Reaching beyond the game

The Super Bowl has come and gone! I am a football fan and I enjoyed the game this year as I usually do.  Sports are, for the most part, a fun diversion from the everyday drudgery of life.  A temporary escape from our daily responsibilities.  Sports, however, do sometimes cross over into society in ways that are much deeper than mere entertainment.  Every once in a while, something in sports affects society in a positive, uplifting manner.  After watching the “Big Game” I started thinking about my favorite examples of this:

 

Jackie Robinson is my all-time favorite athlete.  Not only did break the color barrier in sports, but he did it with class.  He was a great ballplayer, a true gentleman.  He put up with a lot of grief, and he risked his own personal well-being every time he took the field.  And he was a catalyst for a change in society.

 

Jesse Owens not only won 4 gold medals in the 1936 Olympics, but he did it in front of Adolf Hitler against the Fuhrer’s “master race.” It was a symbolic blow against the Nazis, and something the world needed to see at the time.

 

The 1980 US Olympic Hockey team was a bunch of college kids taking on the Soviet Empire.  Or something close to such.  It was an uplifting event for a country that seemed to be losing confidence in itself.

 

Jim Abbot.  Every time he took the field.  He still makes me think I should be doing more with my two hands every day.

Well, these are the stories that come to my mind as going beyond the usual reach of sports and touching society. Perhaps you have some favorite examples of your own.  Feel free to comment here.  Next week I’ll probably be discussing something a little closer to my normal comics/pop culture topics.  See you then!