Can you think of the sports movie character that this quote comes from?
“Look, mister, there’s… two kinds of dumb, uh… guy that gets naked and runs out in the snow and barks at the moon, and, uh, guy who does the same thing in my living room. First one don’t matter, the second one you’re kinda forced to deal with.”
And the answer is..
.
George, the townie interim coach that Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) comes to replace at the beginning of that all-time classic film, Hoosiers. George was played by the actor, Chelcie Ross. Can you name the two other highly popular sports movies (also set in Big Ten country) that Mr. Ross performed in?
He played crafty Indians pitcher Eddie Harris in Major League. He must have went on a strict training regiment to build his body up to pro athlete standards for this role! He was 46 years old in this photo. I am 44 and a half. Do I look this old? Answer soon to come.
And that other movie role???
I wonder how College Hall of Fame football coach Dan Devine felt about Mr. Ross portraying him in Rudy? Chelcie’s trifecta of movie roles just might edge out Harrison Ford’s trio of Star Wars/Indiana Jones/The Fugitive.
Anyhow, that Hoosiers movie quote came to mind Saturday afternoon as I was just past the half way point of a ‘journey’ that I CHOSE to do. Let me add my own personal spin to that Hoosiers monologue:
“There’s also two more kinds of dumb…A guy that decides to run an obstacle course ten miles long in 90-degree weather. And a guy that pays 100 dollars to run an obstacle course ten miles long in 90-degree weather.”
What I am referring to is a recent phenomenon known as The Tough Mudder. For the past five years, these events have been held across America and the world, with over 1.3 million participants. It was held this weekend at the MId-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, near Mansfield. According to this Richland Source article, over 6,000 others made the same questionable choice as me to put their bodies to a challenge that most sane individuals would doubt.
Why would a somewhat intelligent, economical (a.k.a tight wad) individual fork over a ‘Benjamin’ (for you non-cool people, Ben Franklin is on the $100 bill) to torture myself?
The first reason is obvious. On my driver’s license, beside the word ‘SEX’, it has this letter: ‘M‘. And all of you nurturers that have an ‘F‘ in that box know that when it comes to self-preservation, us ‘M‘s don’t always think things through. But when it comes to the Tough Mudder, you ladies don’t quite get a free pass: 30% of the participants are women.
The bigger reason for my choice to partipate is a bit more noble: brotherhood. When women want to bond, they get together and do this thing called talking. For men, it’s not always quite that easy. Sometimes, we just need to DO. And other times, we just need to DON’T (it’s called laying on the couch). Well, being the oldest of three brothers, I thought the Tough Mudder would be a great bonding opportunity for us involving one of our greatest common passions: COMPETITION. We all were multi-sport athletes in high school, and each of us played four years of college football. I am four years older than Jon, and he is almost 5 years older than Mike. Due to our age difference, we never really got play any sports together, other than the occasional open gym.
A few years back, Jon, who worked in Chicago at the time, told me about this obstacle course thing he did in Wisconsin called a Tough Mudder. In the fall of 2013, I talked the lil’ brothers into signing up for the May 2014 Tough Mudder Ohio. The old, wise, and thrifty brother knew that signing up early meant a lower fee. The problem with signing up early, though, is that things can happen. And, in this case, that ‘thing’ was Jon’s sprained knee prior to the event. Thankfully, we were able to transfer the tickets to the May 2015 event.
Well, soon enough, the calendar quickly flipped to May of 2015, and our day of reckoning was at hand. Ready or not, here we come…
Some full disclosures to this photo of me, Mike, and Jon.
1. My sincere apology to Chelcie Ross. Man, I look old! And short!
2. I do admit guilt to flexing one of my ‘guns’ for this pic. Unfortunately, I forgot to use my other go-to ‘airbrushing’ techniques: tippy toes, gut in, and chest out!
3. Speaking of old, I look like I should be getting the Senior Citizen Early Bird Special meal with my shirt tucked in and my shorts hiked up. In all honesty, I was caught up in the pre-game hype. Some people were in wild outfits and costumes, so I decided to show off my sweet new retro-running shorts. More about those later.
Time to get muddy!!!
To read Part 2 of Happy Mudder’s Day, click here.