Nick Schulyer's 'Not Without Hope' Recounts NFL Boat Disaster

Nick Schulyer was the sole survivor of the tragic fishing trip that took the lives of three football players. (AP Images)"]
Nick Schulyer, a personal trainer and former USF  player was the sole survivor of a fishing trip that killed three football players: NFL stars Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, and Will Bleakley from the University of South Florida.

Now Schulyer has penned a book about what happened entitled, Not Without Hope. Schuyler appeared on the  Today Show this morning and will also visit  the  Oprah show today  to talk about how he saw three of his best friends succumb to the effects of hypothermia  and die in his arms.

According to Schulyer, the four decided to head back to shore as  the  weather  picked up and the sea began to get rough.  When they realized their anchor was stuck, they made  a fatal mistake, when, according to the the book's description, they tied  "the anchor rope to the stern of the boat and hitting the throttle. The anchor did not yank free. Instead, the stern sank and filled with water, and the boat capsized."

Schulyer watched as his three friends slowly perished as they clung to the overturned hull. Forty hours later, Nick was finally rescued.

Schuyler, with the help of  New York Times bestselling author and sports journalist Jere Longford, writes that what kept him going was the image of his mother standing next to his casket.

"This is the way I remember it," he writes. "If I get some things wrong, it is due to the frailties of memory and the horror of what I experienced, not any intention to amend or deceive. This is what I recall after being in the water for forty-three hours, frigid and aching and scared, so hungry and thirsty that I felt I was eating my teeth. This is the best I can do after having three friends die, two of them in my arms."