When I was a kid, my mother who was an Immigrant would tell me one of the reasons she left the “Old Country” to come to America was because here, her son could grow up to be President. President Obama is a good example of that. Faced with all kinds of obstacles, he is in the midst of countless challenges.
However, this is not a political column, it is a Sports Column about those who have been associated with Sports and had the opportunity to lead our land either as a legislator, Governor, or Supreme Court Justice. If mom were alive she might include it to say, “Any boy, or girl can grow up to be President…maybe!”
Based on the fact that Sarah Palin, a former Sportscaster and High School Basketball Player known as “Sarah the Barracuda” was the erstwhile former Governor of Alaska whose husband, “The First Dude” is a champion sled dog racer and she herself an avid outdoor person, I include her in this piece. Isn’t it amazing that a girl who had to go to four colleges in order to get a degree would be elected to the Governorship of our 49th State and subsequently, be dubbed to run for Vice President.
Recently, I have been following the McCourt divorce proceedings. It is truly acrimonious. The papers filed if they weren’t real would make for a great comedy skit. Can you imagine the wife, Jamie McCourt who has absolutely no governmental credits to her name sent a memo to members of a staff starting an organization entitled POTUS. POTUS stands for President of the United States. Imagine, Jamie McCourt considered by many one of the most powerful women in Sports is thinking politically. Amidst all the hullabaloo of the Divorce proceedings, she already has her eye on loftier goals. Anyone who knows her says she is a master of administration and planning.
When she was young girl in Baltimore, Jamie Luskin told her dad she would someday own a baseball Team. She did it! No one knows what the outcome of this messy Divorce might bring, but we do know Jamie got her Law Degree from the University of Maryland and an MBA from MIT’s prestigious Sloan School of Management. While in Boston and running a successful Law Practice, she found time to teach at Sloan. As she did in Los Angeles teaching at the UCLA Anderson School of management.
Jamie went only to two Institutes of higher learning and certainly has credentials where she is as qualified as anyone … especially, today
Over the years, many outstanding Sports figures have won elective office or been appointed to a political position. Just as they were successful combatants on the field of Sport, they proved equally adept in the Battleground of Washington, D.C. Sports where you were learn either team work, or self reliance and determination. Sports are unilateral and cross all international boundaries.
In the United States, there have countless sports figures and many even today. I have elected to single out just one man, Byron “Whizzer” White. However, I shall also mention a few others. I think they are examples how the competition of Sport coupled with a quality education prepares one for the competitive life of Politics.
Probably, the best example of a true successful connection is the late Supreme Court Chief Justice Byron “Whizzer” White. “Whizzer was born in Colorado way back in 1917 and died in 2002. He was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court for 31 years.
Whizzer was an All-American Football player for the University of Colorado. Out of college he was drafted in the first round by the Pittsburgh Steelers and as a rookie led the league in rushing. Even though he was All-Pro three times becoming the league’s highest paid player, World War 2 cut his career short.
After World War 2, he attended Yale Law School and graduated Magna Cum Laude. He earned his spurs by holding key posts in the Justice Department and in 1962,President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the Supreme Court.
From Basketball, there were many, but perhaps the most outstanding was Senator Bill Bradley. Leader of the World Champion Knicks, Bill was a Rhodes Scholar and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton where today he is a guest lecturer. Bradley ran against Senator Al Gore for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 2000.
Wrestling gave us Jesse Ventura. I first met Jesse when he did a TV show that my son Steven was involved in. It was called “Grudge Match.” In those days he was known as a Champion Wrestler called Jesse “ The Body Ventura. He was an Underwater Demolition team in the Navy that eventually merged with the Navy Seals. He had a truly misspent youth being part of the San Diego chapter of the Mongols and outlaw motorcycle gang. Yet, he went back to school and using his common street sense rose to Governor of Minnesota.
In England and from the world of Track, Sebastian Coe, sub-four minute miler, record holder and Olympian is not just the current Chairman of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic games and a former Conservative Member of the House of Parliament.
In Canada, Otto Jelinek and his sister were the first Pairs Ice Skating team to perform lifts with several rotations. They did it in the 1960 Rome Olympics. I can only assume that the job of Minister of national Revenue requires some heavy lifting… rotating?
In Australia, Dawn Fraser, Eight-time Swimming Medalist. Considered an Official Australian Treasure was suspended at one point from the Australian Olympic team was suspended from the team when she climbed Emperor Hirohito’s personal flag. This single act of Bravado got her elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
In Russia, Alexander Karelin the Greco-Roman Gold Medalist in four Olympics and a member of the Russian Duma was a fierce and terrifying competitor. His reign as an Olympic Champion outlasted the fall of his government. As close personal fiend of Ivan Putin was capable of bashing in some heads whenever he was disagreed with.
In brief, all over the world and in every sport, athletes have turned to governing, adjudicating, or legislating. The long list is exemplary and shows that everywhere not just in America, Sports celebrity can be parlayed into Political Capital. Competition in Sports is a great training ground for competition in Politics.
I now know what happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger?
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