The Good in Sports

We all know in the modern sports world we are inundated with all the bad things. Steroid scandals, gambling, guys cheating on their spouses, players getting arrested for punching women at strip clubs and the list goes on and on (I wont mention dog fighting so I don’t upset Andrew). And with all the negative reporting we obviously overlook the good people, the people of character, the people of courage, heart and determination.

Over the past few days some of these stories have broke, but of course not receiving the proper attention they deserve. Before we get into some of those we look back on some of my favorite moments of courage and character. There was this moment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4880PJnO2E) a few years ago when then head coach of the Portland Trailblazers (or Jailblazers as they were known) Maurice Cheeks stepped out to help this young lady sing the national anthem after she froze up and forgot the words. Cheeks didn’t do it for himself, he was terrible and off key, but in order to help the young girl finish the job she had started. I had always been a fan of Cheeks from a distance, but from that day on I would be an advocate for Cheeks and his teams, always. Then there was the 1992 Olympic games when sprinter Derek Redmond’s hamstring popped down the backstretch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zi0_LjHHN4), but Redmond refused to give up. Though he knew he wouldn’t receive and medal he refused medical attention and began t limp the rest of the race, when from the crowd his father appeared to help him finish the race.

Some of you may have heard this story from a random Division II softball game out in the pacific northwest. Embattled in a tight contest Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky hit a walk off game winning 3 run homerun. She being the third and game winning run, began to round the bases and after accindetally missing first she turned back quickly to touch it, in doing so tearing her knee apart. Unable to go on, and of course Umpires being sticklers for rules, and unable to have her teammates help her the opposing first baseman and shorstop, Central Washington's Liz Wallace and Mallory Holtman, picked her up and carried her aroudn the bases so that Western Oregon could rightfully win the game. That is character.

Now we get to courage. That is the story of Tennessee All-American and all time leading scorer Chris Lofton and his battle against testicular cancer. I know Chris Lofton a little bit, that is to say we exchange cordial hellos when we see each other and he would recognize me as the guy from South Carolina and that’s about all. I always liked him because he seemed failry humble amongst a team of outstanding personalities. During a random NCAA drug test it was discovered that Lofton had testicular cancer. Lofton silently, even to his teammates, battled the disease with surgery and radiation (to read more details go here, http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?id=3376961). During the beginning of this season something seemed off about Lofton’s game, and he even looked a little lighter, but he never made any excuses. His scoring and shooting percentages were way down but all he would say is that he has to continue to work and his game would come back to him. Well now we all know that there was something wrong with Lofton, but he just fought the disease off and continued to play at a high level. That is courage.