Louis Zamperini, the hero of Unbroken (movie and book), in his book Don’t Give Up, Don’t Given In, tells of how much he wanted to win a mile race. He had watched the 1934 NCAA Track and Field national championships in Los Angeles when Glenn Cunningham raced against Bill Bonthron in the mile. Cunningham had already run an indoor 4:08:04 mile and had an outdoor time of 4:09.8. He was about 8 seconds behind Cunningham — a long distance in a mile race. Cunningham was his hero because Louis had read the story of how Cunningham had been severely burned as a child in a fire that had killed his older brother. He had lost a great deal of flesh and all the toes on his left foot. He was burned on both legs and up to the middle of his back. Doctors gave him little chance of walking again, let alone running.
“Cunningham epitomized resilience and resolve,” wrote Zamperini and he described how Cunningham had massaged his legs to stimulate blood flow, endured physical therapy and willed himself to stand, then walk, and finally to run. Cunningham’s efforts and sacrifices inspired Zamperini and says he knew of no story as compelling as Cunningham’s.
Cunningham lost that 1934 race to Bonthron and Louis Zamperini determined that someday he would get that record back for Cunningham.
Louis got his chance in 1938 when he raced for USC in the NCAA championships. His coach told him the night before that the opposing team coaches were going to tell their milers to do “anything they can to knock [Louis] out of the race.” The runners did as Louis’ coach had predicted: cursed Louis, ran their spikes through his little toe, gashed Louis’s right and left shins, elbowed him in the ribs - and cracked one when Louis tried to pass. In the last 120 yards, the other runners loosened up because they thought their leader was far enough ahead. Louis took advantage, fighting through the pain, and turned it on to win the race and establish a new record of 4:08:03 that stood for 15 years! What a finish!
Newspapers the next day showed in photos the extent of how he’d been beat up, but the real story was that, according to Louis, his “persistence, perseverance, and unwillingness to accept defeat when things looked all but hopeless were part of the very character traits [he] would need to make it through World War II alive.” The rest is history. His story is one of a real hero!
In Louis’s own words: “Of course, you don’t have to live through a war to have those qualities work for you every day. Sometimes a day in the office or raising kids is just as challenging.”
His story inspires me! Whatever you are going through today, just remember that what you need is to find the way to get through it. Getting through it will be a WIN! And the character you build in the process will be what you need to find the way to win the next battle you face! Life is about building and building takes work in the form of persistence and perseverance — something a lot of people describe in us SJs as “stubborn determination.” So be it!
