GREEN BAY, Wis. -- If Ty Montgomery's 162-yard rushing performance against Chicago in Week 15 ranked somewhere between unexpected and inexplicable for a converted receiver who made a midseason switch to running back, wait until you hear who the Green Bay Packers' second-year pro credited most.

"My mom, she kind of taught me how to play football," Montgomery said.

When it comes to running backs, Lisa Montgomery knows best.

The same could be said about most everything in the life of her only son -- her only biological son, that is.

"If you know anything about my mom, she’s going to want to learn so she can then teach it to me, the things I don’t know," Montgomery said. "Just a quick example: I didn’t know how to tie a tie, and not having a dad around, she learned how to tie a tie so she could teach me."

From neckties to zone-blocking schemes, Lisa was the resident expert. The oldest girl of eight children, she was her father’s sidekick when it came to sports.

"My older brother was not into sports; he was into music," she said. "So guess who got stuck watching football with dad?"

Intro to football

Ty Montgomery and his mom, Lisa, who has raised 17 foster children, have brought their volunteer work from Dallas to Wisconsin, where they have helped with a foster parent program. Courtesy of Coalition for Children, Youth & Families

Lisa recalls vividly the day Montgomery essentially began his football journey. On the morning of Jan. 22, 2000, she woke up worried because he didn’t bounce into her room to wake her up like he had done almost every morning before that. She walked down to his bedroom only to find him, with his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling.

"It was his birthday," she recalled. "He said, 'I’m 7 today, can you sign me up for football?'"

From the beginning, Montgomery played running back. He carried the ball from youth football to middle school to high school -- before his coach at St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas convinced him that receiver was the way to go. All Montgomery wanted was a college scholarship, so he made the switch to receiver.

From the beginning, it was Lisa who gave him his first lessons in Football 101.

"She taught me how to get into a three-point stance, a lot of the mentality of playing tough and giving them the shoulder pads and hitting 'em and don’t be a punk, run hard, stuff like that," Montgomery said. "It’s all from my mom."

She also gave him plenty of reading material. She found books on the greatest NFL running backs and passed them along. She was especially fond of Jim Brown, "because Ty played lacrosse and Jim Brown played lacrosse [at] a predominantly white school and he’s African-American, so there were a lot of similarities," and of Walter Payton, "because I went to Jackson State for my undergrad and that’s where 'Sweetness' went."

"I had people and videos for him to watch," she said. "'This is what you do. These are the best of the best, and you see how they’re doing it.'"

A growing family

Ty Montgomery plays with a child at an event for Coalition for Children, Youth & Families in Milwaukee this summer. Photo courtesy of Coalition for Children, Youth & Families

It was also around that same time when Montgomery started to ask why he didn’t have a father in his life or any siblings. Although he says now that he knows who his father is, he doesn’t have a relationship with him.

"He was like, 'When am I going to get a brother?'" Lisa said.

Lisa, who couldn’t have any more children, looked into foster care.

"I went ahead and took a leap of faith," she said.

That leap turned into 17 foster children over the years -- all boys whom Montgomery considers his brothers. He or his mom remain in contact with most of them.

"It turned from one to next thing you know we’re taking in families," Montgomery said. "It speaks to the kind of person she is, it really does."

Today, at age 50, Lisa has one foster child with her at home in Dallas.

"He’s actually my foster grandson," she said proudly. "His dad was my very first foster son. His mother passed away last year of heart failure. He’s 10, he’s special needs, autistic, but he’s with me. His name is Terrell."

Although she still lives in Dallas, she has become active in Wisconsin’s foster parent programs.

This past summer, the Coalition for Children, Youth & Families in Milwaukee awarded Lisa with the "Foster Parent Hero" award. In a video played at the ceremony, Ty spoke glowingly about sharing his mother with his foster brothers.

Go to the homepage of FosterParentsRock.org, and you’ll find a picture of Lisa and Ty Montgomery.

"Foster parents and foster siblings like Lisa and Ty Montgomery are outstanding examples of how foster families can help children succeed, now and in the future," said Oriana Carey, CEO of the Coalition for Children, Youth & Families.

"We know that across the country, nearly 24,000 young adults age out of care each year. The stability that a foster parent can give to those young people is life-changing. Lisa and Ty have maintained contact with so many of the young people who Lisa fostered over the years. That’s one of the many reasons that we’re so grateful to be working with Lisa and Ty to tackle the topic of foster care here in Wisconsin and across the U.S."

Continuing education

Packers receiver-turned-running back Ty Montgomery rushed for 162 yards against Chicago in Week 15. Joe Robbins/Getty Images

These days, Ben Sirmans has continued Montgomery’s football education. The Packers' running backs coach, however, appreciates the foundation Lisa set down years ago.

"Just having the opportunity to hear the stories about his upbringing and having a chance to meet his mom, I know he’s always been pushed," Sirmans said. "Obviously with him being a Stanford grad, academically that’s a challenge within itself. I think he just has an internal flame that burns in him that he wants to be successful and he wants to succeed."

And Lisa has been there to see it all. She watched Montgomery’s breakout game as a running back, although she laughed heartily when told her son credited her for his success.

"I think he went back to his, I don’t know if 'first love' is the right term, but when he first started playing football he was a running back," Lisa said.

She had planned to be at Ford Field for Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Lions, but when the NFL moved it into the prime-time slot, she had to cancel her trip because she wouldn’t have been able to make it back to Dallas in time for an important work meeting on Monday -- she’s a tax manager for an oil and gas company -- and, of course, to take care of Terrell.

Ask her how she handles it all, and it’s sounds like the same response you’d get from Montgomery when he’s asked how he made the successful transition to running back.

"Just go to work like everybody else," she said.