The Sports and Movie “Bad-Ass” Hall of Fame
It makes news today when a person excels as an actor, sports star, or soldier. But in the old days, several people were BOTH great actors/soldiers, or great sports stars/soldiers. They warrant election in the Bad-Ass Hall of Fame
After we watch Movies and Sports (which are just entertainment), most of us go back to our less-than-glorious jobs, or sometimes face incredible tests of loyalty and bravery, like Military service during a war that threatens our Country. Those that did both, and did them well, are rare and deserve special mention. I can think of six such individuals, Ted Williams of the Red Sox, Warren Spahn of the Braves, Christy Matthewson of the Giants, Jimmy Stewart and Audie Murphy of Hollywood, and Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals. These were not players/actors who “headed up the stateside baseball team to boost morale” or “entertained the troops”, they did actual combat. They didn’t have to , but they did.
Ted Williams was the last guy to hit over .400 for a season, has a lifetime average of .344 with 521 home runs. He had an almost otherworldly on-base percentage of .482 for his career, and was perhaps the greatest pure hitter the game ever knew. But what really sets him apart was that he was on active duty in the Navy from 1943–45, and again in the Korean War in 1952–53. Williams was said to have a prickly personality, but I suppose anyone might be a bit prickly if they were plucked from the prime of their careers to spend three years serving their country in two major conflicts. (Muder, n.d.)
Warren Spahn’s promising baseball career was interrupted in 1943 when he was drafted into the Army. He spent three years overseas, participating in the Battle of the Bulge and winning a Purple Heart. Early in his career, he got into a spat with Manager Casey Stengel when he refused to throw at an opposing player in an exhibition game. Stengel later said it was the biggest mistake he ever made, “I said ‘no guts’ to a kid who went on to become a war hero and one of the greatest lefthanded pitchers you ever saw. You can’t say I don’t miss ’em when I miss ‘em”. Spahn finished his career with 341 wins. He may well have won over 400 if he hadn’t served, but Spahn said “People say that my absence from the big leagues may have cost me a chance to win 400 games, but I don’t know about that. I matured a lot in three years, and I think I was better equipped to handle major league hitters at 25 than I was at 22. Also, I pitched until I was 44. Maybe I wouldn’t have been able to do that otherwise”. Spahn was also one of the greatest hitting pitchers, with 35 career home runs. He was happily married to his wife LoRene from 1946 to her death in 1978. (Kemp, et al, nd)
Christy Matthewson had an incredibly successful baseball career with the Giants from 1900 to 1916, winning 373 games. He was very religious, and refused to pitch on Sundays. When his career ended, he volunteered for the Army in 1918, as a Captain in the Chemical Service. He was accidentally exposed to chemical gas, which weakened his lungs and gave him tuberculosis. He subsequently died in 1925, at age 45. (HOF Editors, nd)
Jimmy Stewart was an established actor when World War II broke out. Though he could easily have entertained troops like the other actors, he wanted to be a pilot like his father. He ended up flying several bombing missions as a pilot, barely making it back on several occasions. He ended the war a colonel, and then joined the reserves. He retired at age 60, a general. Those that served with him noted that he never wanted to be treated like anything special, just a regular guy. He also had a great reputation with the other actors on the movie sets. During the filming of “Who Shot Liberty Valance”, John Ford taunted John Wayne, by inferring that Jimmy Stewart was more manly than he for serving in the Air Force, while Wayne continued his movie career. This was ironic since in the movie, Wayne was the tough guy and Stewart the weenie. (JSM Editors, nd)
This may not count, since Audie Murphy was a war hero BEFORE he became an actor, but it deserves merit anyway since he was such a GREAT soldier and a VERY GOOD actor. Murphy was one of the most decorated men in World War II, winning every medal available in the Army, plus a few awarded by Belgium and France. He was born in Texas to a poor family of sharecroppers, and when his father left and his mother died at an early age, he picked cotton and hunted to help feed his family. His hunting skills came in handy in the War. After the beach landings in Italy, he repelled a German machine gun ambush with grenades that killed 5 Germans. Next he repelled another attack, killing 3 and taking 4 prisoner, being awarded the Bronze Star. After the invasion of Southern France, his buddy was killed when the Germans faked a surrender, after which he advanced alone to their stronghold, killing 6, wounding 2, and taking 11 prisoner, for which he received the Presidential Unit Citation. Next, he received the Silver Star for killing 3 and wounding 4 in a German machine gun nest. A few days later, he received a bronze oak leaf cluster, directing an attack on a hill at L’Omet that killed 15 and wounded 35. Finally, he manned the guns of a flaming abandoned tank, firing for an hour and killing or wounding 50 Germans, even though he was wounded in the leg. For this he received the Medal of Honor. Later, Murphy became an actor and served capably in movies such as “The Red Badge of Courage” and the autobiographical “To Hell and Back” before dying prematurely in a plane crash at age 46. (Reyna et al, nd)
Pat Tillman was a successful NFL football player for the Arizona Cardinals. He turned down an offer of $3.6 million over 3 years to enlist in the US Army. He graduated from Army Ranger school in 2003, and did a tour of duty in Iraq. He was later deployed in Afghanistan in April 2004, where he was shot and killed in combat. The Army later admitted that Tillman was killed by friendly-fire, and a congressional investigation was done to investigate the coverup. It became known that Tillman had developed anti-war sentiments during his deployment, and a book was written by his Mother, while his widow set up memorials. Today, several items are named in his honor, including his High School in San Jose and a Middle School in Phoenix. (PTF Editors, nd)
This “double duty” is not for everyone, but when it happens it is particularly notable, as it underscores the notion that serving our country supersedes everything else. Those who manage to do both, and do both well, are indeed “bad-asses”.
Enjoy these other Vern Scott articles regarding ironic American History!
