A Rare Act of Sportsmanship

The Associated Press has an amazing and touching story of one basketball team's rare act of sportsmanship. It happened during a high school basketball game between the DeKalb, Illinois Barbs and Milwaukee Madison. It was the third friendly meeting between the two teams, and both planned a pizza party afterwards. However, one player from Madison was dealing with a personal tragedy and the game itself was almost never played:

Hours earlier, the mother of Milwaukee Madison senior captain Johntel Franklin died at a local hospital. Carlitha Franklin had been in remission after a five-year fight with cervical cancer, but she began to hemorrhage that morning while Johntel was taking his college ACT exam.

Her son and several of his teammates were at the hospital late that afternoon when the decision was made to turn off the life-support system. Carlitha Franklin was just 39.

She was young and they were real close," said Milwaukee coach Aaron Womack Jr., who was at the hospital. "He was very distraught and it happened so suddenly he didn't have time to grieve.

Womack was going to cancel the game, but Franklin told him he wanted the team to play. And play they did, even though the game started late and Milwaukee Madison dressed only eight players.

During the second quarter, Johntel came directly from the hospital to root his teammates on, and decided he wanted to play.  This created a unique foul situation: not being on the pre roster and playing meant a technical foul and two free throws for the opposing them.

In a rare act of sportsmanship, the opposing team's player deliberately missed the free throws, and this gave Franklin and the Madison players the inspiration to win the game

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.


Is it really rare? We often don't field a full team at the local Rugby club if the opposition haven't managed to scrape together a full set, and we've thrown throw-ins on purpose if they're for a technicality that doesn't abide by the spirit of the game.
Elton:- Yeah, why not? If for you the game's about winning then I feel sorry for you.
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Elton - the other team didn't lose the game on purpose. They just let the boy who had lost his mother join the game without a penalty. I think it is a textbook example of sportmanship.
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Elton- sometimes there are more important things in life than just winning. If you can't see that or fathom it in your narrow mind, than I truly for you.
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A similarly heartwarming story from the Corvallis (Oregon) Gazette-Times, 5/2/08:

Last Saturday, Western Oregon University softball player Sara Tucholsky came up to bat. She swung away. The resulting home run was her first. Two runners were on base. Tucholsky overran first, spun around to make the tag — and blew out her knee. Agonized, she crawled back to first base.

Her dilemma: unless she tagged all the bases, the homer wouldn’t count. If her teammates helped her, she’d be out.

To the crowd’s astonishment, several members from the opposing Central Washington team carried Tucholsky around all the bases — even though her three-run homer helped to eliminate them from the playoffs.

The umpire said there was no rule against this; it may never have happened before. (And if it has, we’d sure love to hear how, where and when.)

A bouquet of roses to the Central Washington team. Most games are quickly forgotten. But those who witnessed Central Washington’s generosity will not soon forget it.
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who ever said"Deliberately losing because you feel sorry for your opponent falls under the definition of sportsmanship these days? Huh." that is not what happened it was a technical foul so the player who lost his mother could play since he wasn't on the starting roster. The other player just missed the shots on purpose...... there is a better story on yahoo.
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aww
i feel so bad for u
ur really strong
if that had happened 2 me
i would have been crying my heart out and wouldnt have even showed up the next day of school
but wut do i kno
this story made me cry
but im also 12 so yeah
but really this story just shows how sweet u r
so i send my concerns and the love and all that awesome goodness

ps...ur really cute so yeah
bye cutie
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