The article “When Theodore Roosevelt Saved Football” by Bruce Watson describes a series of events that occurred during the early 1900s which resulted in the modernization of football and the formation of the NCAA. According to Watson, football during President Roosevelt's presidency was extremely brutal. The game often resulted in serious injury and even death. Despite the risk inherent in the game and the disapproval of many in school faculty the game was popular with many students, and President Roosevelt himself. After a particularly damaging season the president became involved in an attempt to regulate football at the request of a group of school leaders. An initial meeting between coaches from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton failed to produce…
John Paul Stevens born April 20, 1920 in Chicago. He was the Youngest of four boys, his grandfather ran the Illinois life insurance company which made a lot of money. and his dad built the opulent Stevens hotel. In his teens he saw his family's good luck turn around when his dad was convicted of embezzling money to keep the hotel. Later on Stevens told the news that his dad was wrongly convicted.…
Author Bruce Watson’s (2014) “How Theodore Roosevelt Saved Football” discussed how Theodore Roosevelt protected football from endangerment. Theodore Roosevelt had a great passion for football, however; the sport was considered treacherous. Many of the players received concussions, brain impairment, back injuries, and even death. During the early 1900’s football faced a lot of controversy claiming the football players would injure and potentially kill other players “to put them out of business” (Watson, 2014, Roosevelt Saved Football). When Theodore Roosevelt’s son, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who was a member of the freshman team at Harvard, was injured with a black eye, broken arm and knocked unconscious he made major headlines (Watson, 2014,…
Herb Brooks, in my opinion, was one of the greatest coaches and leaders in the history of sports. Herb Brooks was an inspirational leader. Brooks was also an innovator in American hockey. He created the "hybrid" style of hockey, which mixed a European puck possession style of play with the North American dump-and-chase style of play. Part of what made Brooks so successful was his way of motivating players and getting the most out of them.…
Vince Lombardi is one of the most notable figures in football. He has firm religious grounding that transferred to his professional coaching career. The coach endorsed ethics and perseverance as a way of life. He encouraged his players to grow not just as athlete but also as individuals. As much as Lombardi garnered respect, he firmly believed in giving respect to authority figures. The game winning coach personified leadership through example.…
Aaron Rodgers is one of the best Quarterbacks in the NFL right now. He plays for the Green Bay Packers, but before then, he had already set several passing records in college football for California. He was a first round pick for Green Bay in 2005, but he didn’t get much play time till 2008. He spent these first years of his NFL career watching another one of the NFL’s greatest Quarterbacks, Brett Favre. Finally, after three years, Aaron Rodgers took his seat as the starting Quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and earned them a Super Bowl victory during the 2010 NFL season. He won the Super Bowl MVP. He was the Associated Press Athlete of the Year in 2011, and voted by the Associated Press in 2011 and 2014 for league MVP. Three…
Al Jolson was born on May 26, 1886 to Cantor Moishe Yoelson in srednike, Russia[1][2].Al was born into a family with three older siblings. When Al was at the age of seven years old him and his family immigrated to the U.S. Al and his family settled in Washington D.C.. Al would sing and dance on the streets to get some money. [3]. Al’s First appearance on stage was in 1899 in Washington D.C. Not too longer after that Al starred in a movie called the jazz singer[4]. Als real name was Asa Yoelson. Al was frustrated at his father, so Al and his brother Harry changed their last names to Jolson and moved to new York.[5]…
Paul Revere was born on January 1, 1735, Boston MA. During Paul Revere’s young childhood he had eleven siblings. He was the second oldest child and the eldest surviving son. He attended the North Writing School, he started attending the school at age 7. By the age of 13 Paul had graduated from the North Writing School. After he graduated he started showing keen interest in his father’s perfection, Silversmithing.…
When Rosalynn Smith was 17 years old she went on her first date with Jimmy Carter. They had grown up together in Plains, Georgia. Rosalynn Carter was born on August 18, 1927 in Plains. Her parents were Allethae Murray Smith and Wilburn Edgar Smith. She was the oldest along side her three other siblings. Her father passed away when she was thirteen years old. As a result, her mother took the job as a dressmaker to support the family, with Rosalynn at her side.…
Bayard Rustin was born on March 17, 1912 to Florence Rustin and Archie Hopkins. He was born into a fairly wealthy family and he was the youngest of 9 kids. He was raised by his grandparents, Julia and Janifer Rustin. He always believed that his grandparents were his parents and he thought his mother was actually his older sister. In 1932 he entered Wilberforce University in Ohio and in 1936 was expelled…
In the fall of 1905, the game of football was still a work in progress that only remotely resembled the sport millions follow today. There was no common agreement about many of the game's basic rules, and it was incredibly violent and extremely dangerous. President Theodore Roosevelt -a football fan - summoned coaches and athletic advisers from Harvard University, Yale University and Princeton University to the White House to discuss how to improve the game of football, "especially by reducing the element of brutality in play," The changes inspired in part by Roosevelt were the first steps in a long line of reforms to make football safer. Roosevelt liked football and apparently thought being roughed up wasn't necessarily a bad thing but helped…
Born February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas. The son of poor Southern Baptist sharecroppers, Cash, one of seven children born to Ray and Carrie Rivers Cash, moved with his family at the age of three to Dyess, Arkansas, so that his father could take advantage of the New Deal farming programs instituted by President Roosevelt. There, the Cash clan lived in a five-room house and farmed 20 acres of cotton and other seasonal crops.…
Vince Lombardi is regarded as one of the most legendary and greatest coaches of all time. Not only did he create winning teams, his philosophy and motivational skills were key factors to his success as a high school, college, and professional football coach. Vince was Italian and grew up in Brooklyn. His father owned a meat shop, and he made sure that Vince was a responsible young man and had him do work for him when he was not in school. Much of Vince’s philosophy and discipline as a coach was learned from his father in his younger years. His father told him as a young man that “There was only one right and wrong, and he believed that you only did the right thing all the time” (O’Brien, 1987, p. 23). Vince began playing football at the age of 15 and later got a scholarship to play at Fordham University. Although he did not have much playing time at the beginning of his career because there were players who had priority over him and the fact that he incurred several injuries in college football. He was among the linemen that became known as the Seven Blocks of Granite in his later college years. Vince believed in winning, and did not ever take losing lightly. While he was in college, he did well, but not above average in academics. He was a devout Catholic, and he did spend many hours studying to improve his academic scores. After Fordham, Vince played on several semi-professional football teams, but his small stature did not prove him to be a successful football player in the pros. Afterward, he accepted a job as an assistant football coach at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. This was the start of a long coaching career that would prove Vince Lombardi to be one of the greatest coaches in history.…
John Wooden was the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) men's basketball coach from 1948 to 1975. During that period, he won ten NCAA men's basketball championships, had four undefeated seasons, and once won 88 consecutive games. He also won seven consecutive NCAA championships from 1967 to 1973. To put this all into perspective, Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky won four championships, total, and he is second to Wooden. All of these accomplishments are records, but they do not begin to tell the story of the man considered to be the most successful coach in American sports history.…
Sonny Shroyer as Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant: Forrest's football coach of the University of Alabama.…