It’s Veterans Day, when we all should pause to recognize there are heroes walking among us.
Not the heroes we cheer for when they’re wearing jerseys and playing for our favorite teams.
Although some of those qualify as real heroes. I’ll get to that.
It’s especially important today to acknowledge you mingle with heroes on a daily basis around here. In Bossier City, about 6,500 active duty and reservists serve our nation at Barksdale Air Force Base.
Today’s holiday honors them and their brothers and sisters throughout the history of our country — all military veterans who have served or are serving the United States.
Both my grandfathers fought in World War I – one in the Navy (his son graduated from the Naval Academy shortly after World War II) and the other in the Army, in trench warfare in France. My dad flew for the Army Air Force during WWII and the Korean Conflict, fortunately not in combat.
None of them were athletes past their youth. This is a perfect day to celebrate some remarkable competitors for their service to America.
This spotlight should first fall on Trey Prather, a quarterback good enough to start ahead of young Terry Bradshaw at Woodlawn High School, and to sign with LSU. He played some in his first two seasons, but wasn’t the starter, got frustrated, and in 1967, enlisted in the Marines. He was soon in combat in Vietnam, and was killed in action early the next year.
Through the glory days of LSU baseball, local stars like Todd Walker and Hayden Travinski have led the Tigers to College World Series titles after playing their careers at Alex Box Stadium. Perhaps you know about the namesake.
Originally a football player for the Tigers, Box turned to baseball in 1939 due to a shoulder injury. He played right field and batted cleanup. Occasionally, his shoulder would dislocate on a throw but teammates would pull it back in place and he stayed in the lineup.
Box enlisted after the attack on Pearl Harbor thrust America into war. He earned the Distinguished Service Cross for heroic battle conduct in 1942 but a year later was killed and is buried at the North African American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia.
You may know the Iowa Hawkeyes football team plays in Kinnick Stadium, named for the 1938 Heisman Trophy winner, Nile Kinnick, who made the ultimate sacrifice in WWII.
A remarkable group of Baseball Hall of Fame members made it through combat in those four horrible years. Yogi Berra took part in the D-Day invasion before he was an 18-time All-Star catcher for the Yankees. Pitcher Bob Feller became the first pro athlete to enlist, two days after Pearl Harbor, and served four years as a gunner. After the war, Feller kept firing and led the America League in strikeouts the next three seasons.
Warren Spahn left the minor leagues to join the Army. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge and earned a Purple Heart before winning 363 games as a Milwaukee Braves pitcher.
Berra’s teammates, infielders Pee Wee Reese and Phil Rizzuto, served in the Navy. Rizzuto fought in the Pacific Theatre for three years, then became an MLB legend.
Knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm played 21 big league seasons after receiving a Purple Heart for being wounded at the Battle of the Bulge.
Perhaps the most prominent ballplayer to serve was Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, who missed seven prime years in the big leagues after he became a naval aviator in the Marine Corps and served during both World War II and the Korean War. When he came home in 1946, “The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived” won his first American League MVP award and played in his only World Series.
He had not seen combat in WWII, but remained a Marine reservist. When war erupted in Korea, he was called up and flew 39 missions, half as the wingman for future astronaut John Glenn. Captain Williams came home in 1953 and played seven more MLB seasons
Pro Football Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik was a beast for Philadelphia at linebacker and center, leading the Eagles to a 1960 NFL title. He was a gunner on 30 WWII missions and earned the Air Medal, four Oak Leaf Clusters, the European Theater Operations Medal, four Battle Stars and the Good Conduct Medal.
More recently, Bradshaw’s Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls in the 1970s with Rocky Bleier as a halfback. He was drafted by the Steelers in 1968 and by Uncle Sam a year later. Sent to Vietnam, Bleier earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star after he sustained gunshot and grenade injuries, and was told he’d probably never run again. He did, even stacking up a 1,000-yard season in 1976.
Pro wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura served in the Navy (1969-1975) during Vietnam. Boxer Leon Spinks beat Muhammad Ali to win the world heavyweight crown in 1978, two years after he completed a three-year hitch with the Marines.
Cowboys legends Roger Staubach (a tour In Vietnam) and Chad Hennings (two deployments, 45 missions in the Air Force in the Gulf War) came home to help Dallas win a combined five Super Bowls.
Pat Tillman walked away from a multi-million dollar NFL contract to join the Army after 9/11. He lost his life in Afghanistan in 2004.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva served three tours in Afghanistan after attending West Point. He didn’t win a Super Bowl, but he did win a Bronze Star for rescuing fellow soldiers while under enemy fire.
Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente were military veterans before they became MLB icons.
Those names resonate. Today, millions of people who we’ve never heard of deserve equal respect for their selfless service.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com