Sportsmanship

It was a Sunday evening 46 years ago, May 8, 1966, at a small parochial school in Sun Prairie, WI that a little known young man earned the Christian Sportsmanship award.  He was the fourth child, of my parents. He received the award at Sacred Hearts School, from Fr. John Hebl.  Showing the parochial nature of Madison at the time, a news article, on the event would appear in the Wisconsin State Journal on May 10.  Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines Sportsmanship this way:  "conduct (as fairness, respect for one's opponent, and graciousness in winning or losing) becoming to one participating in a sport."  However, I am sure we all have our own version of what the value of Sportsmanship means.  We each have a different sense of it in action.  Sometimes I wonder if this value has taken a back seat to the  pursuits of other less desired values. For example, back-in-my-day (as one of my sons claims I intimate way too often) it was not considered good sportsmanship to run up a score in a game, yet today we see it as a rather normal occurrence--at all levels, high school, college and professional.  As the NFL draft proceeds tonight, we will likely see some young men carry themselves with dignity and grace, while others will become upset or distraught at not being selected at a level they felt commensurate with their abilities.  Each level of emotion will have in some way been instilled in them over the course of their lives.

Wisconsin State Journal article from 10 May 1966 (Newspaper Archives)

What strikes me as I write this, is that the values we form early in life often carry us through.  One excellent example is of the man who on this date, 46 years later, is in the hospital going through a medical treatment.  He is now coming near the end of his fourth year with a diagnosis of stage four cancer, but yet he has not let this long battle deflate him, or leave him pessimistic.  Rather he has forged ahead with an new zeal, investing himself in a new path, and creating new opportunities, such as the Triumph Fund to support cancer research at the Medical College of Wisconsin.  Perhaps this is a better definition of sportsmanship, or in other words being a good sport, for the game of life does not always go ones way.  We each experience moments of intense grace, and joy, but also moments of heartbreak and despair.  It is how we deal with the latter two that form our character.  We can complain and become melancholic or we can rise and meet the challenge.

Human emotions are very powerful.  They draw people to hate and violence, one example being Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group in Nigeria who have kidnapped nearly 300 young Christian girls and intend, if not already have, sell them into slavery.  All because they were being educated.  But, they also can draw people to good.  Think of the aid workers who ventured to Afghanistan to assist in hospitals.  Of course some of them met an untimely death due to the emotion at the other end of the spectrum.  Some groups do not wish to abide by the Golden Rule.

Sunflowers (Google Images)

Related to the Golden Rule is that oft quoted scripture verse that there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for another.  Fortunately, few ever have to make that decision if we define it literally.  But, perhaps the true intent means to think of others before ourselves.  That is a true expression of love. This brings us back full circle to the man in the hospital bed this evening.  Not only does he not let himself despair over cancer, and is fighting it on all fronts, but tonight he sent an email asking for prayers for a friend who is in the same hospital, and also fighting cancer. His values have led him to fight, his values have led him to think of others. That is a true Sportsman. Forty-six years later that little "Runt" of a boy has grown, but continues to display true Christian Sportsmanship. Forty-six years ago his parents looked with a sense of pride as he received his award, and today with their gaze from heaven afar they look to him with pride as well.