in Seattle. DeBorah and Floyd moved together to Seattle in 2001 and got married within two years. The couple lived out west for a time. During that period, Floyd was officially picked for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, after three first-team All-American years while wearing #44 at Syracuse and ending his professional career as one of the NFL’s best running backs ever by the time he retired.Floyd and DeBorah would return to Syracuse together briefly after the former was tasked with serving as Special Assistant to the Athletics Director at SU for almost five years. They would eventually return out west and live in Las Vegas, and that’s when DeBorah said Floyd started to get sick with cancer. In May 2020, the university formally announced the diagnosis.“He fought hard. He was so optimistic, positive and believing, but then, it got the better of him,” DeBorah said.Floyd died on January 1, 2021. He was 78. DeBorah said his passing left her lost.“Inside out, upside down, devastated and didn’t know what to do,” she said. “Stayed in the house, morning, noon, night, week after week, month after month.”Even though Floyd was gone, DeBorah said his love was still there. It was encouraging, understanding of what she going through and motivating her to keep going.“I could feel Floyd’s love saying ‘you’re better than this and I know it hurts, but I’m with you,’” DeBorah said. “I’m always with you.”With support and help from others around her, DeBorah got to work to not just do something that could make a difference, but also highlight and remember the best of Floyd.Having a background in public speaking and training, she took some programming from her for-profit business, Touchdown Presentations, LLC, and laid the building blocks for the organization called Foundation 44, dedicated to “inspiring minds and changing lives” in the city where DeBorah and Floyd first got to know each other.“After several different names came to mind, Foundation 44: The Legacy of Floyd Little hit my heart, and I remember where I was and what I was doing when it hit my heart,” Deborah said.Foundation 44 aims to honor Floyd’s career as both a the football legend and who he was as a person. The nonprofit’s pillars include commitment, dedication, sacrifice and determination. It engages with the community through four programs: The Personal and Educational Development (PED) Program, The Legacy of Our Legends, The Believers Retreat and The Little Sisters Believers Retreat.To an extent, each of these programs invokes some of the personal experiences both DeBorah and Floyd each dealt with at some point in their life experience. For example, DeBorah said both she and Floyd had similar backgrounds growing up: being raised in a low-income, single-parent household and facing challenges in school, but later going on to be successful.The PED program currently works with the Syracuse City School District, engaging with middle and high school students. Foundation 44 specifically targets kids with low grades, high rates of absenteeism and a significant chance of either being dropped out of school.In particular, this work is extra special for DeBorah. She said Floyd loved talking with the youth and encouraging them. So does DeBorah.“Believe in them and tell them how brilliant they are and tell them all that they can accomplish,” she said. “The next thing you know, they’re sitting up, they’re talking to you and they’re coming up with ideas.”Again, inspiration is behind the work. The most important element of PED, DeBorah said, is the students themselves coming up with a project from scratch. The goal is for them to brainstorm ideas that would improve the condition at their school.For instance, students at Henninger High School worked to literally live their legacy inside the school’s halls, leaving motivating quotes like “the pain you’re feeling doesn’t compare to the joy that’s coming” and “we will either find a way or make one.”“What we have found is when we engage students and their voices, which are the most important voices in the room, they actively participate and they show up,” DeBorah said. “Parallel to the program or the project in the school, their life becomes the project.”Another project, this one at Lincoln Middle School, saw students join together to create the “Knights Shake Shack.” The stand includes everything from prices and signs to a full selection of popular snacks.It became such a hit, even some members from the Syracuse football team stopped by to pay a visit.“The next thing you know, we got football players showing up at (the) middle school four times. We showed up four times so these kids could have their store and sell their cookies, soda and chips, because that was their project,” DeBorah said.PED also works in other areas to help students. For combatting absenteeism, Foundation 44 will give out gift cards for every week a student has perfect attendance. For those with low grades, the nonprofit pushes them to increase their grades by at least a plus. It supports students with direct tutoring from college students like those at SU to retired educators.Outside the classroom, Foundation 44 also strives to inspire through its other programs.The Legacy of Legends, for instance, directly assists widows of Pro Football Hall of Famers. DeBorah said they tutor and coach them on sharing their former husbands’ stories, not on how they did on the field, but off of it. Specifically, who the players were as people and what were their characters.“When their husband passes away, they don’t get invited to the games. They don’t get invited to the parties. They don’t get invited to trips anymore. They don’t go to Super Bowl anymore and their primary earner has passed away,” DeBorah said. “So, how do we help these widows become relevant again?”The main way of doing so: bringing these widows out in front of a crowd and present their partner’s legacies. Outside of just storytelling in front of audiences, the organization pushes to make sure every widow who does speak gets a stipend, which DeBorah said could be a “tremendous help” financially.Foundation 44 also hosts two retreats. One is dedicated to adult women, while the other focuses on female students between the ages of 14 and 16. Together, both emphasize reflection, motivation and encouragement.Looking ahead, other communities are starting to take note of the work and effort being done by Foundation 44 and its programs. DeBorah said she’s been asked to bring Floyd’s legacy to New Haven, his hometown, and invited to do work at schools in Las Vegas. For now, however, she emphasized while those opportunities are out there and on the horizon, Syracuse is her primary focus.Regardless where the work and the impact ends up being, the desire remains the same: keeping Floyd’s legacy alive.“Somebody passes away, everybody grieves for a period of time and then they get on with their life,” DeBorah said. “I just made a promise to his love. I will not let them forget you easily.”