Just like their friendship, the story didn’t end there. Many years later, Jesse received a letter from Luz Long’s son, Kyle, who was then twenty-two-years old and getting married. The letter read, “Even though my father can’t be here to be my best man, I know who he would want in his place. He would want someone that he and his entire family admired and respected. He would want you to take his place. And I do, too.” Jesse Owens flew to Germany to be the best man at Kyle’s wedding. Jesse once said, “Friendships are born on the field of athletic strife and are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.” He was a man of his word.
Perhaps the greatest example of love in action in the world of sport and life is that of Amos Alonzo Stagg. His whole life was devoted to the habit of doing good. To perfecting all that he had been given. Remember the parable of the servant who was given five talents and then found a way to double them? That is Amos Alonzo Stagg. His life inspires generation after generation to do more, to give more, and to be more.
How does a man five feet six inches tall, weighing one-hundred and fifty pounds dripping wet, become one of the greatest football players and coaches of all-time? The simple answer is that you can’t judge a book by its cover. The more complex answer is that Amos Alonzo Stagg was a deep well. He was one of those rare people who double their talents by integrating the physical, mental, and spiritual in all that they do. In his late teens he developed into an extraordinary pitcher. He received numerous offers from professional teams such as the New York Giants to play baseball. To the disbelief of his teammates and friends, he declined the offers to play professionally and headed to Yale Divinity School where he hoped to become a minister. It turned out that Yale had a baseball team and a football team and both of them were only too glad to welcome Amos to their ranks. He ended up leading the Yale Baseball Team to five Championships (it was permissible at the time to compete for a fifth year while completing a Masters Degree) and was a member of arguably one of the greatest football teams of all-time which in 1888 went undefeated and un-scored upon (698-0).
Given Amos’s strong desire to be a minister it is not surprising that he came to be known for his virtue, especially as it applied to sport. Unfortunately he lacked one essential thing a preacher needs: the ability to preach. He was soft spoken, struggled to express himself in front of large audiences, and as he noted, “stammered terribly.” This revelation led him to the Springfield Training School (YMCA) where he coached and captained the football team. Ironically, James Naismith the founder of basketball was the starting center on his football team. Before leaving Springfield for the University of Chicago two years later, Amos played in the first public game of basketball—students versus teachers—and scored the only point for his team in extremely low scoring 5-to-1 loss. For his early involvement and his many later contributions to the game, he would be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1958.
His decision to leave Springfield was about something much deeper than money, prestige or position. In reply to William Rainey Harper, the president of the University of Chicago, Amos wrote,” After much thought and prayer I have decided that my life can be best used for my Master’s Service in the position you have offered.” Although he would not be preaching from the pulpit, he came to realize, “I felt specially called to preach but I decided to do it on the athletic fields!” Upon his arrival at the University of Chicago, he was appointed the director of the department of physical culture and the head football coach. He held these positions for over forty years and won two National Championships and seven Big Ten Championships. Amos was an innovator and inventor. He introduced the QB sneak, “T” formation, man in motion, onside kick, lateral pass, huddle, Statue of Liberty play, quick kick, reverse, and many more. On the day the forward pass became legal in 1906 he already had sixty-four plays ready to go. He created hip pads, tackling dummies and padded goal posts, and he was the first to employ numbered jerseys.
During his tenure at the University of Chicago he also managed to coach the baseball team for seventeen years and create the first batting cage. Nothing seemed beyond the scope of his fertile imagination. He even invented the first trough for swimming pools to reduce turbulence and decrease the water overflow. As if he wasn’t busy enough, he also coached the track team for thirty-two years and he was selected to coach the 400m and 800m runners on the 1924 United States Olympic track team in Paris. He continued as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee for six Olympiads and chaired the NCAA Championships for twelve years.
Despite all of these incredible accomplishments, Amos Alonzo Stagg was best known for his character and integrity. His reputation for honesty and fair play was legendary. On two separate occasions, when referees did not show up for a football game that his team was playing in, the opposing team asked Amos to referee the games. Virtue was his secret to a good and happy life. He expected everyone of his charges to live this way and even created the varsity letter system in order to recognize those players who did. He awarded a letter based on a young man “qualifying for manhood” and not exclusively on his ability as an athlete. In his book on sports virtue entitled Amos Alonzo Stagg, Fritz Knapp wrote, “Some of his better players did not earn letters, and he honestly confronted them with the truth when they hadn’t shown the kind of spirit that he looked for in a letterman, namely ‘faithfulness to practice and the rules of training, fidelity to fair play and good sportsmanship, and loyalty to the athletic ideals of the University.’”
By living the ideals that he preached to others, Amos earned the undying love and respect of all who knew him. In 1951 he would become the first person inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. Some think that perhaps Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne best summed it up when he said, “All of football comes from Stagg,” but Amos found that by being faithful and pursuing the truth first, the victories on and off the field always seemed to follow. As Mother Theresa often said, “I am not called to be successful, but to be faithful.”
Stories about his moral character and love for each of his players are endless. After observing the kids tearing up Amos’s pristine lawn each day while playing football, a neighbor approached him and said, “You’ll never raise grass that way.” To which Amos quickly shot back, “I’m not raising grass. I’m raising boys!” Another time after one particularly fine season, a reporter asked Coach Stagg, “Coach, was this your most successful team?” Stagg replied, “I won’t know that for another 20 or 30 years.”
Perhaps no story could better capture the essence of the man, than the letter he wrote to his one year old son, Amos Jr., expressing his love and offering him advice on how to live a good life and be happy.
To My Son,
June 23, 1900
You’re only a little fellow now-a trifle over 14 months old; but I have loved you so dearly since you came that it has been on my mind to write you a letter in the event of my being taken away at any time before I had a chance to tell you many things which you need to know.
Your father wants his Boy first of all to love, protect, and care for his Mother, giving to her the same kind of measure of love and devotion which she has given to you.
Second, your father wants his Boy to be sincere, honest and upright and be your truest self always. Hate dishonesty and trickery no matter how big and how great the thing desired may be.
Third, your father wants you to have a proper independence of thought. Think matters out for yourself always where it relates to your own conduct and act honestly afterwards.
Fourth, your father wants you to be an American in democracy. Treat everybody with courtesy and as your equal until he proves his unworthiness to be so treated. The man and the soul are what counts and not wealth, not family, not appearance.
Fifth, your father wants you to abhor evil. No curiosity, no imagination, no conversation, no story, no reading which suggests impurity of life is worthy of your thought, or attention and I beg you never t
o yield for an instant but turn your thought to something good and helpful.
Sixth, train yourself to be master of yourself, of your thought and imagination and temper and passion and appetite and of your body. Allow no thought, nor imagination, nor passion, nor appetite to injure your mind or body. Your father has never used intoxicating liquors, nor tobacco, nor profane language. He wants his Boy to be like him in this regard.
Seventh, your father wants his Boy enthusiastic and earnest in all of his interests, his sports, his studies, his work; he wants him always to keep an active, actual participation in each so long as he lives. It is my judgment that one’s life is most healthy and most successful when lived on such a basis.
Eighth, your father wants his son to love God as He is revealed to him; which after all will be the revelation of all that I have said and left unsaid of good to you, my precious Boy.
Affectionately,
Your father,
Amos Alonzo Stagg
He was as good a father as he was a coach and as you might have imagined his marriage wasn’t anything less. Stella his wife was a real character and loved him so deeply that she jumped into football with both feet. In a 1962 Sports Illustrated article, John Underwood wrote,
Stella Stagg learned to diagram plays and to scout opponents, and to make his utilitarian meals palatable for the family. Once he showed her a new play he was going to spring on a COP opponent. She quickly worked out a defense for it. “That’ll stop your play,” she said. Stagg scratched his white head, puzzling. He padded off to the kitchen for a glass of water. Finally he returned. “He had a gleam in his eye and an eraser in his hand,” says Mrs. Stagg. “You can’t stop it now,” he said with triumph, and erased one of my players. “You were using 12 men.”
With her at his side, Amos at the age of eighty-one was named the 1943 National Football Coach of the Year over Frank Leahy of Notre Dame. Amos would continue to coach until he was ninety-six years old. Fifty-seven years as a head coach with a record of 314-199-35 and six years as an assistant for his son Amos Jr. at Susquehanna University and finally six years as the punting coaching at Stockton College.
On his one-hundredth birthday Amos was asked, “What do you think your legacy will be?” He replied thoughtfully as if he were already far away, “I would… like to be remembered… as an honest man.” In a Birthday tribute, President John F. Kennedy wrote, “His character and career have been an inspiration since his undergraduate days for countless Americans. Few men in our history have set so persuasive and shining examples as a teacher, coach and citizen. His integrity and dedication to all the goals he has set for himself are unmatched.” Amos and Stella were happily married for seventy years and somehow it seems fitting that they would both die within six months of each other. Amos was one-hundred and two years old.
TAKE AWAY
It’s never too late. Whether you excel in one particular virtue like world-class athletic performance or academic excellence or business success, you are called to practice all of the virtues in all that you do. Your complete happiness depends on it. You are called to be a saint, to give your all—in mind, heart, body and soul. You are not called to be successful, but to be faithful. Are you attentive to the will of God in all aspects of your life? Doing so, sooner than later, will prevent a lot of heartache and pain for you, your family, and those around you, and result in a life well lived.
Faith, reason and a lifetime of preparation and dedication can prepare you to instantly recognize and respond to the most important moments of your life. These are the moments if acted upon that you will always cherish and they are the ones that will be remembered by your children and your children’s children. But this all comes at a price, a sacrifice. The question is can you take it? Will you take it?
CHAPTER 9
PLAYING HURT
EVERY athlete has had to deal with pain from injury or pain from the sacrifice required to train and compete at the highest level. But pain is just a word. Reading it doesn’t trigger your pain receptors to fire. Remembering the time that your finger was smashed between two helmets or caught in the car door is not the same as experiencing the actual pain at the instant it occurs. But when it does happen, will you be able to take it? Will you be able to take the pain and discomfort that may be required to achieve your goals and aspirations?
Imagine that someone who you love is sitting in a chair across the room from you. It’s someone you love so much that you would die for them. Do you have this person in mind? Now imagine that suddenly their chair bursts into flames. Would you run over and pull that person off the chair? Most people would say, “yes.” What if I tell you that you’ll be burned badly, right down to your wrist bones? Would you still do it? Most people still say, “Yes. Absolutely, it’s someone I would die for.”
Now imagine that I pull out a flamethrower and blast your wrists with it. Burn you right down to the bones. You’re going to go nuts. You’re going to roll around on the floor writhing in pain, attack me, or run out of the room screaming. Same burn, same pain as when you pulled the person off the burning chair. One you can take, the other you can’t. Why? Because pain without purpose is intolerable. We can’t take it. This is why it’s so important to reflect on the question, “What is my purpose? What is a sufficiently compelling reason that would enable me to take the pain and sacrifice that I will be faced with in life?” If the answer isn’t clear to you, you won’t be able to take it when it comes. And it is coming!
C.S. Lewis explains why it is necessary that it does come. In his book, Virtue and Vice, he writes about tribulation as a necessary medicine for our welfare. Contrary to our human inclinations for comfort and ease, he makes a compelling case for tribulation as a mercy when he wrote:
I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world, and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys: I am even anxious, God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days. Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over--I shake myself dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.
In our day to day lives it is often hard to understand how the tribulations and sufferings we face can be of any value to us. We are often like a little child who can only see the scraped knee and cries out in anguish. One day our three-year-old, Joseph, was running through the house when he tripped and fell against a big potted plant. He hit it with such force that it split open his cheek. Mary, my wife, heard the cry and found Joseph bleeding profusely. Once she was able to get a closer look at the cut, it was clear that it was not going to stop bleeding without four or five stitches. With Joseph tightly pressing a cloth against it, Mary quickly drove him to the local emergency room. When they arrived, the nurse led them into a curtained area and put Joseph up on the exam tabl
e. The doctor took one look at his cheek and proceeded to lay out the needle and thread. Despite being three years old, Joseph was always well behaved and usually very stoic during a doctor’s visit but this time he couldn’t help crying out when the procedure began. Apparently the Novocain either missed the mark or wasn’t working at full strength and he pleaded, “Mom, stop, it hurts. Don’t let them do this!” The doctor said it would be over in less than a minute and it was. When Mary related all that had happened, I was reminded of something I had read in Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret to Peace and Happiness by the wonderful missionary, ascetic writer, and spiritual director, St. Claude de la Colombiere who wrote:
Imagine the anguish and tears of a mother who is present at a painful operation her child has to undergo. Can anyone doubt on seeing her that she consents to allow the child to suffer only because she expects it to get well and be spared further suffering by means of this violent remedy?
Reason in the same manner when adversity befalls you. You complain that you are ill-treated, insulted, slandered, robbed. Your Redeemer (the name is a tenderer one than that of father or mother), is a witness to all you are suffering. He who loves you and has emphatically declared that whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye, nevertheless allows you to be stricken though He could easily prevent it. Do you hesitate to believe that this passing trial is necessary for the health of your soul?
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