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Hard Lessons Learned Early

Playing sports made me feel good and helped my self-esteem. Even though I was small at 5-foot-7 and 165 pounds, I was a good high school middle linebacker. I was on the track team in junior high school and won the city championship in the 60-yard dash and also first place as a member of our 440-relay team. I also competed in the bicycle races on the Washington Bowl veladrome.
I was quick and very aggressive in football, and I loved to hit people. During our high school scrimmages, I played so hard that I sent two or three of my own teammates to the hospital with broken bones. Our coach didn’t want our quarterback banged up, so he finally made a rule that during scrimmages I couldn’t touch him. I was only allowed to put pressure on him
On one particular play I didn’t hear the coach tell us that we were going to walk through a field goal attempt by our kicker, Bill Luie. When the ball was snapped, I rushed through the line like I was on fire. Since it was a play that we were supposed to walk through, no one tried to block me. When I got within five feet of Bill, he kicked the ball in a perfect line drive that hit me squarely between the legs and sent me crumbling in agony to the ground. I always learned life’s lessons the hard way.