Point Guard meets Point Guard



Now for most people - and by most I mean those mildly familiar with one of the people in the above photo - the above picture is a photo of a nice event where a young basketball playing girl from BC meets a less young basketball playing boy from BC.

But for anybody who knows Lex (the girl in the picture for the sports illiterates) this is much much bigger than that.

This is Billy Preston meets the Beatles; this is Stephen Harper meets Bono; this is Wayne Gretzky meets Gordie Howe; this is Lester Pearson meets Churchill; this is Prince meets Stevie Wonder..... you get the picture.

How many of us ever get to meet our heroes?

Who did you admire at age ten? I had three people (outside of my dad,of course. I knew he was stronger than Popeye and he could speak ten languages and advised the government on important matters).

They were, in no particular order:

George Harrison

John Diefenbaker

Joe Kapp

I only got to meet one of them. I am certain he does not remember it, but I will never forget. In the spring of 1964 I was playing baseball at 10th Avenue Ballpark in Port Alberni when a car rolled up beside the diamond. Out of the car came four men. I had no idea who the other people were, but I knew instantly that Joe Kapp was here to meet us. We stopped the game and I heard Joe say he wanted to meet every one of us.

Both teams got to shake his hand, and he asked lots of good questions like, "What position do you play?", and some insightful ones, too, like "How's your teacher treating you?"

Kapp was a big man, 6'2", about 220 pounds, and he towered over us. Except when he spoke. He took a knee and talked to us at eye level, put his left hand on our shoulders when he shook hands, and made me feel comfortable with my hero and old friend.

I had spent the previous two summers in Courtenay with my grandmother and the Lions practiced just down the hill from where she lived. I rarely took my eyes off him. He was the center of all the action, even when he was watching others.

He assured us that the 1963 season was just a warm up and that the Lions would win the Grey Cup this year - "the Lions will Roar in '64, boys. You count on it." The Lions did win the Cup in 1964. Joe Kapp wouldn't lie to me.

When he was traded to the Boston Patriots he was the highest paid player in the NFL. Sports Illustrated did a cover story on him calling him "The Toughest Chicano."

He taught me that even us little kids were important enough to talk eye to eye with. He taught me that no matter how big you are you never need to talk down to anybody. And "22" is still my favourite number.

The peanut butter he was giving away in little jars was pretty good, too.

I never met the other two of my heroes, but one out of three is good for me. Maybe on a different day i can reflect on why the other two were heroes. I heard somewhere,"An idol is someone you want to be near; a hero is someone you want to be like."

I suspect Lex feels much the same way right now.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death.I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.
Bill Shankly, Sunday Times (UK)Oct. 4 1981

Today's musical snack - it's a snap
David Bowie - Heroes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYjBQKIOb-w