Dear aperillo-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
The first example of an unexpected over achiever I will offer is that
of Jim Thorpe. James Francis Thorpe, (“Wathahuck”, meaning “Bright
Path”) was born to the Thunder Clan of Sac and Fox Tribe, on an Indian
Reservation in Prague, Oklahoma on May 22, 1887. Very few
opportunities were available for an American Indian during these
turbulent times but strangely enough, it was his own heritage that
made him such an oddity. While attending Carlisle Indian Industrial
School in Pennsylvania he saw some young men on the school track
practicing the high jump. Intrigued by this strange activity, Thorpe
asked if he could give it a try. The boys laughed at him and agreed to
let him try it. Thorpe set the bar at 5 feet 9 inches and cleared in a
single bound - wearing his overalls and work boots. The following day
he was summoned to the office and was told he had broken the school
record. Not particularly impressed with himself, Thorpe reluctantly
agreed to participate in school sports after a bit of encouragement.
The following year, in 1912, Jim Thorpe found himself in the Olympics
in Stockholm, Sweden, taking the gold in both the pentathlon and the
decathlon. At the closing ceremony, King Gustav V of Sweden said to
Thorpe, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world!" Thorpe
replied, "Thanks, King."
Over the years, this shy, unassuming American Indian from a humble
Oklahoma reservation overcame the racism of the era to excel in every
major sporting event of the time (including both professional football
and professional baseball) and became, quite literally, the greatest
athlete of the 20th Century.
Business applicability: The least among us may not only become the
trendsetter tomorrow, he might even be capable of achieving goals that
the greatest among us can never hope to achieve.
JIM THORPE
http://www.sports-trivia.net/jimthorpe.html
JIM THORPE OFFICIAL WEB SITE
http://www.cmgww.com/sports/thorpe/thorpe.html
Tom Dempsey, a little known football player, had a very special knack
for kicking long field goals. He didn’t play much and never made a
real name for himself, until that day on November 8, 1970. Dempsey’s
team, the New Orleans Saints were trailing the Detroit Lions 17-16
with only two seconds left in the game. The coach called out to
Dempsey to take the field and kick the football for the final play
just to wrap up the game and get it over with. Since they were 63
years out and the task was virtually impossible, offering the honor to
an unproven place kicker was largely a symbolic gesture and absolutely
nothing was expected to come of it. Dempsey trotted onto the field and
lined up his men, who had pretty much accepted the inevitable defeat.
The ball was snapped and Dempsey sighted in on his target. With one
huge, powerful kick, he sent the ball flying an astounding 63 years
through the center of the goal posts. The deafening silent suddenly
erupted into a cheering riot on both sides of the field, as the New
Orleans Saints’ and Detroit Lions fans all unexpectedly became
witnesses to the longest field goal ever achieved by a human being in
the history of sports. Tom Dempsey, born with only half a right foot
(his kicking foot) and a deformed arm (no hand), holds this phenomenal
world record (since tied by others but never beaten) to this very day.
Business applicability: Your greatest professional asset may be
something you “don’t” have. Determination in the face of adversity is
always the best approach. What most people consider impossible might
merely be “improbable”, but you’ll never know unless you try.
LEGENDS TELL ALL
http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/football/nfl/legends/ltatdempsey.htm
The Jamaican bobsled team (yes, that’s right) was such an oxymoron
when they made their Olympic debut in Calgary in 1988 that Disney even
picked up on the idea and released the comedy motion picture “Cool
Runnings” which depicted the concept as utterly ridiculous. By
finishing dead last among all other international teams their fate was
seemingly sealed. Since then the team has refined their skills and
they not only finished in 14th place at Lillehammer in 1994 (ahead of
both US teams) but also took the gold medal in the two-man event at
the 2001 World Push Championships. They are now such a serious
contender for future gold medals that all other bobsled teams must
focus on beating them at the next winter Olympics in order to win a
medal of their own.
Business applicability: Don’t be too quick to laugh. The competitor
you underestimate today might be your role model tomorrow.
JAMAICAN BOBSLED TEAM
http://www.factmonster.com/spot/02olcrunnings.html
Audi L. Murphy overcame adversity, not once, but three times in his
life and went on to become larger than life on each occasion. Born the
son of poor Texas sharecroppers, Audie, whose father has abandoned the
family when Audie was only 16, soon found himself faced with the
responsibility of raising his younger brothers and sisters by himself
when he mother died unexpectedly.
When World War II broke out, young Audie joined the US Army and
eventually fought in nine campaigns. He received a battlefield
commission and the Congressional Medal of Honor for single handedly
killing or capturing 240 nazi soldiers. He also received every
decoration for valor that his country had to offer, some of them more
than once, including 5 decorations by France and Belgium. In all, he
was received 33 distinguished military awards and became the most
decorated American soldier of World War II.
In September 1945, after spending almost a year in a veteran’s
hospital, Murphy received his discharge from the military. He was
plagued for the rest of his life with constant pain from a terrible
wound he received in his hip that virtually amputated his left buttock
muscle. In spite of his injuries, he began his movie career and
starred in 44 feature films becoming best known for his portrayal of
himself in an autobiography entitled “To Hell and Back”. After a long
movie career he became a fairly successful song writer and wrote for
such greats of the time as Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride,
Jimmy Bryant, Porter Waggoner, Jerry Wallace, Roy Clark, Harry Nilsson
and many, many others. In the years to come, the pain and “post
traumatic stress disorder” got the best of him and he became addicted
to painkillers. In the 1960’s Murphy realized he had a problem and
locked himself in a hotel room for a week, suffering withdrawals and
getting himself off the prescription drugs. He eventually became a
veteran’s advocate helping to draw attention to the suffering of
veterans, like him, who suffered from the effects of war.
Murphy died in a plane crash on May 28, 1971 and was buried in
Arlington Cemetery with full military honors.
Business applicability: Quit crying about your situation. You don’t
know how bad it can “really” get.
AUDIE MURPHY
http://www.audiemurphy.com/biograph.htm
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES AND OTHER PERTINENT EXAMPLES:
LIVING WITH DISABILITIES
http://teachers.westport.k12.ct.us/resource/disabilities.htm
JACKIE JOYNER-KERSEY
http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/joyner-kersee_jackie.html
HANK AARON
http://myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=h_aaron
JESSE OWENS
http://www.jesseowens.com/jobio2.html
LENA HORNE
http://kenyada.com/lena.htm
JOSE FELICIANO
http://www.josefeliciano.com/bio.htm
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
SUCCESS IN SPITE OF ADVERSITY
AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENTS
AMAZING SUCCESS STORIES |
Clarification of Answer by
tutuzdad-ga
on
27 Mar 2003 12:05 PST
Dear aperillo-ga;
I hope these meet your needs. The ones provided previously are some of
the most widely recognized people in the world but my hope is that
these are somewhat more familiar to you:
ANDREA BOCELLI
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsB/bocelli_andrea.html
BOCELLI ONLINE
http://www.bocellionline.com/
Overcame blindness to become an international opera singer.
"My passion for opera is very old. I began to listen when I was a
child. I was really impressed by these big voices. My parents told me
always, 'You can try to sing, but can't live just with dreams, you
need something more concrete.' "
“He was born with glaucoma and went blind after injuring his head
during a childhood soccer game.”
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FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
http://www.americanpresidents.org/presidents/president.asp?PresidentNumber=31
CHARACTER ABOVE ALL
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/character/glossaries/roosevelt.html#polio
In 1921 at the age of 39, Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio in
his legs and hips. He not only went on to become President of the
United States but was the only person ever elected to the office four
consecutive times.
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HELEN KELLER
http://www.rnib.org.uk/wesupply/fctsheet/keller.htm
HELEN KELLER
http://www.afb.org/info_documents.asp?collectionid=1
No one in modern times has overcome more obstacles than this woman.
Both blind and deaf, and once discounted as anyone who would have any
reasonable level of quality of life, she became an author, public
speaker, world traveler and advocate of the disabled.
----------------------------------------
LUDWIG VON BEETHOVEN
BEETHOVEN’S DEAFNESS
http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyDeafness.html
One of the greatest composers in the history of music was deaf. Ludwig
von Beethoven composed his music from his understanding of written
musical notes and found that he could actually “listen” to his music
by cutting the legs off of his piano and playing the music while
laying on the floor and feeling the vibrations from his piano.
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FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
http://www.learningdisabilityforum.com/bbs-ld/621.html
Certainly these people are readily recognizable in Australia.
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Edson Arantes “Pele” do Nascimento
PELE: BIOGRAPHY
http://allsands.com/Sports/History/pele_vaw_gn.htm
This young man from Brazil followed his father’s footsteps. His father
was a famous soccer player who was injured and unable to finish his
career. Rather than return to a working life in Brazil, “Pele”, as he
became known to his adoring fans, studied with under his father’s
direction and went on to become one of the greatest footballers ever
known.
----------------------------------------
WILMA RUDOLPH
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/rudo-wil.htm
The first woman to win 3 Olympic gold medals was not only a black
woman, but also a woman with polio. Wilma Rudolph was born the 20th
child to a poor, homeless family who eventually had 22 children
altogether. Because of racial segregation at the time, Rudolph was
refused admittance to a white only hospital after being diagnosed with
polio so her mother and siblings taught her how to walk again over the
next few years. She went on to become a world recognized Olympian.
----------------------------------------
A REAL, LIVE "ALIVE" SURVIVOR RELATES HIS ANDES ORDEAL
http://www.wesclark.com/rrr/alive2.html
Following a plane crash in the Anreas Mountains members of a Chile’s,
Uruguay’s rugby teams were forced to endure terrible hardships,
intense cold and starvation for 72 days before being rescued.
----------------------------------------
I hope these, coupled with the many I have provided (including the
large number of INTERNATIONALLY FAMOUS people found here
http://teachers.westport.k12.ct.us/resource/disabilities.htm will be
familiar to you)
Regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
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