Now Hear This: Great athletes have heart
Make up you mind! It’s one of the hardest things for most people to do. Make up your mind, and you can do anything! Decide, with resolve, to do a thing, and it surely will be done.
I certainly can’t physically perform like an athlete, but I most assuredly can use my mind athletically. Think about it. It’s really a very simple concept. Think like an athlete thinks. And, how is that? Perform a task, any endeavor, with determination, desire and persistence. Couple those emotions with an overwhelming will to accomplish, and you’re there.
Simple as that? But what about all those obstacles? Jump over them, around them or through them. That’s what!
She was born black and poor, the 20th of 22 children, prematurely and frail. When she was 4 she had double pneumonia and scarlet fever that left her with a paralyzed leg. For years she wore an iron leg brace. But her mother was her strength. She told her daughter, who had a wonderful mind, that despite her handicap she could accomplish anything in life she wanted to. If she made up her mind, had faith, displayed courage, and allowed her spirit to soar.
At age 9 she took off the leg brace, and began to develop a walk that the doctors said she never could do. A few years later, she entered her first race. Came in last, but it didn’t matter. She ran in a lot of races, and finished last in a lot of them too. Then one day she finished first. She was a winner, and winning became her way of life.
Wilma Rudolph, caught the attention of Tennessee State University track coach Ed Temple, who brought her to Nashville from Clarksville, and under his tutelage Wilma entered track history. At 16 she journeyed to Australia for the 1956 Olympics, where she won a bronze medal, then returned to the Olympics four years later in 1960 to become the first American woman to win three gold medals.
Wilma Rudolph made up her mind, and then used her mind to overcome all the hurdles life threw her way. She so inspired me that upon her death in 1994 on a News Channel 5 hour special that I hosted with Vickie Yates, dedicated to the life of Wilma Rudolph, I wrote and delivered:
“The Lady of Gold ? A Biography in Motion.”
From clay in the Potter’s hands was molded something magnificent, and it would become the standard by which others would measure, and be measured.
She was a child with an affliction, but already growing within was an equalizer, the seed of greatness. And out of that adversity, as others moaned she would never recover, burst forth a desire and resolve of mind and character that would enable her to achieve her position among the athletic nobility of the ages.
Yes, Wilma knew all about struggles and battles. She lost a few, but won her share. And, it’s the spirit of her living we will remember. Wilma Rudolph, I know, fulfilled her purpose here on Earth. and what a splendid purpose it was.
And, so it remains for us to inspect, learn from, and apply what she left behind. It’s no magic formula, I can assure you. All the great ones have it. It’s called “heart” and with it you can soar like the eagles to any height you desire. So, let’s all keep looking up, because the next lightening bolt from the sky just might be Wilma Rudolph with wings on her feet, off on another race with the wind.
(Hope Hines is a television sports reporter and a Nashville personality.)