During the interview I was moaning about the French footballer, Henri handling the ball (see 3 Wise Men) and demanding a replay in the name of Fair Play (as well as marking the end of the ‘non-video ref era’), when a wonderful Wigan FC fan phoned in (as the programme was originally about the Wigan players giving the fans their money back after Wigan were beaten  9-1 by Spurs). He  admitted that one of their players had, in fact handled the ball also, and that they, as true sportsmen, were offering Spurs the opportunity of a replay. Don’t you just love some football fans’ wit & humour? A wonderful Christmas gesture!

Cochran won the event in 10:36, beating Shadle Park’s Andrea Nelson by 3 seconds. Thirty minutes later, race officials disqualified Cochran, ruling that the Harvard-bound runner ran 3 consecutive steps inside the lane adjacent to hers. Bellarmine Prep Coach Matt Ellis appealed the infraction, but his appeal was denied. Everyone knew that Cochrane had not stepped into the next lane and that the officials were wrong.

In a magical sportsmanship moment  when the official 3,200 race winner Andrea Nelson was awarded her first place medal at the podium, she moments later gave her first place medal to Cochran. Redmond’s Sarah Lord followed by giving Nelson her second-place medal, and the other medal winners followed suit. Somewhat reminiscent of the Britain’s  Gold medalist fencer, Judy Guinness at the 1932 LA Olympic when she refused her gold medal because officials had missed her opponent’s scores.

Some days later – the officials, having studied the video tapes rescinded their decision and officially awarded Cochran the gold medal. Congrats to Nelson, Lord and the other young lady who felt honour was more important than metal.

See the Full Story.

Never may we lose this tradition. I have another question for you:  Why do some players now, when asked to swap shirts by their opposing player, point to the dressing room and, I assume, suggest that they swap shirts in the dressing room. Is this protocol madness. Doesn’t the FA, EUFA and FIFA realise that the best PR for the game is to let kids see players swap shirts. Does anyone know the logic here?

I was so pleased to receive the  full poem from John Miles (see 6th comment on this link) – many thanks John.

This discussion has been ongoing since I first posted a question about  these magical sportsmanship words back in December 2008.  However I still wonder why the attached beautiful graphic (which used to hang in my parents’ bedroom  in Dublin in the 1950s) refers to Newbolt? Does anyone know?

You can download this as a poster by clicking on it or print it out and post it onto a notice board, or a dressing room.

Although many of the thousands in the stadium and the millions watching on TV expected him to collapse into tears after coming very very close to winning the championship, he replied:

“No. I’m one of the lucky few that gets cheered for. So thank you for that. I appreciate it (massive applause). You know aww, I just want to say congratulations to Roger (Federer). You know he’s a true champion. He deserves everything he gets. So well done Roger.

Sue Barker: “You threw everything at him.”

“Well I tried. Sorry Pete (Pete Sampras who was in the crowd and whose record of 14 Grand Slams has now been taken Federer with his 15th Grand Slam title). I tried to hold him off. It was a pleasure playing here today in front of great champions like Pete (Sampras), Minolo (?), Rod (Laver) and Bjorn (Borg). I still hope one day that my name will be up there as winner of this tournament. And I’ll be back.” (massive applause).

- a true sportsman.

See the interview: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8135340.stm

DeKalb, Ill., High School basketball team traveled by bus for two and a half hours and then waited another hour past game time to get their chance to take a big city scalp when they played Milwaukee Madison Senior on a Saturday night in February 2009. The essence of sportsmanship was about to emerge.

Hours earlier, the mother of Milwaukee captain Johntell Franklin died at a local hospital (after a five year fight with cervical cancer). The school offered to cancel the game but Franklin asked them not to do so and to play it without him. They had only 8 players but the game went ahead.

After the game had started Franklin turned up to support his team on. Milwaukee coach Aaron Womack Jr spotted him entering and called time out. The team (and some of the crowd went over and hugged him). The coach asked Franklin if he’d like to sit on the bench and young Franklin said he’d actually prefer to play.

Because Franklin was not listed on the official team sheet, it incurred a penalty of two free shots at the basket if a player is brought on who is not on the team sheet. Aware of the opposition captain’s desperately sad news, The DeKalb coach, Dave Rohlman told the umpire they didn’t want the call. However the referees insisted the penalty must be taken.

DeKalb captain, Darius McNeal (he must have Irish blood in him) bounced the ball a few times, looked at the rim of the basket and then threw the ball two feet in the air and let it roll towards the end line. The second ‘shot’ rolled out of his hand and onto the floor. The Milwaukee team turned and applauded the whole DeKalb bench for their gesture of true sportsmanship. Soon every spectator stood and applauded the kids and the coach from DeKalb.

Franklin actually went on to score 10 points in a game which eventually ‘broke open late in the second half as Milwaukee went on to win 62-47.

“I did it for the guy who lost his mom,” McNeal said “It was the right thing to do.” Fair play to McNeal, his team mates and coach Rohlman for they all know that ‘it’s not whether you won or lost….it’s how you played the game.”

Thanks to Shane Smith for alerting me

To listen to the Irish  Radio interview click on the play button (arrow button) below:

Or if you prefer click the link below to download the mp3 file:

RTE-Radio-1

Pass this link to a friend.