Jim Valvano is a legend. On March 3, 1993 at the ESPYs, Valvano was awarded the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. In making his acknowledgment discourse, a growth stricken Valvano moves his audience at Madison Square Garden and everybody viewing the nation over to tears, to laughs, and even to a reality check with an end goal to bring issues to light and subsidizing for disease research. In his dialog, he notes to always remember about "where you started." Therefore, it would be appropriate to begin toward the start of Valvano's life and profession to see what shaped this man to convey such a discourse.…
Big time hollywood actors and actress, Grammy-winning musicians or artists are all household names. Celebrities are consistently praised for their talents, but a lot of them are drug users, alcoholics or criminals. Fame has a way of covering crime and helping people to look past a man’s flaws and see them for their talents. The only art form that this is not the case is in sports, in sports, a man can be one of the best baseball players of all time, play for 24 seasons, collect over 4,000 hits and make a mistake that will keep that mans name out of baseball for the rest of time. This tragedy happened unfairly to a man who gave his all for the sport that turned its back to him.…
Quattrucci 1 Christopher Reeve, an actor who portrayed Superman on the big screen, once said, “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles”. Through his life, Christopher Reeve suffered greatly after a tragic accident and endured great struggle afterward. Ironically, he played an almost immortal character, Superman who was a terrific hero to the world. Much like Christopher Reeve along with his character of Superman, Roy Hobbs of The Natural demonstrated godlike strength and power as he is portrayed as a somewhat humanlike hero. His life becomes filled with adversity that he must overcome and fight back from.…
Lance Armstrong’s ego led “his reputation is in tatters, the cycling victories that made him a legend are wiped away, and the sponsors that gave him enormous wealth have fled faster than a downhill race”(Levs, 1). Lance Armstrong didn’t consider if it is right to cheat, but pride led him to an irrational choice, that led to his downfall. In addition, “Lance Armstrong is also being asked to pay back millions of dollars. And the term ‘Armstrong era’ is now apparently a moniker of widespread cheating” (Levs 1).…
All throughout American history, athletes have played vital roles in the way people act and look, what they want to be like when they grow up, and how they live everyday life. Those are just minor influences athletes have on people, but three athletes in the past fifty years have significantly impacted life in United states. Lance Armstrong, OJ Simpson, and Tiger Woods impacted US society both positively and negatively. Lance Armstrong impacted the US by his foundation, his comeback story from cancer, and his infamous seven straight Tour de France wins, but fell from grace when he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs. Tiger Woods impacted the US by overcoming prejudice and racism in his childhood and winning multiple major championships, but fell from grace when he guilty of cheating on his wife Ellin.…
Louis Armstrong was a part of an influential time of the Harlem Renaissance. He played a major role in the Jazz Age, otherwise known as the Roaring Twenties. He helped this time period move forward with this type of jazz. Louis and his group, the Oliver band, brought “swing” to this time period. Louis Armstrong helped start a significant music period (“Louis Armstrong”).…
A myth is a story that holds some kind of significance in a culture, a story that addresses fundamental and difficult questions that we as human beings ask: who or what am I, where did I come from, why am I here, how should I live, what is the right thing to do, what is the universe, how did it all begin? Myths are stories that are told about great men and great women; about the forces of good and evil; about large and small animals; about natural thing as well creatures like giants, gods and other supernatural beings. The complete study of all these stories theire respective elements is called mythology. Now when people hear the term mythology they automatically think of the Greek version, more specifically their gods such as Zeus the top-god,…
Sitting at my desk, I stared down at my schoolwork while my mind remained static. Suddenly, I found myself beginning to radiate golden light as my body faded from existence; then before I knew it, I rematerialized out of thin air. This does not happen often, so I was rather confused as I stood atop a cloud, high up in the sky. That is, until I noticed a large, human-like figure appear before me in a holy light. He raised his hands and smiled down at me before bellowing out, “Behold, for it is I; Gabe Newell!”…
Forget everything you thought you believed about your hero. Written in 1962, Daniel Boorstin’s, From Hero to Celebrity: The Human Pseudo- Event, a classic piece of cultural criticism, comments on the rise of celebrity and the unfailing decline of the hero. Traditional heroes are believed to have reached their status because they achieved greatness or great accomplishments in their own life times. Boorstin argues that unlike the celebrity, famous people were heroic, “admire for his courage, nobility, or exploits” (46). But, in an intriguing section of his text, Boorstin suggests that with scrutinization, greatness can posthumously be taken back.…
It all began at the base of that hill. There I stood, unabashed by the ever-tensening knot in the bottom of my stomach. The epitome of all of my fears stared me down as i stood in the shadow of that majestic, towering, powerful mountain. The immense winter wind shook me to my core. In the Alps, there was no freedom from shivering.…
The Effects of Impulse and Recklessness Decisions and actions are the pathways that lead to a change in the way of someone's life. The authors of "The Most Dangerous Game," "A Worn Path," and "The Truth About Being a Hero," Richard Connell, Eudora Welty, and Karl Marlantes, demonstrate how certain decisions and actions change one's life through their works. In addition, the following question is answered throughout each of their works: what is at the end of each pathway that those decisions and actions lead to? Considering their passages, specific pathways often lead someone towards a certain state of mind or situation in life - especially due to impluse and recklessness. Giving in to impulse and recklessness causes a change in character,…
Cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States and one of three major medical problems internationally (Siegel 7). Constant donations and charity raising events are brought to the public eye in hopes to one day find a cure. In 1993, ESPN developed an award called the Arthur Ashe Courage Award to commemorate someone who demonstrates courage and do things to transcend their sporting careers. In the first year of its existence, ESPN awarded this award to Jim Valvano at the 1993 ESPYs. Valvano presented an iconic speech that chronicled his life, and brought attention to his Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research while employing many tactics of persuasion to impact the audience and effectively develop a great appeal.…
Tragic Heroes Why is it that some of the greatest athletes ruin their career when they are just starting to do amazing things in the sport? I would call these athletes tragic heroes. My example of a tragic hero would be Mike Tyson. On November 22, 1986, Mike Tyson made his debut for a world title as a professional boxer, and he would show everyone why he was going to be the next great boxer with a second round TKO. Just as everything was going Tysons way, he started his tragic fall by making poor decisions.…
It was a normal cloudy day in Land, Arkansas and Joseph Barnes was waking up just like any ordinary day. He got ready and left for school, all tired and cranky. Sitting throughout many classes, Joseph wishing for this day to be over. But something came across in the middle of day. Joseph was called to the office and saw a man that he had never seen before.…
Human Resource Management according to Michael Armstrong is defined as ‘’a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its organization’’ (Armstrong , 2006). There are five functional areas of HRM – staffing, rewards, employee development, employee maintenance and employee relations (Bratton & Gold, 1999 & 2000). Strategic Human Resource Management ‘’is the comprehensive set of managerial activities and tasks related to developing and maintaining a qualified workforce’’ (Fottler, M.).…