The notion of sportsmanship \u00e2\u20ac\u201d good or bad \u00e2\u20ac\u201d came alive as I was walking the sidelines while photographing a game between the Cuba High School Rams and another team.<\/p>\n
The year was 1967, and the Rams, representing the school where I was teaching, were on the verge of going to state in football. One of the Rams, who everybody believed handled the offensive line by radar, suddenly got caught in a chop block, in which an opponent pushed him over another player who was down, somehow causing his body to twist in three directions.<\/p>\n
Well, the player, having suffered a serious knee injury, known as an ACL, requiring surgery, missed the rest of the playoffs and his senior year of competition as well.The impact disturbed fans from both teams, and many applauded as the injured player was carted off the field.<\/p>\n
But just as disturbing was the action of a member of another team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coaching staff. Loud cheers came from the sideline. A coach or scout for another team \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one that might be playing against the Rams the next week, or the week after that \u00e2\u20ac\u201d hollered something like, “That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way to hit \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem!”<\/p>\n
Filled with glee, the coach-scout must\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve thought it wonderful that the team he favored would have an easier time against the Rams, with Cuba\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top player injured.<\/p>\n
Darn, I thought, these are only high school players, not being paid to risk injury, and a coach or scout is celebrating over an injury that could endow the player with a limp that lasts all his life?<\/p>\n
Well, decades of observation have taught me about many forms of sportsmanship, or lack thereof.<\/p>\n
I attended a Lobo basketball game a few years back \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even an important game against BYU or Arizona. Rather, the Lobos may have been hosting the South East Central Barber College Clippers.<\/p>\n
Regardless, each of the 17,000 rabid UNM supporters would have sworn under oath that every foul called against the Lobos was unjustified; the referees simply swallowed their whistles whenever the other team did something egregious; and any time the visitors were at the key, shooting a totally undeserved free throw, it was all right to boo and heckle.<\/p>\n
Had a free throw been awarded to Mother Teresa herself, she would have drawn loud, derisive boos, provided she was on the opposing side.<\/p>\n
But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clarify that booing seems to be the nature of the competitive beast: fans do it everywhere, but I mention the Lobo fans mainly because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the ones I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m most familiar with.<\/p>\n
A while back I wrote about a couple of teams that tried to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Each team did whatever it took to lose.<\/p>\n
In 1931, our own Las Vegas High School lost a hoop game 4-2 to Cerrillos High School but in losing drew an easier opponent in the next round.<\/p>\n
According to the late Bill Wertz, who played in that game, 77 years ago, the team that won would face the dreaded St. Michael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s team. So, most of the game was spent trying to score in the other team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basket.<\/p>\n
Wertz mentioned in a 1967 Optic interview that the players read comic books while on the floor, and kicked the ball away each time it rolled their way.<\/p>\n
But the men don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a monopoly on the sporting scene, either.<\/p>\n
The ultimate case of sportswomanship came last week when softball teams from Western Oregon University and Central Washington University squared off in a tournament.<\/p>\n
A diminutive Oregon right fielder, Sara Tucholsky, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never hit a homerun before, not even in high school, uncorked a hit that went over the centerfield fence. The two runners on base scored, but in her elation, Tucholsky failed to touch first base and ran back to step on it.<\/p>\n
In doing so, she tore some ligaments in her knee and barely managed to crawl to the bag. That could have ended the incident, with a pinch-runner replacing Tucholsky and the injured player getting credit for only a single.<\/p>\n
Her teammates of course wanted Tucholsky to cash in on the first homerun of her life, but the rules specify that a player is out if any of her teammates help her round the bases.<\/p>\n
Tucholsky got to keep the homer, as in a supreme manifestation of sportswomanship, two players from the opposing team propped her by the arms and carried her around the bases.<\/p>\n
Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman first checked with the umpire, who found no rule against Tucholsky\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being helped, as long as the help didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come from her own team. So Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace helped Tucholsky circle the bases, allowing the 5-foot-2 Tucholsky to touch each base with her good leg.<\/p>\n
Well, the humanitarian gesture by Central Washington players contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs. But that apparently didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t faze them, as the players emphasized that Western Oregon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s players would have done the same for them, had the situation been reversed.<\/p>\n
As Wallace, Tucholsky and Holtman arrived at home plate, they noticed that the entire Western Oregon team was in tears.<\/p>\n
Tears well shed, by the way. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it great how this act, captured on video, and aired all over the country on ESPN, lasted only a few minutes and covered no more than 270 feet.<\/p>\n
Yet the good will it created transcends miles \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The notion of sportsmanship \u00e2\u20ac\u201d good or bad \u00e2\u20ac\u201d came alive as I was walking the sidelines while photographing a game between the Cuba High School Rams and another team. The year was 1967, and the Rams, representing the school where I was teaching, were on the verge of going to state in football. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}