Carr wasn't just Olympic hero; happiest when helping

[trottigy]

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/jeff-seidel/2015/06/03/henry-carr-death-olympics-detroit-northwestern/28446997/

 

Nice article about Brother Carr (thanks Edward for sending it   )

 

 

Carr died Friday in Griffin, Ga., after a long battle with cancer. He was 73.

 

Some will remember Carr as a superstar athlete at Detroit Northwestern, where he was called the "Gray Ghost."

 

Many will remember him from the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he won gold medals in the 200-meter dash and as a member of the 4x400 relay team.

 

And others might remember him playing defensive back for the New York Giants, lasting three years (1965-67) in the NFL until a knee injury ended his career.

 

But those are just surface details. Sports was something he did; it wasn't who he was. Athletics was only the beginning of this man's complicated story — the starting blocks, if you will, of a race through life that brought incredible highs and horrible falls. At one point, after the Olympics, he left his family and fell into a life of drugs.

 

So how should we remember him?

 

Perhaps it is only fair to try to view the race as a whole. How he married his high school sweetheart. How he set world records at Arizona State. How he soared in the Olympics. How he came back to Detroit and couldn't find a job and hit rock bottom, getting messed up with cocaine. How he climbed from the depths and cleaned up his life and rejoined his family and transformed as a Jehovah's Witness. How he traveled to rural Georgia to witness his faith. How he found peace and success in such a different way.

 

So, focus on his athletic achievements, if you must.

 

Be dazzled by those two gold medals that he hardly displayed and rarely talked about.

 

But that would be missing the truth — everything that came after that finish line at the Olympics. In the end, Carr openly questioned the whole circus around big-time athletics, the hero worship and tendency to put athletes on a pedestal. To him, the awards and achievements were fleeting and empty.

 

Which brings us to his good friend, Ron McQuitty.

 

"There is a Bible verse that tells you what happened to him," said McQuitty, who grew up in Detroit and now lives in Livonia. "It's Romans, the 12th chapter, verse 2. It says, 'And stop being molded by this system of things. But be transformed by making your mind over so that you may prove to yourself the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.'

 

"That's what Henry did. He had been in meets all around the world, but he said there was no substance. It was all vanity."

 

 

More at the link. Good article.

Edited June 4, 2015 by trottigy

[Joey]

Very nice article.Thanks Jerry.:-)

[trottigy]

I seem to remember him working at Patterson - between 1992 & 1996.

 

Beautiful man!

[Toy Poodles]

Thanks Jerry for summing his life up for us! Shows the difference the Truth makes in one older athletes life who is a brother and then another older athlete in the world has gone totally in a weird direction. This shows how the first one is happy and balanced and the other is still trying to find happiness and there is no balance in his life and looking for public approval to validate himself. 

[Dages]

That's a beautiful article, and no doubt he has a beautiful article on Jehovah's book too.

[Life4u]

Thanks for the encouraging article about our faithful Brother.

[Daniela]

The example of this faithful Brother confirms one again that glory for ourselves leads to disillusionment, glory for Jehovah leads to happiness!

[Jewelz]

Thanks Jerry it's a nice article and encouraging to see how he had success in this world and saw the pitfalls yet found true success in the REAL world

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Skye]

"Even when one becomes the best, it’s a deception. Why? Because it’s not lasting, nor really satisfying. Stars are soon replaced and generally forgotten. Then disappointment, depression and physical problems often follow. What’s worth while then?"

-Henry Carr, 200m 1964 Olympic Gold medalist and former NFL player, Life story appeared on w76 7/15 pp. 419-426.