Women's Sports Talk Show Blog

INSPIRATION

I have been thinking about inspiration lately. I think it was when I saw that Kay Yow had finally lost her battle with cancer that I started thinking about what inspires me, and perhaps others.

Having had family members beat cancer, I always felt a tug when I heard Coach Yow was having to fight again. I can’t explain why, but my heart would hurt for her, and her loved ones. It is good for us to see others display courage beyond our comprehension, for one day we will find ourselves in a place where we will be the one duking it out with an issue in our lives. That is how we learn to live life to the fullest.

A friend of mine emailed yesterday, and she is absolutely at the end of herself…depressed. I told her I was not the least bit surprised she is depressed because she has buried both parents within 60 days, and her father-in-law was just admitted to a nursing facility after a stroke. I would be overwhelmed, too, wouldn’t you? But, I have watched my friend stand tall in the wake of many years of watching and waiting. I have even told her many times how much I admired her strength in going through all she was facing on a daily basis. She inspires me…and now it is my turn to inspire her, to reach out and help her find herself again.

What inspires you? What in this life, in this world, causes you to lift your head, and walk a little straighter along the path? Obviously, athletes can be a source of inspiration for us, as we watch how they respond to various ups and downs in their careers. I read today where Tracy McGrady will not be playing for the rest of the Rocket’s season due to a knee injury that refuses to heal properly. Reading the words of Shane Battier I heard a man inspired…a man ready to face the challenges of playing without one of the mainstays of his team. As a Houston sports fan, I really hope the rest of the players are inspired to step up and play successfully into the playoffs.

I was watching another movie on ESPN Reel Classics a few weeks back…man I find myself on that channel a lot on Sunday afternoons. Anyway, they were running the movie about Bobby Riggs, and his pursuit of playing the top women’s players of 1973. Billie Jean King was a key character, obviously, and the build up to the Battle of the Sexes. I was a freshman in college when the big match took place in H-town, and remembered a lot of the hoop-la about it, being a young, impressionable feminist at the time. There was a scene where Billie Jean is on an airplane going to Japan, I think, and Margaret Court was playing her match with Riggs in May of 1973. In the scene, King was eager to watch the match, but would not be on the ground to see it on TV. One of the stewardesses told Billie Jean that she was backing Court all the way…even made a bet with the pilot on it. King asks her how much she bet…one paycheck!

As they landed in Japan, the pilot had found out that Riggs had rocked Court and won the match. The stewardess was shown writing a check, and giving it to the smirking pilot, all while he is running his hand down her hip. Inspiration? You could say so, because that scene was the deal maker for Billie Jean to play Riggs in the now infamous Battle of the Sexes. I don’t know if it really happened that way, but it was a painful reminder of how the world spun back then. Well, there are other humiliations we put each other through today, perhaps.

My grandmother was one of the most inspirational people in my life. She was a tough gal, but you would never see her in public without her hair done, and rouge on her cheeks. She was a lady at all times, but if you crossed her once, you would never do it again. For me, all she had to do was lift that left eyebrow…whoa-baby, it was going to be shredded wheat later. Actually, she never laid a hand on me. But, I admired her so much that I didn’t want to ever disappoint her. She is a lasting inspiration, and I pray I have become the legacy she deserves. She gave me more than my first name…she gave me her character, and a fierce determination to do the right thing.

Here’s hoping there is someone in your life that causes you to be inspired to be more than you ever dreamed, or imagined.

Tammy