"Who's That?"

Friday morning, as a group of young men took a brief break from running 40s on the track at BHS, Luke Berblinger said how interesting it would be to play lacrosse. I told him that I thought the game looked exciting to me, and that Jim Brown had actually played the sport during his time at Syracuse. Several of the athletes looked at me, puzzled, before one asked "Who is Jim Brown?" After overcoming my moment of shock, I briefly explained that the former running back for the Cleveland Browns had held the career rushing yards record prior to Walter Payton. At that point, another young man uttered the un imaginable: "Who is Walter Payton?"

I am truly confused. I know that I grew up watching Walter Payton rack up yards. I used to read articles about how the Bears great would run up rugged hills in his training for the season. He could run, throw, catch, and walk on his hands for 50 yards. He scored TDs, owned a Lamborghini, and wore Kangaroo turf shoes. I still do not appreciate the fact that Mike Ditka did not call a running play of Payton near the goalline, instead handing the ball to a defensive tackle known as "The Refrigerator".  However, Jim Brown was past his playing days before I fell in love with the game of football. Despite this fact, I knew who he was, as a football player, and not a co-star in the WWII classic The Dirty Dozen. I knew who Paul Hornung was even though I never saw him under center on a Sunday afternoon, and I was aware that Dick Butkus had terrorized NFL offenses even though his final playing days occurred when I was not yet two years old.  Could these guys who were I have seen sweat and bleed for football really not know who the greatest players in their game were?

It makes me wonder if our society, of which I am a guilty participant, has become so focused on immediate gratification and instant access that we have trouble not only looking down the road for what work and effort now might produce but also looking back to what has allowed us to reach our present position? More than once, students have lamented the fact that they must take history courses, and they have become even more exasperated when they discover that some of that history is vital to understanding what we read, watch, discuss, and write about in English class. "Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it" I will say. The ironic twist is that this generation (by the way, the existence of the previous quote demonstrates that every generation seems to have dealt with this perplexing puzzle) possesses the means to access historical information more easily and quickly than any that has come before it. Do any of you remember going to the library to access the encyclopedia, biography, microfiche, or magazine back issue to learn some fact about a past event or detail about some science topic? While writing this entry I typed Dick Butkus into google to confirm his final season. I never left my couch, or even turned my eyes away from the screen. I did not even have to type in his entire name before google gave me the rest of it. In .17 seconds, I received a collection of 634,000 instantly accessible portals for information about the man.  I could watch video of the linebacker as a Chicago Bear or listen to his Hall of Fame induction speech. I could have done the same thing with my phone from the middle of the football practice field at midnight on a Wednesday, when all of the libraries are closed.  

Even more amazing, and startling, is the fact that the lack of knowledge about the past does not only apply to sports figures from decades ago. It applies to musicians, politicians, newsmakers, and important figures from every arena of thought and action that exists.  More frightening is that those figures do not have to be from decades ago, let alone centuries. Many of us do not even remember deeds, great or small, of those from last year. "What have you done for me lately?" If your answer is nothing, then even if what you did has truly affected our world today, we have little interest in you or your works. 

I might be blowing this out of proportion. Matt did not know who Jim Brown was. Is that really a big deal? No, not really. However, not knowing who Walter Payton was? That is unforgivable. After all, he wore Roos. Do you remember those?