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‘Lion King’ To Play College Football

Posted at 9:46 PM, Feb 18, 2014
and last updated 2014-02-18 23:10:24-05

SOUTHFIELD, Mich (February 18, 2014)- He’s been working on his roar for years and now it looks like it’s paying off.

A teenager near Detroit recently signed a letter of intent to play football at Eastern Michigan University on a full scholarship. The name that’s going to appear on the back of his jersey? Lion King.

That’s right.

Our FOX affiliate in Detroit first met Lion King Conaway when he was just 12-years-old. They even took him to a stage production of “The Lion King” and had his makeup done.

Now, he’s 18-years-old and is a star defensive end at Southfield High School. Lion tells WJBK that he’s proud of his unusual name.

“It gives me a lot of notoriety. It helps me talk to people easy, you know, it gives me a lot of confidence,” said Lion.

Lion’s father says he got the idea for the name while writing a term paper about a lion king in Africa in junior high. Recently, he dropped Lion’s last name ‘Conaway,’ so his full legal name is now just Lion King.