There was some misunderstanding that Charles ‘Emerald’ Green’s suggestion that he was hoping to “invest in the playing side right away” might not play well with major creditor HMRC. Capital introduced to the company after a CVA has nothing to do with a creditor’s assessment of the offer and, if anything, would offer comfort to HMRC that the company would be able to maintain future payments.
The comments are more of a challenge for the football authorities. The independent SFA appellant panel will today assess whether to increase, reduce of remove Rangers 12 month player registration embargo. Rangers narrative for the last two weeks is that this embargo could put them out of business. Apparently, they need to spend MORE money in future to ensure survival.
It remains to be seen if playing victim does them any good at appeal but Green has brushed this away, Rangers now plan to put a team on the field to win the league and reach the Champions League. Maybe not the wisest PR move.
John O’Hara, the Celtic secretary, had been unable to lure Kelly. Glass, however, was indefatigable and said he had ‘camped on his doorstep’. The 22-year-old was talked into taking part in Celtic’s first ever match, a 5-2 win over Rangers. ‘No Kelly, no Keltic’ became a catch phrase summary of the towering centre half’s significance. ‘I knew that if I could get Kelly, the rest would follow’, said Glass.
From Celtic: A Biography in Nine Lives, by Kevin McCarra.
You can buy a hard copy of the new issue of CQN Magazine via Magcloud here.
The graphic below is just for a flick through, to read the magazine go here to it’s dedicated site.
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really top
oh my day, was just reading the TB article….. God bless Tommy Burns
pod
Top Ten??
HH
Giggs
Some transfer tittle tattle this morning
Celtic are eyeing a move for Craig Gordon
by Mark Douglas, The Journal
May 16 2012
CRAIG Gordon is moving closer to joining Celtic this summer in a move which will see him leave Sunderland on a free transfer.
Intriguingly, this is because Newcastle United goalkeeper Fraser Forster, who has been on loan at the Glasgow club for the past two seasons, is stalling on saying yes to a permanent move north of the border.
The Journal understands Celtic have been unable to speak with Forster’s agent over the past few weeks, which has thwarted their attempts to sign the 6ft 6ins Wallsend Boys Club graduate on a long-term contract.
It is believed the 24-year-old has designs on a move to an English club, preferably in the Premier League which would leave the SPL champions in need of a goalkeeper.
One-time £9m signing Gordon, 29, is the only other goalkeeping target Celtic manager Neil Lennon has in mind.
The Scotland international, who has suffered with injury problems over the past two years, would welcome this opportunity to kick-start his career.
Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill has already been linked with a number of players, but goalkeeper is the one area of his team he need not worry about – despite watching a full international, once British football’s most expensive goalkeeper, walk out of the club on a Bosman.
Magnificent 7
Not forgetting the fact that transfer embargo aside Rangers won’t be able to sign players until they come out of administration… that is assuming UEFA/FIFA don’t place an embargo on them for not paying Rapid Vienna, in full, for Jelavic.
Sadly no…..
As I said yesterday, Celtic should be telling all the SPL clubs that they willunleash hell on them if they back entry for a new club by publically announcing they will not play a new club, they will not let any TV camera into CP, take part in any SPL sponsorship deals and refuse tickets for all away games.
We are the only superpower in the SPL, time to use that to our advantage!
If only I hadn’t read the article first :-(
PODIUM?????????????????
Ah so close…
The chapter on Flax Flaherty in the K.McCarra book features an interview with excellent CQNer Paul 67, talkin’ about his ole bhlog..
I met Flax many times when I worked at the Pools, a lovely man.
Interesting article about Bayern Munchen
http://t.co/dE1ARkwp
But apart from the transfer embargo and the European ban …
Maybe he really means the Eurovision Song Contest??
Neil is in Lille watching training etc.,as he keeps in touch with ex CP fitness coach Gregory Dupont.I think he will take in a couple of games while he is there.
Kayal33 on 16 May, 2012 at 10:45 said:
Cheers Kayal. It’s the local paper here along with The Chronicle in the evenings.
I particularly love “The Journal understands Celtic have been unable to speak with Forster’s agent over the past few weeks…….”. We all do, Lenny said it in a press conference last week!
What is it with so many so called journalists trying to make themselves sound special? Still, it reminded me why I never by the rag, or any other for that matter!
As for the story itself, here’s hoping Lenny gets hold of the agent and Fraser stays. Potential Champions League with us or a potential relegation battle with West Ham (as rumoured). Hmmm….let me think……! ;-)
WOO HOO
Thanks for sorting out my password Paul. Well here i am, long term reader of the site but a first time poster. I look forward in having the craic with some lovely tim folk.
I thought the following from Cicero particularly apt with today’s appeal and the general behaviours on display from all parties….
“The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct”
If Dupe & Duper can get a vote by the chairmen delayed with a proxy 11th hr phone call, Surely celtic & hibs can ask for a postponement on the 30th.
Till all facts are out in the open and common knowledge i.e. Doncasters two contracts enquiry,
We also had:
“Nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another”.
Clever fella that Cicero. Must have seen the BTC way back even then………….
Ps Istanbulcelt 10.58
Welcome aboard
HAIL HAIL
Which striker, or strikers, are to be offloaded to free up a place for the new striker Lenny is obviously looking for. We currently have Hooper, Stokes, Samaras (though he is better playing wide), Bangura, Murphy, Watt & I assume Keatings is returning.
The 2 youngsters could be loaned out, to gain experience and there is no future at the club for Murphy but that would still leave 5 players (if we sign a striker) chasing 1 or 2 places depending on formation.
Samaras will stay, the manager wants Hooper to stay but that will depend on what offers we get for him and whether or not he signs a contract extension.That leaves either Stokes or Bangura to be punted (though both would probably stay if Hooper moves for big money).
Bye bye Bangura for me, Stokes is a reliable SPL scorer and Bangura has shown nothing to suggest he is a goalscorer at all. Can see Mo heading back to Scandanavia on loan.
Ole clever clogs Cicero middle name was ‘Tully’
Maks sense tae me, and it maks sense tae Mo.
istanbulcelt on 16 May, 2012 at 10:58 said:
WOO HOO
Thanks for sorting out my password Paul. Well here i am, long term reader of the site but a first time poster. I look forward in having the craic with some lovely tim folk.
———————-
Are you a Hun? (Thought I’d get in first)
leftclicktic on 16 May, 2012 at 10:59 said:
If Dupe & Duper can get a vote by the chairmen delayed with a proxy 11th hr phone call, Surely celtic & hibs can ask for a postponement on the 30th.
Till all facts are out in the open and common knowledge i.e. Doncasters two contracts enquiry,
==================================================
Exactly,
for instance if any club had answered yes to that letter from the SFA, then why should they get a vote on the Rangers mess?
Cheers leftclick,
Monaghan, i eat the hun for Breakfast! ha ha.
Just when I thought I had cracked my new game of Bluedo by saying it was Mr Green, with the Axe in the Boardroom / Dressing Room / Murray Park I now find it was actually Mr SFA, with a Panel in the Transfer Room……..
The original SFA ban on new signing made perfect sense when considering how much that club owe for previous transfers. SFA and perfect sense?
Unusual, wasn`t it.
istanbulcelt on 16 May, 2012 at 11:09 said:
Cheers leftclick,
Monaghan, i eat the hun for Breakfast! ha ha.
———
Really have to improve that diet.
Monaghan:
Far too wet a greeting for a new poster.
The correct salute is as follows:
Istanbulcelt, you’re a hun!
TraditioniseverythingCSC
Paul67 –
Emerald is playing to the gallery. He has clearly been briefed that the media are ever receptive to reporting good news about their favourite team.
Istanbulcelt
Are you a nasty hun? :o)
Kayal33 on 16 May, 2012 at 11:02 said
No mention for the mighty Rasmussen? :P
HH
istanbulcelt on 16 May, 2012 at 10:58 said:
WOO HOO
Welcome aboard.
Does your breakfast go “Snap, crackle. Hun”
Good Morning,
Amidst all the hullabaloo of the weekend you may have missed the fact that a Glaswegian came second at the TPC at Sawgrass. The Tournament players championship has the richest prize in Golf with the winner walking away with a cool $9.5Million– almost enough to buy the Gers!
Martin Laird’s failure by two shots still saw him collect a healthy cheque and raised his world standing, which isn’t bad for a lad who played his junior Golf at Kirkintilloch and then at Hilton Park outside Bearsden, a course I often pass as I drive home to my Stirlingshire abode.
Sandy ” last round” Lyle remains the only Scot, and the first non American to have won at Sawgrass. Seve Ballesteros once said that if all the then current golfers played at their best at the one tournament then the winner would be “Lyle by two”.– but of course it is very hard to have all the great golfers play at the top of their game at the one tournament. It doesn’t actually happen that often.
Golf is a strange game. The late Bob Collinson, who was the professional at Wndyhill Golf Club tried to teach me the rudiments when I was a boy. It was a thankless task. “ Keep your left arm straight!”. “Don’t lift your head!” “Don’t swing too fast!” and so on. For a time I listened and actually put it into practice but I just didn’t have the temperament. A bad shot would see a complete loss of temper as a teenager. Consistency was as close as an undiscovered country and eventually the game really was a good walk spoiled. I got to hate it.
I returned to golf occasionally in later years explaining to one Rangers supporting friend that, to me, golf was fine in theory but just crap in practice! “ Bit like being a catholic!” he quipped back instantly.
However, I did become fascinated by the people who played this crazy sport at the top level, the courses they played on and the truly mental people who designed a golf course.
Take the 17th hole at Sawgrass with its island green? Just what on God’s earth is that all about? And to think people actually pay to face such a trauma!
Sawgrass – or the Stadium course to be precise- is now the permanent home of the TPC. It is not quite the fifth major—Lyle once said the difference between Sawgrass and the 4 majors was a mere 150 years—but it is a hellish hard tournament to win. To do so, you have to be at your very best, against the best, and at least once Sawgrass saw that most unique of all things- when-all the big guys in the field were at their very best at the one time and on the one course.
The occasion that I am thinking of took place in 1980, although on this occasion the TPC was hosted across the road from the Stadium course at the Sawgrass Country club, and the winner didn’t get $9.5Million– but a respectable $72,500—still the biggest prize in Golf at the time.
By the last day of play, the following players were tied behind the leader for second place. They all trailed by one shot at one point in the day.
Tom Watson, Hubert Green, Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwin and Seve ( The reigning Open Champion ) were all in that group. Unbelievably the last threesome of the day had another two players on the same score… and they just happened to be one Jack Nicklaus and the wee South African globetrotter Gary Player. For good measure, both Player and Nicklaus both birdied the first hole! These seven guys, all in the world’s top ten bar Player I think, were chasing the TPC championship but they were also chasing the “Buck”.
Crenshaw chased that hard that he fired a superb 66 but….. Alas it was just not enough.
At the end of the day, all seven, like Laird came close but not close enough, with the nearest being Crenshaw at the end, who was that one stroke behind. In the papers, the last round was defined as a Dog Fight, a conglomeration of Stars, eight of the best in the world all going at it, and for it, on the one day and at the one time.
As I said, Crenshaw fired 66, Green equalled the course record with a matching 66, In the third round Nicklaus, birdied 4 out of the last 5 holes and started the last day where he left off. Watson was never more than two away at any stage, Player Made birdies but slid to a 73, Nicklaus gambled and the gambles didn’t pay off and he fell away under pressure, Seve flashed to a 69 and tied for third with Watson, and others like Curtis Strange, Nick Faldo, Peter Jacobson and Tom Kite were left behind as also rans. At the end of the day, none of them could catch the front runner who smashed the previous course record by an amazing 5 shots.
At the front of the field was a 40 year old who had no right to be there and who had every right to be there.
Lee Buck Trevino by this time had a chronic back. He had had several operations, and would eventually have two spacers inserted between his vertebrae and a permanent metal plate inserted into his neck to relieve the pain from long displaced discs. He has said that eventually he will be cremated and that his wife has to reach into the urn and find the spacers, the plate and various other bits of metal that hold his back together, and if they ain’t there then the ashes ain’t him!
Having been struck by Lightning at the Western Open in 1975, Trevino should not have been playing golf at all, and certainly not to tournament standard.
Playing Golf was painful and no matter what surgery might do for him, he could not hit through the ball as hard as he did when he was at his zenith between 1967 and 1975. But what he could do was hit it with deadly accuracy from the tee, and so while “shorter” than everyone else he hit fairway after fairway after fairway relentlessly loading pressure on the others over 4 days.
Trevino, the man, is a fascinating study. He was born in a dirt floor shack, never knew his father, had little schooling and was earning money for the “house” by the age of 5 picking cotton, and by 9 selling golf balls he found on the local golf course and shining shoes. Eventually he went to caddying full time, finally leaving what passed for a school life at 14.
He never had a golf lesson in his life and started to play with other caddies on the three holes behind the caddy shack of the course where he caddied. It was there that he started to hustle, taking on all comers with either clubs, or famously playing with a taped up Dr Pepper’s bottle on the end of a bit of string. He would drive with the thick end of the bottle, and put with the thin end using it like a snooker cue. In later years he was sponsored by Dr Pepper and he still drinks the stuff to this day.
At 17 he joined the marines for 4 years. During that time he became an expert marksman and held the marine shooting record for many years as a result of the same attitude he showed to golf—practice- practice and practice. When he left, he returned to golf and got a job as an assistant pro in El Paso. It was whilst at El Paso that he really started to hustle in between playing and giving lessons.
He never thought himself good enough to be a tournament player until he started beating tournament pros for money. One story goes that a young Ray Floyd was persuaded to come and play against the unknown Trevino. Floyd had just won a PGA tournament earning a healthy cheque. However he promptly lost the lot and more to the wee Texican who carried bags, worked behind the bar and waited at table between rounds.
Trevino didn’t hit the US PGA tour until the ripe old age of 27. He was rookie of the year in his first full year and in his second year he won the US open by 4 strokes from Nicholas. He would win at least one PGA event every year for the next 14 consecutive years. Duff back or no duff back.
Everyone knows he won the US Open, the Canadian Open and the British Open in the space of 21 days in 1971. We also know that his “miracle golf” at the 1972 open at Muirfield effectively ended Tony Jacklin’s career as a competitor. Jacklin was never the same player again. In the early 70’s, he was Nicholas’ greatest nemesis, simply because he would drive the ball so consistently, and because around the greens he had simply a “magic “ touch. It seemed he could bump and run the ball, or chip it straight into the hole from just about anywhere and from any angle. By this time the world was used to his out to in swing that was all wrong, and his relentless fade of the ball from left to right. Experts said that the style of that swing would never last, only to eventually agree that he was the “sweetest” and most reliable hitter of the golf ball since Ben Hogan who he had seen at distance as a boy, and on whom he modelled the “shape” of his fade. Had he not suffered the lightning strike in 1975 and the resultant back problems…. Then who knows?
His practice routine was… well…. Crazy. He would set up an ordinary household door some 250 yards down the fairway and allegedly practice his drive until he could hit the door 30 times out of 30! He never took on a coach stating that he had never found a coach he couldn’t already beat—though the truth is he just kept teaching himself.
But it all should have ended after the lightning strike.
Yet despite this, he won 29 tournaments on the regular tour, many of which came after God had given him a volt or two. When you look beyond the regular tour that is when the stats get a bit mesmerising. You see he also won numerous unofficial tournaments- although many like the Lancombe, The Canadian PGA, Sun City Classic and the Golf world cup would later receive official status. By 1980, despite the bad back and at the age of 40, he was back to playing at his best. That best included playing in 22 tournaments overall that year, winning 3, being 2nd 4 times, 3rd once, 4th twice and fifth twice. By the end of the year, the 40 year old was only second on the money list to the much younger Watson. Over his career on the professional tour he played in 466 tournaments, made the cut on 409 occasions, finished in the top 25 on 286 of those, the top ten 166 times and the top 3 on 83 occasions! He won the Vardon trophy for having the lowest average score over the year on 5 occasions. Only Tiger Woods has won it more often. Overall he is credited with 89 tournament victories. However what the stats reveal is that he very VERY rarely failed to collect a cheque!!!
However, it was his “televisionality” that really made Trevino, especially in unofficial skins games that were televised and which offered BIG prize money.
With his sense of humour, non stop talking and quick wit, the TV channels were desperate to get him for such events. However this was a chance for Trevino to hustle of old, and he regularly played others on the tour in such challenge matches and walked away with dollars aplenty. One famous occasion was when he played a skins match with Nicklaus, Palmer and Fuzzy Zoeller and won every single cent that was available as prize money on the second day. His haul for the two days amounted to $310,000 dollars plus a Cadillac. His round included a hole in one at an island green not unlike Sawgrass’ 17th. By this time he was 47 years old and clearly past his best— except when the tournament was over two days instead of 4 and there was serious money on the line.
By the way, in cars he has won a total of 6 Cadillacs, 2 Toyotas and 3 Mitsubishi’s on the senior tour alone He sold them all, especially the Cadillacs because he said that where he came from if the Police saw a Mexican in a Cadillac they would presume it was stolen!
By his mid to late 40’s he had given up on competitive golf, citing back pain and the fact that he could no longer compete with the young “flat bellies” who were using the modern equipment to hit the ball miles further than he could.
However, his wife reminded him that his Golf clubs didn’t know what age he was, and so when he qualified for the senior’s tour at the age of 50 he took to competing again against “These older guys”.
He won 5 out of the first ten tournaments he competed in and all in all he went on to amass another 29 wins and remarkably similar stats to those of his PGA days. He played in 396 tournaments, making 387 cuts, finishing in the top 25 235 times, the top ten 153 times and the top 3 on 70 occasions.
At one point on the senior’s tour he had won more official prize money than anyone else in the History of golf. He claims that the most he has ever lost in a golf bet was $600 and describes real pressure on a golf course as being when you have made a bet of $20 and you only have $5 to your name.
The public perception of Supermex is the wise cracking forever talking entertainer. Crenshaw finished second to him on a number of occasions but always said that you could never be mad at him, and that he was great for golf. Always laughing, joking and chirping away. He was the kind of guy that made the stupid game look fun—so much so that even I tried it!
However, that view hides an altogether different Trevino. He is actually fiercely competitive and could be quite remote away from the course. He is a sociable but private man, whose study of the game and his ability to see tiny things make him a great commentator on golf or anything else. For example he was once commentating on a tournament where Jack Nicklaus was about to put. It was a short put, but Trevino said on air that he thought Jack would miss it because of the tiniest movement he was making with his head. Trevino said that when Jack made that movement he usually missed the put! Sure enough, Nicklaus missed. When he later heard what Trevino had said Nicklaus was furious—not furious at Trevino for his comment, but because he was furious that Trevino knew so much about him as a player because he was not conscious of any type of head movement at all! Nicklaus would say of him that he was genuinely afraid of him because he seemed to know so much about courses, players, caddies and just about everything else.
The American journalist and sports commentator Loran Smith cites Trevino as his favourite conversationalist in sport of all time—even above Ali— stating that he could speak before congress easily without a note and that he would put folk with a PhD to shame.
Trevino’s self-depreciating wit is legendary. He says that until his twenties he thought that Manual labour was another Mexican and that on occasion he plays one under golf—one under a bush, one under the water, one under a tree and so on.
It was this personality and his prowess with a golf club that lead to such programmes as the one club challenge with he and Seve just playing St Andrews with only a five iron and of course the pro celebrity golf from Gleneagles.
However, it is neither his wit nor his golfing ability that make Trevino a stick out for me. Instead it is his unbounding and absolutely limitless humility. He was born with nothing and spent his formative years in and around black caddies. Something he never ever forgot. His long time caddy was Herman Mitchell, a 300 pound giant who was more personal friend than employee. When Herman had to give up the job because of health problems, Trevino kept him on the payroll till the day he died. Whatsmore, he bought him a house, a car, and paid his medical bills. Yet he would joke to Herman after a bad shot “ You can’t caddy for shit!” only for Herman to reply “ I can clearly caddy better than you can play!”
The 1980 Open at Muirfield saw him finish second to an inspired Watson, but in front of a trailing Crenshaw, Nicklaus, Bean, Stadler, Newton, Lyle, Faldo, Ballesteros, Pate, Nelson and everyone else. I remember watching that round and being impressed by Watson but astounded by Trevino. He had been paired with Ken Brown of Scotland whose play was notoriously slow. Trevino wanted to get round quick, especially when it was cold, as that affected the back. Brown could have won the open that day but for a disastrous 76 before his home crowd. Trevino could maybe have won at Muirfield for the second time.
However, Ken took forever with every shot and had the Texican out on the cold course for hours. Despite this Trevino shot 69- the same score as Watson, Crenshaw, Nicklaus and Carl Mason. I remember him whistling as he went round and revealing that he was keeping the cold out by wearing his pyjamas underneath his clothes!
However, what I remember most of all was his shouts of “ get in the hole—get in the hole” as the ball went towards the cup on each green. It was Brown’s ball he was shouting at.
Winning mattered but people mattered more, and Brown was fighting demons in front of a Scottish crowd who were willing him to win.
He would win the last of his 6 majors at the age of 44 in the heat of Birmingham Alabama in late August 1984. This was his last year of regular play on the tour as the back could just not take it. However, in the Alabama sunshine he burned up the Nicklaus designed Shoal Creek course becoming the first winner of the PGA to shoot four rounds under 70. Four strokes back was the even older Player and the positively youthful Lanny Wadkins at 34. He walked away with the $125,000 first prize. The PGA paid “ Big bucks to Lee Buck”. For good measure he had already finished second at Sawgrass and had pocketed another $72,500.
He defended his PGA title the following year, but by then he had virtually retired from competitive golf playing only thirteen tournaments compared to 31 in 1971 and 1972 when he was at his height. He spent most of the year in the NBC commentary box but acquitted himself reasonably well at the Cherry Hills Country Club Colorado. Hubert Green won the tournament by one stroke. Trevino was a distant…………2nd!
The one place he was never ever comfortable was at Augusta. It is said that it is only in recent years that he has even entered the clubhouse there. In days of yore, he would change his shoes in the car park, and would refuse to enter the building because of its “white only” rules. When he finished a round at Augusta he would immediately get in the car and drive off—no hanging about, no signing autographs – nothing. He didn’t like the place or the people—and to Lee Trevino people counted. Officially he has said that to win at Augusta you needed to have a hook—and he didn’t have a hook in his locker. Unofficially, others say he simply despised Augusta National for its openly racist policy and all that it stood for. He said of Augusta “ That place rejected me like a skin transplant!”.
All Trevino’s charitable donations ( and there are many ) and works for good causes, have to be kept strictly private and he insists on absolutely no publicity.
He has established numerous foundations and charities for the benefit of Mexican Americans. He cannot stand the snobbishness that can be part of golf, and now at 72 he plays golf with pals—a guy that fixes fences, a bail bondsman, and others. He prefers their company to the circus of celebrity. George W Bush is a pal who stays close, and Trevino has taken great pleasure in “coaching” Condalisa Rice, a Birmingham Alabama native around the once “White only” Shoal Creek. He openly admits to crying like a baby when Barack Obama became president—he did not think he would see a black president in his lifetime. He always had time for the locker attendants and the cart boys—sure he had been one himself! People matter more than anything else.
Today, he lives in a house which is within vision of the shack he was born in. It’s a big house right enough, but it is down the road from where “home” always was. It is a house where he used to play in the gardens when he was a child, never thinking that he could one day own such a home. On that 1980 March day at Sawgrass with the world’s best at his heels, Trevino slapped the ball to within 18ft of the fifteenth green. Herman Mitchell turned to him and said “Let’s go home, Lee!” and Lee duly sank the put. Two in front with three to play. The rest could only watch.
Apparently he has a habit of referring to Arnold as “ Mr Palmer” and says that if you look up the word “class” in a dictionary you will find a photograph of Arnold Palmer opposite the word.
He says the words “Jack Nicklaus” with a reverence and cites him as the greatest golfer ever- despite saying that his short game could have been better.
He mentions Gary Player , in glowing terms describing him as one of the greatest ever golfers- but a pain in the neck for always trying to get him to eat roots and nuts and “healthy stuff”.
And that, at last, brings me to the reason for this very long article…. And it is this.
Lee Trevino is the author of the single greatest sporting quote I have ever heard. It ranks just above Stein’s desire to play football in a style which would make the neutral want Celtic to win and be glad that they did so. Remember that Trevino was a fierce competitor, with an absolutely resolute determination to win. He believed that he could beat anyone on the day, and when that belief left him so did his desire to play competitive golf. From then on it would be exhibition golf with old friends and ever wiser cracks. “The older I get, the better I used to be!”.
He took the view that the greatest achievement that any golfer could ever achieve was to beat Nicklaus—that was the sole measure of his time. Not the money, not the ranking, not the titles. It was who you played and how you played against them on an even playing field.
Every sportsman or woman, and every sports administrator, in every sport, should know the Lee Trevino story and take heed of what he says about sport, what it means and who it is for. That way, the rules of each game would be a lot simpler and a lot more honest.
Today, we live in a time when so called “sporting integrity” can be sold by supposedly educated men for the sake of a TV contract or a few quid here and there, and when it is widely recognised that certain people will break all sorts of rules to ensure a better chance of winning in a sporting competition.Winning is everything apparently, and if necessary victory can be bought. So much so that Michel Platini wishes to introduce laws to ensure financial fairplay. These are laws which ahould be unnecessary.
It is the wise cracking uneducated shack dweller who reminds me best that sporting achievement is about human endeavour, about people, and amounts to nothing at all without complete and total respect for your game, your opponent and a huge chunk of humility. Trying your best in fair competition is one thing, but winning at any cost and blowing your own triumphalist trumpet is another.
One is to be absolutely admired without qualification, the other is to be condemned and discarded without a second consideration.
Trevino makes it clear that you can never have anything close to integrity- sporting or otherwise- without having deep seated humility.
The quote concerned was made in an interview on tv. Trevino has said things close since but not exactly like this. The scene is a bar and Trevino is having a beer— and as he gave up alcohol 20 plus years ago the quote is not one from a reflecting old man. The interviewer asked him how he would like to be remembered.
His reply was brilliant if it was off the cuff and spontaneous, but even better if it was considered and rehearsed.
“How would I like to be remembered? I would want to be remembered as having played with and against the very best when they were at their very best. I would want people to remember that I was lucky enough to play against Nicklaus, Palmer and Player when they were at the top of their game— and I didn’t always lose!”.
The 4 last played together on 5th May 2012 with Palmer, Nicklaus and Player forming a winning team.
Before that, 72 year old Trevino played in a tournament on 17th April 2012. He did not win it and did not expect to. He did however play sufficiently well to collect a cheque for $22,500. His unofficial “hustle” winnings are not recorded.
Paul67
Telling everyone they have gathered ‘hundreds of millions’ over the past couple of months was hilarious!
If you had that money, would you not be better off buying in England with the promised land of the EPL?
Stupid huns…
DBBIA: Aye. :o)
He also stated “When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff”
Better than Nostradamus though the Mayans did say 2012 would be the end.