Huh?
Yeah, I am one of 22 children of my father. We lived in Tennessee.
Shortly after my birth we moved and took the last train to Clarksville, TN to live. Dad was a railway Porter and Mom was a maid at various houses in town.
I was kinda sickly... for a long time. Yeah. Pneumonia.. Scarlet Fever.. and at age five I contracted infantile paralysis caused by the poliovirus.
Victor. Unlike you to write a non sports blog.
Stay tuned.
The Doctor told me and mom I'd never walk again. Mom told the Doctor, "Yes she will." I was little, I didn't know.
Stay tuned.
I survived polio but I lost strength in my leg and foot. Since we were African American, there was very little medical care available in Clarksville.
So.... a needle pulling thread. No, that ain't it.
So.... for two years, mom and I made weekly bus trips to the historically black Meharry Medical College for treatments, in Nashville, TN, some 50 miles from home.
I wore a leg brace for years, but, when we weren't in Nashville, my family would take the brace off and massage my leg four times a day. With 21 siblings, Lotta hands were available.
Thankfully, by the time I was 12 I was able to forever take the leg brace (and the orthopedic shoe I had to wear off).... AND...
WhatsUp Doc? I CAN WALK.
AND, pretty soon, ran. I started playing basketball.. and, running (hear that Doc?) running track.
My sophomore year in HS, I set a record in basketball for points in a season. They said I was pretty quick so they called me Skeeter.
The track coach at Tennessee State, located in Nashville, saw me, wanted me to come there and run on the track team.
Had some stuff to tend to first, the birth of my daughter Yolanda my senior year... then I went, and man did I run.
Our coach actually was our Olympic track coach in 1956 in Melbourne. Many countries protested Russia's invasion of Hungary and boycotted - but, proudly, four of us Tennessee State Tigerbelles teamed up to take bronze in the 4 X 100 relay.
Fast forward four years to the 1960 Olympics, I was 'the bomb' if I do say so myself... well, me and a couple of guys Cassius Clay... Oscar Robertson...
I won three, count 'em Doc,
THREE gold medals... I won the 100 meter dash, becoming the first Americsn female to win it since Helen Stephens did in the 1936 Olympics.
(Blogger tidbit, Helen Stephens was from Fulton, Missouri and went to school with the blog writer's parents.)
Back to Wilma... oops. She also won the 200, and, in spite of almost dropping the baton in her anchor leg of the 4 X 100 meter relay, she caught and passed the German runner for the Gold.
The folks in Rome were calling me "La Chattanooga Choo Choo"!
They wanted to have a segregated parade for me in Tennessee (no thank you), but, my good ole Clarksville had a really nice one for all to attend.
Nice ta meet ya, I'm Wilma Rudolph.
I KNEW it'd be about sports.
No you didn't.
"Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us." Wilma Rudolph
Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.
Wilma Rudolph
Happy day,
Love, Victurd
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