Krekor Ohanian, Jr., was from California. His parents were Armenian, with his father an attorney who represented many from the home country who had little money and barely spoke English.

Krekor became an avid basketball fan. He was a good player in high school. Teammates called him “Touch,” because he always liked to touch the ball. Upon graduation, Krekor enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Following the war, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles on the G.I. Bill and a basketball scholarship. He played for legendary coach John Wooden.

Though he had decided to attend law school and follow his farther into the profession, a basketball game caused him to change direction. Eventually, he landed in the Hollywood spotlight. Following one of UCLA’s games, Krekor was introduced to William A. Wellman. The film director liked the young man’s voice and his expressive face as he played the game. He encouraged Krekor to consider an acting career.

Placing law school on the bench for at least a while, Krekor explored the suggestion and found himself taking various roles in films and television programs. Eventually, he would star in a television series of his own, relying on his athletic ability to perform his own stunts despite breaking a wrist and dislocating a shoulder in the pilot episode. His character, “Joe,” was depicted as an Armenian-American. Krekor occasionally spoke Armenian in several episodes and sometimes he quoted Armenian proverbs.

By this time, he wasn’t Krekor Ohanian, Jr., the basketball player or future lawyer. Hollywood fans now knew him as Mike Connors, the star of the television program “Mannix.”

We might not see Anthony Greco in a New York Rangers uniform again, but he already has achieved one of his life goals. He pulled on the red, white and blue jersey a few weeks ago in San Jose for his first game with the team he rooted for as a child. He inherited his passion for the Rangers from parents Paul and Mary Jane.

Anthony’s mom and an aunt watched the game from Mary Jane’s Massapequa Park home. Everyone said that Paul watched from above. A firefighter for the Fire Department of New York, he died during May 2020 from illnesses caused by breathing toxic air at Ground Zero following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mary Jane was overwhelmed to watch her son fulfill his childhood dream after enduring such hardship. But she never expected to feel her late husband’s presence as much as she did. After the first 20 minutes of the game, Anthony had logged 3:43 of ice time. On September 11, 2001, 343 firefighters died at the World Trade Center.

Anthony signed with the Rangers as a free agent during October 2020. His father knew all about it before he succumbed to his illnesses. As with most hockey parents, Paul and Mary Jane had invested significantly in their son’s hockey career. Paul drove Anthony to games and practices at all hours, and then he moved the family to Minnesota for a while to allow Anthony to attend a prominent school with a hockey tradition. Paul still was an active firefighter at the time, driving back and forth for hours between Minnesota and New York for his assigned shifts with the FDNY.

Except for the one game against San Jose, Anthony has spent his Rangers days with the team’s AHL affiliate. His time in the Rangers spotlight was created by roster fluctuations to address the National Hockey League’s coronavirus protocol. Anthony is the first Queens native to play for the Rangers.

Anthony’s future is unknown with the Rangers and in the NHL. However, he always will have and cherish January 13, 2022, the night played for his beloved Rangers with many members of his family and the FDNY family rooting for him. Plus one more fan—a special husband and father from above.

The world commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the end of January. For more than 75 years, many stories have emerged about the heroes who risked their lives by defying the Nazis to save their countries and to save the lives of persecuted men, women and children. One story that I did not know until recently involved an Italian athlete.

Cyclist Gino Bartali was from Ponte a Ema. It’s a town near Florence. A son of modest farmers, he began working in a bicycle shop when he was only 13 years old. Racing bicycles became a passion. By the age of 21, he was competing professionally. A year later, 1936, Gino won the Giro d’Italia, an annual multiple-stage bicycle race.  He won this race three times along with many other race stages, including the Tour de France. Gino’s cycling achievements on the Alps and Pyrenees were legendary, earning him the nickname “Giant of the Mountains.”

A star on the bicycle, Gino also became revered for his actions during World War II. He hid a Jewish family from Nazi occupiers in his cellar, placing himself and his family at great risk. Gino also became a bicycle courier for the Italian Resistance.

Gino became so popular with the Italian people that neither the Fascist nor the German troops dared to act on their suspicions about him. They did not arrest him for fear of violent backlash from the Italian people. Pretending to train on rides that were over thousands of miles long, Gino saved numerous Jews by hiding them or alerting them about raids on safehouses. He later assisted in helping Jews escape from Italy and into Switzerland by cycling with an attached wagon that contained a secret compartment to hide people. Whenever he was stopped by authorities, he simply stated that the wagon was part of his training.

Gino Bartali’s courage saved hundreds of lives. But, he never spoke about any of it. Upon Gino’s passing during 2000, his son recounted that when people called Gino a hero, he would say, “No, no - I want to be remembered for my sporting achievements. Real heroes are others, those who have suffered in their soul, in their heart, in their spirit, in their mind, for their loved ones. Those are the real heroes. I’m just a cyclist.”

We need to listen closely to Gino’s words, because too often many of us, consciously or unconsciously, bestow “hero worship” upon athletes. In this instance, however, during a critical time for the world, just imagine all the people Gino helped with his bicycle. He provided them with the opportunities to live long and enjoy prosperous lives.

Gino was an excellent award-winning cyclist. He also was much more—Gino Bartali Was A Hero!

Maybe you heard about this story from January as wintry weather passed through the northeast. A high school football coach followed a school tradition. His players learned about the importance of “giving back” and the school’s bonds with the community were strengthened through their acts of kindness.

The weather in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, forced cancellation of the team’s scheduled weight lifting practice. But, the team still got together to shovel, for free, the snow from driveways and walkways of neighbors who required some assistance.

In a tweet posted on January 16, Bethel Park High School Head Football Coach Brian DeLallo wrote: “Due to expected severe weather, Monday’s weightlifting workout has been canceled.  Find an elderly or disabled neighbor and shovel their driveway.  Don’t accept any money – that’s our Monday workout.”

A previous coach, Jeff Metheny, started the community activity more 20 years ago. Brian just was following the trail blazed by Jeff. No doubt that the new players, under his guidance and the support of older teammates, quickly learned that there is more to life than football.

Student-athletes David Shelpman, 16, and Aidan Campbell, 17, were among the 40 teammates who moved snow for neighbors. David shoveled for about seven hours and Campbell toiled for about five hours. When he put his shovel aside, David and his mom volunteered to serve a spaghetti dinner for homeless veterans.

Helping his neighbors “makes me feel like a part of something bigger than myself,” said David. “I definitely always do feel good about being able to help others out.”

As the players cleared snow, they enjoyed many opportunities to interact with their neighbors. Education and sports are important to Bethel Park, and Mother Nature’s winter blankets showcases the kindness of its young residents.

Popularity continues to rise for recreational and competitive sports that engage youth and adults with disabilities. Their training and skillsets are rising, too.

One of the oldest adaptive sports is wheelchair tennis. It has been on the court for more than 40 years.

Dana Mathewson is a top-ranking American wheelchair tennis player. She competes at the U.S. Open. She has represented the country on World Cup teams and she has won a gold medal in doubles and a bronze medal in singles at the Pan-American Games. Dana had been a soccer player, but, at age 10, she was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease. One day she was running on the field and then, suddenly, she was paralyzed from the waist down. Anyone with a disability or other hardship who plays a sport is, according to Dana, a very resilient person. She sees that resilience and the competitive spirit in many men, women and youth who play basketball, race or ski from a wheelchair, or participate in hockey from a sled.

The rules for wheelchair tennis are the same as for the conventional game. The one exception is that two bounces of the ball are permitted if players require additional time to maneuver on the court. When using the chair, a move to the left or right requires the player to turn the chair and push forward. A player isn’t able to side-step or cross-step.

Players hit tough shots. When on the receiving side, they must quickly steer their chair, often moving in a figure eight, so they can track the ball and position themselves to return a shot. Some of the most talented tennis stars, such as Novak Djokovic and Frances Tiafoe, have tried the adaptive version of tennis and discovered that the game is difficult to play from a wheelchair.

Besides all the routine daily challenges off the court, tennis players with disabilities also face an additional challenge that the rest of us who play tennis, or attempt to play, never experience on the court. A player can blow a tire. When this mechanical mishap occurs at a tournament, players rely on a wheelchair repair technician who is available at courtside.

Mike Zangari is one of the more well-known technicians. He is a wheelchair tennis pioneer. He played for 35 years and he also played wheelchair basketball. At the major tennis events, Mike repairs the lightweight, high-end titanium chairs that cost thousands of dollars. For years, he has joined with young stars such as Dana to showcase the sport and create competitive opportunities for adults and children around the world.

The following was written a long time ago. I don’t know who wrote it or when it was written. I also don’t know the name of the child in the story. But, we all know “The Babe.” He was magical. I wish that I had seen him play.

This story about kindness has not been edited.

_______

Babe Ruth had hit 714 home runs during his baseball career and was playing one of his last full major league games. It was the Braves vs. the Reds in Cincinnati. But the great Bambino was no longer as agile as he had been. He fumbled the ball and threw badly, and in one inning alone his errors were responsible for most of the five runs scored by Cincinnati.

As the Babe walked off the field and headed toward the dugout after the third out, a crescendo of yelling and booing reached his ears. Just then a boy jumped over the railing onto the playing field. With tears streaming down his face, he threw his arms around the legs of his hero.

Ruth didn’t hesitate for a second. He picked up the boy, hugged him and set him down on his feet, patting his head gently. The noise from the stands came to an abrupt halt. Suddenly, there was no more booing. In fact, a hush fell over the entire ballpark. In those brief moments, the fans saw two heroes: Ruth, who, in spite of his dismal day on the field, could still care about a little boy; and the small lad, who cared about the feelings of another human being. Both had melted the hearts of the crowd.

Anonymous

Did you ever hear about dressage? Some call it horse ballet. Others refer to it as dancing with your horse. It is an Olympic sport.

Suzanne Ament, a professor of history at Radford University in Virginia, made her own history outside the classroom earlier this year as the winner of the Spring Fling Schooling Dressage Show at the Lloyd Harbor Equestrian Center here on Long Island. Suzanne is blind. She said that similar to the relationship with a Seeing Eye dog, comradery with a horse has provided her with confidence. She also said that the riding experience, including the show, has been filled with fun.

The professor entered the Long Island competition to raise awareness for visually impaired riding and for para-dressage, in which the sport is adapted for riders with disabilities. Suzanne firmly believes that her disability doesn’t place her in the vulnerable situation to fall from a horse. But she and other horse lovers who are visually impaired encounter obstacles not known to other riders. Stables often don’t wish to accommodate riders who aren’t sighted. This possibly might be an insurance issue but also many stable owners and wranglers aren’t equipped or trained to engage people with compromised vision.

The professor of Russian and world history currently is with her fourth Seeing Eye dog. Suzanne has relied on a service dog since 1986. Long before that, when Suzanne was in third grade, she became interested in horses but that passion waned as she pursued her education and began losing her sight. When Suzanne married 10 years ago, she and her husband wanted to share an enjoyable activity. She suggested tandem bicycle riding. He wasn’t interested but they did try horse riding. From that experience, Suzanne gradually returned to serious riding and then to dressage.

The couple now own two horses, Zippy and Hank, and Suzanne enjoys her time in the barn to feed, groom and clean the horses. She finds it relaxing. Comparing the care with that of her dog, Suzanne said it’s similar but just a lot bigger.

Ed Sullivan was one of the most famous and beloved television presenters in American history. As the host of the long-running The Ed Sullivan Show, he won hearts across the world for his exceptional talent to select the biggest stars of the future to appear on his show.

Ed was from Harlem. His Irish-American family flourished with the love of music and entertainment. From an early age, Ed’s first taste of the big stage came in roles on the school baseball, basketball and football teams. His teamwork would define his character throughout his life.

Ed befriended teammates and opponents of all races, and he would become a champion of anti-racism. His athletic career during his early years also was steeped in romance—and later in tragedy. Ed and Olympic swimmer Sybil Bauer became engaged but she died from cancer at the age of 23.

About two years after losing Sybil, Ed met Sylvia Weinstein. When her Jewish parents didn’t approve, she pretended that Ed’s surname was Solomon. Though the family learned the truth, the couple married during 1930. At the time, Sybil didn’t realize that her husband was destined to become one of the biggest stars of all time.

After settling down, Ed gradually segued from sports reporting to the news and entertainment industry. He wrote columns for the Evening Graphic and then the New York Daily News that focused on theatre and entertainment gossip.

By 1941, Ed was so popular that he was invited by CBS to host a television program. The opportunity led to The Ed Sullivan Show. Creating the foundation for the show, Ed incorporated the lessons from his youth when he first became aware of the importance of tolerance and inclusion. For a while, he was the only presenter to showcase African-American entertainers such as The Supremes, James Brown, Nat King Cole, Marvin Gaye, Lena Horn, Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong.

Despite opposition and criticism, Ed refused to listen to the prejudice toward these and other entertainers. He continued to provide them with a platform to showcase their talents. One performer became a dear friend. When singer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson died, Ed paid for his funeral expenses.

From sports to entertainment, Ed provided the world a huge lesson about equality and anti-racism. More people need to know about this magnificent chapter of the Ed Sullivan story and share it across today’s media platforms.

Marjorie Adams left us earlier this year. For most of her adult life, she tirelessly promoted the candidacy of her great-grandfather, Daniel Adams, for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He was known as Doc, receiving the nickname following graduation from Harvard during 1838. He became Marjorie’s consuming passion. She promoted him on a website, at conferences, at Society for American Baseball Research meetings and at vintage baseball festivals where fans play and celebrate the sport as it was known during the 19th century. She nicknamed herself Cranky for “cranks,” a contemporary term for fans.

During 2014, Marjorie said that baseball, as the national pastime, must ensure the accuracy of its historical records. She wanted them to know that Doc was a baseball founding father.

According to John Thorn, the official baseball historian, the game’s early history was a lie, or folklore, for a long time. Abner Doubleday mistakenly had been seen as the inventor of baseball for many years. Alexander Cartwright, who played a role in the development of the sport, was credited with some of the innovations for the game. These are documented on his plaque in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The innovations, however, actually were developed by Doc.

During the 1990s, an article by John in “Elysian Fields Quarterly,” a baseball journal, helped Marjorie see her great-grandfather as an important “builder” of the game rather than just “Daniel, the baseball guy,” as he was known throughout the country and within the Adams family.

Doc began his passion for baseball by playing for the pioneering New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club during 1845. While on the team, he created the shortstop position (as a relay man from the outfield) and during 1857 he made his most critical contributions to a rulemaking congress. Doc chaired that group and he codified some of the basics of the modern game by setting the distance between bases at 90 feet, the length of a game at nine innings and the number of men on the field at nine.

Most of Doc’s accomplishments remained unknown for decades to those inside the game. But, during 2015, John presented information about Doc to a member of the Pre-Integration Era Committee of the Hall of Fame. This committee votes for players, managers, referees and executives for the Hall of Fame. Doc was placed on the committee’s ballot.

Doc fell two votes short when the committee gathered that year but the media created a buzz about his contributions to the game. Then, Marjorie located new documentary evidence of Doc’s role in baseball history—three surviving pages of “Laws of Baseball” that he wrote and that provided a physical record of his rules at the 1857 convention. Those pages were sold at auction for $ 3.26 million.

Doc continues to wait for his entry into the Hall of Fame. Many other fans have championed Marjorie’s mission. On her behalf and for her great-grandfather, they will continue to lobby for Doc’s proper recognition in Cooperstown.

His confidence on the ice was low. It could not sink lower. Professional scouts were concerned about his skating abilities, causing Brennan Othmann to doubt himself as he continued to accumulate bad habits. Brennan was 15 at the time and the family took action.

When Brennan was in kindergarten in Ontario, he had been in Lisa Clark’s skating group during school lunch breaks. They would enjoy lunch together before each training session. Brennan was a good listener, with his eyes focused on her as she taught the skills of skating.

As Brennan grew older and become more involved with hockey, the family and Lisa lost touch. Though he enjoyed a successful 2018-19 season with a prominent team that was undefeated, Brennan repeatedly was told that he needed to work on his stride and posture. His mom rushed to the rescue when she realized that her son needed to get back on the ice with Lisa, who featured a nine-week program with six hour-long sessions each day. Brennan worked with the noon to 1 p.m. group and often remained for another session.

The reunion convinced Brennan to invest in power-skating, those drills without pucks dreaded by all hockey players from age five to 35. Each time he and Lisa skated, Brennan’s confidence soared to new heights. Lisa encouraged him to believe in himself as much as she believed in him. She brought a smile to his face every day on the ice—even on the tough days.

The drills helped Brennan achieve a successful rookie 2019-20 season with the Flint Firebirds. He scored 17 goals and 33 points in 55 games as a 16-year-old, ranking third in goals among all under-17 OHL players. For 2020-21, with EHC Olten in the second-tier Swiss League, Brennan posted 18 points in 34 games.

The reunion of Brennan and Lisa placed the young man’s hockey career back on the ice. Only a few months ago, he was the 16th overall draft pick by the New York Rangers in the 2021 NHL draft. Lisa watched the draft and celebrated Brennan’s selection.

“You get tears in your eyes and you think, man, I started with this kid three years ago and even when he was five years old,” said Lisa. “And then you watch them, you think about the struggles, and all the corrections and all the time and the effort that you both put into it — I don’t even know what to say.”

Following his first NHL training camp, Brennan has returned to the OHL to fine-tune his hockey skills. Scouts and coaches expect to see him in the NHL in the near future.