IN THIS ISSUE:

FRONT ROW

Youth- and School-Based Sports: Heckling’s Slippery Slope– When Does It Cross the Line?
Professional Sports: Do Role Models Deserve a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card?
Keynote Speeches We Don’t Want to See
Jocks Behaving Badly:
    • Leader of the Pack
    • What – Another Mascot in Trouble?
    • Come to Australia – It’s Hooligan-Friendly!
    • Olympics Alert: First Chinese Drug Scandal
Jocks Behaving Exceptionally:
    • Character to Beat the Band
    • Sportsmanship Decides National Meet
    • Showing Your Opponent You Care
    • Motivating the Right Way
    • Rival School Steps Up After Tragedy   
Michael Josephson Commentary: The Super Bowl: An Epic Human Drama


SIDELINES

Announcements
Trivia Test: Who Said, "You Might as Well Praise a Man for Not Robbing a Bank" and What Memorable Act of Sportsmanship Prompted It?
Sportsmanship User's Guide: Sportsmanship for Dummies
You Make the Call: Should Athletes’ Personal Items Be Sold for Charity?
Principle of the Month: The Best Coaching Quote of the Year
Say What?
Upcoming Seminars
Trivia Test Answer

FRONT ROW

YOUTH- AND SCHOOL-BASED SPORTS

Ak15/flickr

Heckling’s Slippery Slope – When Does It
Cross the Line?

High school basketball games have become increasingly unpleasant for players, coaches, officials, and fans due to chanting and taunting that have sunk to new lows.

• At a Show Low, AZ, high school basketball game, white fans chanted at a visiting Apache team: "We pay taxes, yes we do/We pay taxes, how about you?"
• At Douglas Freeman High School in Richmond, VA, students singled out a star opposing player by shouting "Brokeback Bobby!"
• At South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard, WA, students heckled black players with "Go rob a liquor store!" and "Hooked on phonics!"
• At Sioux Falls, SD, white players have been pummeled with "Kill whitey!" and "Sunscreen!"

To combat the practice, some schools have overreacted with what some consider extreme measures. After fan conduct became so bad at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, PA, the administration outlawed all jeering, bare chests, body-painted slogans, and standing except in certain sections.

"No swearing, nothing negative at all," one student griped. "This school is so strict. I guess they want to keep their good reputation or something."

At a recent home game, the students sat still and barely applauded as both their JV and varsity teams lost. Their scorekeeper later told The Patriot-News: "[The players] are there for their peers. If their peers aren’t into it, how can they get into the game?"

Others feel the new rules are appropriate. "I was nauseated by the behavior of the CV kids," wrote one blogger. "I was embarrassed to be a CV fan that night. I for one am glad they are finally doing something about the brats."

So what’s the solution? Here's how these two institutions handled the situation:

South Kitsap High School. After its students chanted racial slogans at visiting players from Foss High, a predominantly black school, South Kitsap’s principal, athletic director, and student-body president signed a letter of apology and delivered it to Foss. Then they held a summit with Foss students.

"They came and shared how it made them feel," South Kitsap principal Dave Columbini told Teaching Tolerance magazine. Afterward, 10 to 15 students per school from the league were brought in for another meeting during which the students created the Narrows League Sportsmanship Slogan. "It hangs in our gym and is read before every game."

Heart of Illinois Conference. Its student-written Code of Conduct is read by students from each school prior to every contest urging them to, among other things, "respect our officials at all times."

"It gives a lot of guys goose bumps," official Rich Cacciatore told Pantagraph.com. "In the 22 years I’ve been officiating, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced something where a group of people came up with something so positive in the way of sportsmanship."

Another official, Kurt Hartke, said he is hopeful the code will help remind adults that "basketball is a learning experience and it’s supposed to teach you about life. Life is not always fair. We’re all going to make mistakes. There’s never a perfect game. If kids were perfect, coaches were perfect, and officials were perfect, we’d all be real happy. That’s not life."

To read the Code and see a video about it, click here.

[www.pennlive.com, 1/4/08, 1/5/08; http://hjnews.townnews.com, 11/15/08; www.tolerance.org; Los Angeles Times, 1/25/08; www.pantagraph.com, 1/28/08]

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

James Barnes/flickr

Do Role Models Deserve a
"Get Out of Jail Free" Card?

The term role model was coined by sociologist Robert King Merton in a Columbia University study in which he determined that certain "cosmopolitan influentials" can have an impact on others in a community. The term has passed into general use to mean "any person who serves as an example of a positive behavior."

Which raises this question: If a positive role model is involved in a scandal, should society and the law come down on him or her a) harder than everyone else, b) easier than everyone else, or c) the same as everyone else?

This query was posed by Rick Karcher on Sports-law.blogspot.com after a judge gave Marion Jones the maximum sentence for lying about using performance-enhancing drugs.

In his statement, Federal Judge Kenneth Karas said, "Athletes in society have an elevated status. They entertain, they inspire and, perhaps most important, they serve as role models."

Blogger Karcher said he couldn’t recall any case in which a defendant’s role-model status, which is subjective and personal, affected a judge’s sentence.

"Just because my kid’s favorite baseball player is Manny Ramirez and he wears Manny’s jersey doesn’t mean Manny is his role model. My kid doesn’t want to do everything Manny does. If Manny is ever implicated in wrongdoing, my kid will simply say, ‘That’s really sad and unfortunate.’"

His position echoes that of basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley who once proclaimed in a Nike commercial: "I’m not a role model. I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids."

Should teachers and firemen receive harsher sentences because many consider them to be role models? Karcher asked. Or, by contrast, should they get lighter treatment? "Role-model status influencing public opinion is one thing, but influencing judges imposing prison sentences is another."

What do you think? Send us your comments here and we'll publish the best ones.

[http://sports-law.blogspot.com, 1/12/08]

Keynote Speeches We Don’t Want to See Andred/Flickr

Despite steroid allegations against pitcher Roger Clemens, the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association allowed him to speak at its annual convention last month on the dubious topic: "My Vigorous Workout: How I Played So Long." We shudder to think what other questionable speeches may be on tap for 2008: • Tom Brady: "How Abstinence Enhances Game Performance" • Marion Jones: "The Key to Success: Be Around Good People" • Michael Vick: "Football Isn’t a Sport; It’s a Bloodsport" • Tiger Woods: "To Be Great on the Course, Speak Out Off the Course" • Isiah Thomas: "Winning Is Good, But Representing Your Team and City Is Better" • Shaquille O’Neal: "Keep Your Weight and Ego Down, and You’ll Always Win" • John Daly: "Straighten Out Your Personal Life and You’ll Straighten Out Your Game"

JOCKS BEHAVING BADLY

Leader of the Pack

It’s common for kids to grow up rooting for teams and players that their dad cheers for. Who else does the old man watch? In Wisconsin, that means Bret Favre and the Green Bay Packers.

So when Mathew Kowald’s 7-year-old son refused to wear the home team’s jersey during last month’s Packers-Seahawks playoff game, his father tied him up and taped the shirt onto him.

Kowald’s wife took pictures on her cellphone and called police.

He later told the Portage Daily Register that the whole thing was a joke and that the boy was laughing when his mom took the pictures. "Then he couldn’t get out and he got upset and that’s it. It lasted a minute. I didn’t mean no harm, and he knows that."

[http://sports.espn.go.com, 1/17/08]

What – Another Mascot in Trouble?

The first sign of mascots going bad was Philadelphia’s Phanatic, the most sued mascot in baseball. After years of ugly scuffles with managers and burning effigies of Tommy Lasorda, it finally went too far when it knocked over a senior citizen at a church carnival, costing the club $128,000.

Then came the Montreal Expos’ furry Youppi!, the first mascot to be thrown out of a game. Harvey the Hound, who barks for the Calgary Flames, once ripped a Vancouver Canucks jersey in half and, in turn, had its tongue ripped out by an opposing coach. And last year, Oregon’s Duck whomped the fur out of Houston’s Cougar mascot on national TV that became a YouTube classic.

The latest incident involves Chip, the University of Colorado’s fuzzy buffalo mascot, ironically a 2003 finalist for National Mascot of the Year honors for its outstanding fan interaction, sportsmanship, and community service.

That was until Chip showed up for "Kid’s Night" at a recent Denver Nuggets basketball game in gangster-themed attire: baggy pants, oversize white T-shirt, do-rag, gold teeth, and a teardrop tattoo below one eye (a gang symbol signifying the wearer has killed someone).

University spokesman Bronson Hilliard apologized later: "This is a collective failure. This is a failure on our part to educate these young people about what it means to represent the university appropriately."

The folks at Withleather.com summed it up best: "You’d think that bison, given their history of persecution and near-genocide, would be a little more sensitive to this sort of thing."

[www.withleather.com, 1/14/08; http://deadspin.com, 1/15/08]

Come to Australia – It’s Hooligan-Friendly!

After more than 150 rowdy Serbian and Croatian fans brawled with flag poles and bottles on the opening day of the 2007 Australian Open, officials promised there would be a zero-tolerance policy for the 2008 event. How did it work out?

During one Open match last month, nearly a dozen spectators became so unruly that security officers had to pepper-spray them in the stands. Several spectators had to be treated, and the match was suspended until the brawlers were subdued.

The officials then laid down the law to the troublemakers: You cannot re-enter the stadium...for 24 hours.

In case you’re wondering, Aussie slang for zero-tolerance is "whatever, mate."

[www.bangkokpost.com; http://shakedownsports.com; www.news.com.au, 1/16/08]

Olympics Alert: First Chinese Drug Scandal

We all knew it was going to happen. With the Beijing Summer Olympics approaching, the question was which sport would the Chinese be caught cheating in first – swimming? gymnastics? track and field?

It’s cricket. No, not the sport, the bug.

Mike Opinia/Flickr

For perhaps the first time since the Tang Dynasty, when crickets were first prized for their singing and fighting, anti-doping measures are being proposed to prevent unscrupulous owners from rigging their chirping champions with unnatural substances.

"Cricket Idol" isn’t a TV show yet, but top arthropod solos can bring owners fame and money, which is why some handlers secretly apply drugs to their insect’s wings to slow the rate of vibration, lower the pitch, and produce a better song. Simon Cowell, you’re needed in China.

With fighting crickets, all rules are off. Prizefighters are pumped with the finest worms and crab meat, get the hottest cricket chicks (champions are awarded one a day), earn thousands of dollars for their managers, and even get elaborate funeral services (a renowned champ’s coffin is on display at the Museum of Macao).

"They’re very much like athletes," one source told The Toronto Star. "Most owners won’t tell you what they feed their crickets before a tournament. They keep that secret."

To cut down on match-fixing, Beijing’s Association for Cricket Fighting (yes, there is one) requires all crickets to be sequestered in a holding area for one-to-three days before each tournament to ensure that the competitors eat the same food and don’t hop into the ring all bug-eyed and juiced up on greenies. George Mitchell, you’re needed in China.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cricket_fighting; http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation, 1/13/08]

JOCKS BEHAVING EXCEPTIONALLY

Character to Beat the Band

Ashwaubenon High School’s Jaguar Marching Band isn’t just any high school band. It’s marched in the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day and in New York on St. Patrick’s Day.

Before each football home game in its Green Bay, WI, suburb, the band traditionally marches onto the track and performs for the home fans. During last year’s state playoffs against Germantown, however, the band decided to improvise.

After completing their songs, they marched around the track toward their east end-zone bleacher section. But instead of taking their seats, they stopped in front of the visitors, faced them, and played their school song. The Germantown fans, stunned at first, sang along, then cheered and clapped.

"It was one of the classiest, most unselfish acts of character I ever witnessed," Ashwaubenon’s associate principal David Steavpack told us.

After the game, Germantown parents sought out band directors Marc Jimos and Greg Sauve to thank them for the gesture. The school was flooded with laudatory letters, and at the Jaguars Award Night, the act received a standing ovation.

"I still get goose bumps thinking about it," Steavpack said. "I am proud to say I am from Jaguar Country for many reasons, none more than this one simple act."

Sportsmanship Decides National Meet

Of all the tiebreaking rules in sports, is there any finer one than that of wrestling?

At The Clash VI National Wrestling Duals in Minnesota last month, three teams were tied at the end of the round-robin championship bracket. Minnesota’s Apple Valley High School, Illinois’ Montini Catholic, and Iowa’s Waverly-Shell Rock all finished with 2-1 records.

In most sports, the next deciding factor would be best conference won-loss record, best season record, most points scored over the season, or some other consideration predicated on points or winning.

Not so in high school wrestling. The first tiebreaker in the National Federation of State High School Associations is sportsmanship: "The team whose opposing wrestler(s) or team has been penalized the greater number of team points for flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct shall be declared the winner."

Both Apple Valley and Montini Catholic had lost a team point for unsportsmanlike conduct during the tournament, so Waverly-Shell Rock won The Clash VI title.

"It’s a great life lesson for everyone to learn," the school's coach Rick Caldwell told the Post-Bulletin.

[http://news.postbulletin.com, 1/9/08]

Showing Your Opponent You Care

During a California Interscholastic Federation girl’s basketball tournament hosted by Westmoor High School last month, a player from American High School went down hard in a game with Maria Carrillo High. The girl lay on the floor for several minutes before finally being helped off.

What was noteworthy was what Westmoor athletic director Mary Ann Paul witnessed during a subsequent game. Guard Amanda Johnson of Maria Carrillo was sitting the stands watching the next game when she saw the player who had been hurt limping out of the gym.

"Ms. Johnson got up from her seat and caught up with her before she left to ask how she was doing," Paul said in an e-mail to the CIF. "They gave each other a hug and wished each other good luck the rest of the season. The sportsmanship was truly remarkable considering how today’s athletes act."

Motivating the Right Way

Good coaches want their players to succeed, not only in sports but in life.

To motivate her student-athletes and honor those who are less talented but contribute in other ways, girl’s swimming coach Anita Leveke of Hoover High School in Des Moines, Iowa, took all the qualities that make up an ideal swimmer (supportive and positive outlook, hard work, great effort, and good grades) and created special awards that the team votes on.

Without fail, Leveke told us, "they’ve always gotten [the winners] right." The awards are:

Top Banana. The swimmer who consistently fires her teammates up.
Work Horse. The swimmer who consistently gives her best effort every yard, every day.
Snarlin’ Marlin. The swimmer who gives her best effort in a race to pull ahead and win.
"H" Towel. Swimmers who make the honor roll get a towel with a big "H" appliquéd in the center.

Since creating her motivator awards, Leveke has overheard girls pledging to work on their attitude and cheering or vowing to be the Top Banana next year. "The real award is that we’re a better team and better people," she said.

Rival School Steps Up After Tragedy

On Thanksgiving Day, 10-year-old Devon Owens of Vallejo, CA, lost his mother when his stepfather shot her in a murder-suicide. Devon’s 2-year-old sister was struck by the same bullet and is presently in a coma. Devon survived by crawling to a neighbor’s house.

Janice Williams, Devon’s 62-year-old grandmother who undergoes dialysis three times a week, cares for him now.

The tragedy galvanized the San Francisco Bay Area community. The boy's youth football team, the Benicia Panthers, set up a trust fund for him, and fundraising events, media coverage, celebrity donation drives, and corporate sponsorships followed.

But it was what the Panthers’ rival team, the San Ramon Valley T Birds, did that was truly remarkable. Their board of directors decided to lead an effort to secure Devon’s future education. Their goal is to raise $250,000.

Two of the T Bird players, Andrew and Matthew Zehnder, set up a hot cider stand and handed out flyers, raising nearly $300 in a few hours. "My boys learned so much about character during this fundraising effort," their father David wrote us.

The team’s gesture overwhelmed Devon’s grandmother, who said, "God knows who to give the riches to because those people know how to share."

At a party in his honor, Devon hugged the T Bird players who had been his rivals for so long. "They don’t even know me," he said, becoming so emotional that his grandmother had to comfort him.

[Thanks David for the tip!]

Want a Free Sportsmanship Patch?

We sent each of those who contributed an item a free Pursuing Victory With Honor patch for telling us about honorable deeds on and off the field of play.

We'll send you one, too, if you send us your stories at CharacterCountssports@jiethics.org. Put "Jocks Behaving Exceptionally" in the subject box.

You can also report acts of good sportsmanship to the NCAA's Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct by clicking here.

COMMENTARY BY
MICHAEL JOSEPHSON

The Super Bowl: An Epic Human Drama

You don’t have to be a theater enthusiast to appreciate grand tales about the human heart and soul from great plays like Oedipus Rex or King Lear. And you don’t have to be a sports fan to appreciate lessons of human spirit taught by great plays during athletic contests.

Yesterday’s Super Bowl game between the undefeated New England Patriots, heralded as the most powerful team ever, and the underdog New York Giants will doubtless achieve epic status.

Both sides fought well, but it was the last-minute heroics of the Giants’ battlefield leader, Eli Manning, which won the day and a place in history. The drama of Eli’s story is enriched by his emphatic emergence from the shadow of his older brother, Peyton, the hero of a similar battle last year.

The phrase “last minute” is not a literary device. There was literally less than a minute to go when Eli stunned more than a hundred million witnesses by escaping the grasp of a mob of clawing opponents to complete a pass to a leaping teammate who made an extraordinary catch.

This forever memorable play set up the ultimate death blow to the Patriots’ pursuit of sports immortality, producing a victory all the more momentous because Eli and his men defeated Tom Brady, a warrior with a Herculean reputation.

The defeat was a bitter blow to New England’s general, Bill Belichick, a man both admired and reviled for his brilliance and single-minded focus on winning.

Belichick was caught cheating earlier in the year and is now being accused of dishonoring his team and sport by walking off the field moments before the game was over.

Whether his unexpected defeat was unrelated to this moral cloud or a triumph of justice is the sort of question that makes this a classic human tragedy.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

For an archive of Mr. Josephson's commentaries with audio files, go to: www.CharacterCounts.org/knxtoc.htm.

To receive free weekly e-mail, including all five of Mr. Josephson's commentaries from that week, please sign up at: www.CharacterCounts.org/newsletters.htm.

CHARACTER COUNTS! Sports, a project of the nonprofit Josephson Institute, leads the Pursuing Victory With Honor sports campaign, which is endorsed by the country's leading amateur athletic organizations.

The campaign's purpose is to help administrators, athletes, coaches, legislators, officials, and parents improve personal and organizational decision making and behavior in sports.

Archives of Past Issues

ANNOUNCEMENTS

PVWH and L.A. Unified Team Up
To Offer Coaches “True Champions Practice Points”

Our Pursuing Victory With Honor sportsmanship campaign recently partnered with the L.A. Unified School District to enable all high-school and middle-school intramural coaches (approximately 1,350) to weave character-building aspects into their daily coaching routines during the 2008 season.

The groundbreaking program, called “True Champions Practice Points,” centers on 12 sportsmanship lessons that can be incorporated into a coach’s normal routine without compromising precious practice time.

Each exercise is designed to engage student-athletes in meaningful discussions about on and off the field conduct.

The project includes mandatory training sessions, behavior surveys, biweekly discussion/activity exercises, and comprehensive support materials.

We’ll keep you informed on the progress of this unique and ambitious trial program.

Who said:

"You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank."

What memorable act of sportsmanship prompted it?

See the answer below.

Sportsmanship for Dummies

As the NBA becomes more and more synonymous with trash-talking, chest-pumping, and temper tantrums, how can youth coaches prevent youngsters from emulating such unsportsmanlike behavior?

Greg Bach, communications director for the National Alliance For Youth Sports, offers five tips in his book, Coaching Basketball for Dummies (Wiley, 2007), which we've adapted below.

1. Model good behavior. If you don’t comport yourself well on and off the court, don’t expect your players or their parents to do so either. If you disrepect officials, your players will take the cue.

2. Set a positive tone. Shake hands with the opposing coaches before the game. The players, fans, and opposing staff will notice your gesture. Iit will remind them that it’s just a game and that you’re there for the kids.

3. Congratulate everyone. Have your team shake hands with the opposing team and coaches after the game and tell them how well they played, win or loss. Then have them do the same with the officials.

4. Motivate with praise. After the game, commend individual players for any acts of sportsmanship. This will reinforce that their behavior during and after games matters greatly to you and the spectators.

5. Highlight sportsmanship. Use warm-ups and practices as teachable moments to discuss incidents in the news or games on TV in which good or bad sportsmanship was displayed.

Should Athletes’ Personal Items
Be Sold for Charity?

Carol Bassi/Flickr

Last December, tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Ana Chakvetadze played an exhibition match in Singapore. Afterward, Entertainment Group Limited (the sponsor) and the Fullerton Hotel (in whose presidential suite Sharapova stayed), auctioned off for charity all of her used bedsheets, pillowcases, towels, slippers, and even a swimsuit.

Although athletes routinely toss sweat-soaked wristbands, towels, and shirts to fans after games, is selling such items going too far – even if it's for charity and the athlete gives his or her permission?

• Yes.
• No.
• I’m not sure.

Click here to vote

Due to technical difficulties, the results of last month's poll are unavailable. We regret the inconvenience.

PRINCIPLE OF THE MONTH

Principle Sixteen: The Best Coaching Quote of the Year

Principle Sixteen of the Arizona Sports Summit Accord states that "The profession of coaching is a profession of teaching. Coaches, through words and example, must strive to build the character of their athletes."

We can’t imagine a better example of that than this quote that Chicago Tribune sportswriter Davis Surico got last year, which he rated the best one of 2007.

It was from Don Gillingham, baseball coach of Walther Lutheran High School in Melrose Park, IL, after his team beat Beardstown for third place in the state finals.

"The third-place game is about character. The third-place game is about high school sports. There’s talk about maybe cutting it out because it takes too long and people sometimes don’t want to play it. If you don’t want to play in this game, then you shouldn’t play, period. And if you don’t want to do everything you can to win this game, then you don’t deserve to win any games.

"It’s easy to do it when everybody’s cheering for you and everybody’s behind you. I told them to look up in the stands. ‘You see how few people are here? Those are the people who really love you. Everybody else just wanted to be part of a championship. They went home. People who really wanted to see you play because of what they want you to grow up to be, they’re still here. So you’ve got to perform for them and yourselves.’"

Nearly 50 influential leaders in sports issued the Arizona Sports Summit Accord in 1999 to encourage greater emphasis on the ethical and character-building aspects of athletic competition.

There are youth/interscholastic and collegiate/Olympic versions. Read the full texts here.

"Lynch him in a back alley."
– Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman’s response to how young pro golfers could challenge Tiger Woods, which resulted in her being suspended for two weeks

"I don’t need the Hall of Fame to justify that I put my butt on the line and I worked my tail off."
– Roger Clemens after the Mitchell Report included accusations that his former trainer injected Clemens in the buttocks with steroids and human growth hormone.

"There were thousands of guys who were right on the doorstep between 1990 and 2005 and they were cheated because they didn’t use steroids."
– Rich Hartmann, former St. Louis Cardinals minor-league player, who is considering filing a class-action lawsuit against Major League Baseball on behalf of players who, because they were drug-free, did not advance to the majors

"We want to do this tastefully, so no toilet seats or covers will be offered for auction."
– Jerry Goh, an organizer for a Singapore tennis exhibition that involved auctioning off personal items used by tennis pro Maria Sharapova in her hotel room for charity

"I love me some me."
– Trademark application filed by Dallas Cowboys’ receiver Terrell Owens for future use in theme restaurants, clothing, and cups

"If they win today, they could possibly go on to the Super Bowl."
– ESPN announcer and former player Emmitt Smith referring to the New York Giants’ chances prior to the NFC championship game

"I had friends with me from New York and Florida who said if Oregon was the last university on the planet, they wouldn’t send kids to that school."
– Former Oregon player Stan Love after a basketball game he attended there in which Oregon students held up signs referring to drug abuse and mental illness by his cousin Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys

"Major League Baseball’s security staff is defaming umpires in their communities by conducting strange, surreptitious, and poorly executed investigations resembling that of secret police in some despotic nation."
– World Umpires Association union spokesman Larnell McMorris after baseball investigators asked neighbors of potential umpire candidates in Kentucky if the umps were KKK members

"Congress must get serious about global warming before rising temperatures fumble away cold weather teams’ home field advantage."
– Press release by Environment America in an attempt to better relate the environment issue to the "average American"

"We’ve got to tell these children: ‘You’re not going to grow to be a basketball player. You’re too short. Try baseball.’"
– Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the Major League Baseball Players Association, on how to attract Chinese athletes to the sport

~ Classic From the Past ~

"I wish to hell I’d never said the damned thing. I meant the effort. I meant having a goal. I sure as hell didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality."
– Vince Lombardi on his famous line: "Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing."

Bobby Jones.

He was in the final playoff of the 1925 U.S. Open when his ball landed in the rough. Before he struck the ball, his iron caused the ball to move slightly. He immediately informed the marshals and called a penalty on himself.

After discussion among the marshals and the gallery, it was determined that no one had seen the ball move. The decision was left to Jones.

He went ahead and marked the two-shot penalty on his scorecard. He ended up losing the tournament by one stroke.

When he was praised afterward for the gesture, he replied, "You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank."

The U.S. Golf Association later named its annual sportsmanship award in his honor.

[http://majorlycool.com]

Please let us know what you are doing -- or what you see others doing -- so we can share your stories to strengthen character-building efforts everywhere. Go to: CharacterCountsSports@jiethics.org

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