Some time ago I read the book The Games Do Count: America's Best and Brightest on the Power of Sports, edited by Brian Kilmeade. Kilmeade investigated the role that sports had played in the development of prominent people today. He found that in the majority of cases it was significant.
Furthermore, he discovered that Tom Burnett, Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, and Mark Bingham, four heroes who stormed the cockpit of Flight 93 on 9/11/01, had formed many of their ideals through sports. Below are excerpts from the four chapters on the four men named above.
Read these excerpts and see whether these actions remind you of those of Don Holleder.
ON MARK BINGHAM, by his friend, Dave Kupiecki
I can't imagine he showed any fear (in the plane planning their assault on the cockpit), because I never saw him show fear in any circumstance. I've been to Hawaii with him and seen him jump off a giant cliff. He just walked right off it. I never saw the fear emotion in him.
I can imagine him springing into action—that zero-to-100 percent kind of explosion I saw from him so many times. It always used to amaze me how he'd go from calmly standing there to an explosion of action and tackle somebody. I just see him doing something like that in that situation.
Mark lived his whole life larger than life. I think he had to go out like that. In a big way. That was Mark.
ON JEREMY GLICK, by his father, Lloyd Glick
Like all athletes, Jeremy learned to think under pressure, to deal with difficult situations, as well as to deal with winning and losing. We knew they were going to take action, that they were formulating a plan, because Jeremy had a half-hour conversation with his wife from the plane. He even joked. At one point, he described to Liz that (the terrorists) had box cutters as weapons, and he said, “Aah, but you know, we have our plastic knives from breakfast.”
ON TODD BEAMER, by his friend, Doug MacMillan
As a leader, he was always the one to be there to coach, to help others,to chime in with his opinion about a particular situation of play. He was very competitive. He had that kind of leadership ability where he could say, “This is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to do it. We're going to win this thing, and let's just go do it.
(H)e was a great leader, a great listener, a great motivator, and a great communicator. He was very quick to listen and slow to speak. He would process everything and then very succinctly come out with what was needed, a plan to be put into place to accomplish things. He was very analytical and then from being very analytical, he would become very practical, saying, “This is what you need to do.”
ON TOM BURNETT, from his wife, Deena Burnett
I listened (to the tapes of the struggle on the plane) twice....I heard his voice. I heard him yelling directions. There was no doubt about it; he was in charge of what was going on....He took those people down the aisle, and, yes, he played the quarterback. It's comforting to know that he was busy with the task at hand, instead of being afraid.
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