This is an opinion column.

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This is the first Thanksgiving for Tim Murphy since he retired as the football coach of the Harvard Crimson.

Murphy is a cornerstone of Harvard toughness and tradition. He coached at Harvard for 30 years, winning 10 Ivy League championships. Last Saturday, during the annual Harvard-Yale game, Harvard renamed its field at Harvard Stadium in Murphy’s honor.

Murphy impacted a lot of lives during his career. He touched a lot of hearts. He coached a lot of good men. Over the years, he’s gotten to know some of the most inspiring people in the country and world — the “10,000 men of Harvard,” as the fight song goes.

Murphy is a legend through and through. He stands in awe of one person, though, and that’s Ben Abercrombie of Hoover, Alabama.

Murphy will celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday at his home on Cape Cod. It will not be an enormous party, but it’s a big day for Murphy and his wife Martha. Ben and his amazing family are coming over to visit for the day.

“Ben is a leader,” Murphy said. “He has brought so many people together. And his family is extraordinary.”

Ben’s story is well known in Boston, back home in Alabama and throughout the country. It has been seven years since he was paralyzed from the neck down while playing in the first game of his freshman year. Ben needs a ventilator to breathe and around-the-clock care. Despite his catastrophic injury, he is thriving with the help of his family and people at Harvard like Murphy.

I went to Cambridge last weekend to spend time with Ben, his family and their community of friends at Harvard. There was a Harvard football reunion and fundraiser for Ben on Friday night at an upscale nightclub and bowling alley. Bowling for Ben, it was called. On Saturday, I was with Ben throughout the day and late into the night. We went to the Harvard-Yale game together and then we ate burgers and watched football in his dorm room.

Every week of the season for the last five years, Ben and I have tried our best to guess college football winners in the pick’ems feature that runs in AL.com. It’s called Joe vs. the Pro and the Hero. Ben is the Hero.

Ben is better than me at picking games and he knows more about football than I ever will. For me, Joe vs. the Pro and the Hero isn’t really about that, though. It’s about celebrating life and college football together. For the first time, Ben and I finally got a chance to watch games side by side.

It was one of my favorite days in a long time, but we’re both still trying to figure out that penalty call against Alabama.

Thanksgiving is here. In Alabama, it’s Iron Bowl week, too. Some of us are Alabama fans. Some of us are Auburn fans. We’re all fans of Ben Abercrombie. The Ben Abercrombie Fund was set up by Harvard to help with Ben’s medical expenses. His medical care isn’t free and it isn’t cheap.

This holiday season, please consider donating to the Ben Abercrombie Fund.

This is the time of year when we all come together and take time to appreciate the important things in life. I’m thankful for Ben and his unrelenting spirit, and I’m thankful for the people at Harvard and in Alabama who have helped Ben through his journey towards full recovery.

Ben’s goal is to walk again, and along that path he is inspiring lives every day with his courage.

There have been a lot of inspiring stories and traditions throughout the history of college football. At Alabama, they enshrine the names of every captain at Denny Chimes. At Auburn, the majestic eagles fly before games. At Notre Dame, they say “play like a champion today” and “win one for the Gipper.”

At Harvard, a new call to courage is a nod to Abercrombie.

“Fight like a badger,” they say.

Ben is the Badger. It’s a nickname he picked up his first week during practice at Harvard. The kid from Alabama was so amazingly tough that an upperclassman on the team started calling Ben “the Badger.” It was the seniors on that team who then formed the Badger Committee after Ben’s injury against Rhode Island.

Spend the day with Ben and it becomes clear very quickly how intense his focus remains. After we ate burgers together, Ben then couldn’t wait to get on his modified bike for a workout. Using electric stimulation, the Badger pedaled his legs for an hour and his arms for 30 minutes. Ben works out every day. Despite being paralyzed, he has just about as much muscle mass in his legs as me.

The Badger’s spirit is like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s why so many people gravitate towards him and want to help.

Ben was a safety for Harvard. On the field that day in Rhode Island was Harvard fifth-year senior safety Raishaun McGhee of Windsor, Connecticut. It was McGhee who took the lead in the latest Bowling for Ben fundraiser.

“He was like my little bro,” McGhee said. “He was the only freshman on the team to travel to the first game.”

Ben was inserted into the game against Rhode Island after Harvard’s starting safety was injured on the game’s opening kickoff. Ben was then injured on a routine tackle in the second quarter.

“It could have happened to me. It could have happened to any of us,” said Bob Glatz, who is the executive director of the Harvard Varsity Club. “That’s why it’s so important to help him.”

Glatz played football for Harvard and now he raises money for the athletic department. Bowling for Ben has turned into an unofficial reunion for all former Harvard football players. McGhee, Glatz and other former players on the Badger Committee joined Ben on Murphy field during the third quarter of the Harvard-Yale game. Among them was Douglas Henze, a former Harvard defensive lineman who played for Spain Park High School in Hoover.

Ben never got a chance to play an official game on Murphy Field, but an entire stadium stood up and cheered for him during his final game at Harvard as a student. Ben is scheduled to graduate from the most prestigious university in the world in May.

Understand this to fully appreciate that accomplishment. Ben writes all his papers — and Joe vs. the Pro and the Hero, of course! — with his eyes.

“We’re always going to be there for Ben,” said Murphy, the legendary coach.

And Ben is always going to be there for Harvard.

BE HEARD

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Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”