Tillman family foundation preserves student-athlete's legacy

 The family of Pat Tillman, a former Arizona State University football student-athlete who was killed in military action in Afghanistan April 22, recently established a foundation bearing his name.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the 27-year-old Tillman exchanged a promising professional football career with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals for a career in the Army. Now, barely three months after his death, his family has made a commitment to keeping his legacy alive through the Pat Tillman Foundation. The initiative is headed by Alex Garwood, Tillman's brother-in-law and director of the foundation, and a board of directors that includes Tillman's widow Marie, brother Kevin and three friends. 

"Pat was constantly questioning and had a thirst for knowledge. He really wanted to understand things," said Garwood. "We will work to carry Pat's name forward by inspiring positive change in individuals and to help them make positive change in the world around them."

Although long-term plans and goals are still evolving, Garwood said the foundation will offer educational programming, among other initiatives.

"We'll go to junior high schools and high schools and talk to our nation's youth about Pat and use him as an example of positive change," Garwood said. 

The foundation also plans to engage others, perhaps NCAA student-athletes and professional athletes, in delivering positive messages to youth. 

In addition, the foundation has been working with Arizona State to establish a scholarship in Tillman's name. Fans also will be able to purchase Tillman's Arizona State and Arizona Cardinals jerseys, with part of the proceeds funneling into the foundation. 

"It is amazing the impact that Pat had on people and it's our job to carry that forward," Garwood said. "It's a daunting task, perhaps, but because it's Pat, we have to be successful, and we will be."

For more information, go to www.pattillmanfoundation.net.

Whitman student aces Japanese culture study

It often has been said that sport transcends culture, but Whitman College's Torrin Shimono recently used sport to explain culture.

Shimono, a May graduate of the school with a degree in Asian studies and a two-year member of the men's golf squad, wrote his senior honors thesis on understanding the Japanese society and culture through golf. The sport rivals baseball as a national pastime in Japan, which has the second-largest golfing population in the world at more than 13 million.

As part of his thesis, Shimono examined why golf has appealed to the Japanese. Shimono believes that because the sport has an elaborate set of rules and because it calls on players to police themselves, the game mirrors the Japanese concept of bushido, which emphasizes Confucian ideas of morality and proper behavior. Shimono also noted that golf mimics the Japanese tea ceremony in proper conduct, etiquette and orderly process.

"Golf relates to the Japanese because it mirrors their ideas of ritualism and decorum already in play in their own activities," Shimono said.

Shimono also explored ways that the Japanese have incorporated golf into a business leisure activity by routinely including a mid-round lunch as well as a post-round bath and drinks. 

Shimono, whose grandfather came to the United States from Japan in 1913 and whose mother came from China as a young girl in 1962, earned Whitman's Carlstrom Japanese Studies Award for his work. The award is presented to one or more outstanding students of Japanese language and culture. Shimono hopes to teach English in Japan as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching program, and he ultimately wants to work in international business relations.

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

30 years ago

Here's what was happening within the Association in August 1974:

• The Amateur Athletic Act of 1974 passes the U.S. Senate. The bill creates an amateur sports board with power to grant charters to sports associations sponsoring athletes in international competition or events leading to qualification for amateur competition. The board also will be able to settle disputes between athletes and their associations, or between associations. The NCAA supported the bill and urged the House to pass it as well.

   

• The 42nd annual survey of football fatalities shows a dramatic reduction in the number of deaths associated with football participation. The survey shows that 1973 had the fewest fatalities in the past 21 years. Factors cited for the improvement include: better equipment, particularly headgear, as a result of increased research on the helmet; increased emphasis on physical conditioning by athletes and coaches; and improved coaching techniques. 

   

• The NCAA News reports that a study looking into freshman playing college football shows that a total of 152 freshman were regular starters the previous season at colleges across the country. That is more than double the 70 freshmen who were regular starters in 1972, when freshmen were eligible for the first time in more than 20 years. The survey, conducted by National Collegiate Sports Services, shows that except for the Ivy Group, which did not adopt the freshman rule, every one of the country's 117 major football programs had at least one freshman on the traveling squad either in 1973, 1972 or both.

   

• Twenty-six individuals are inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, opening in Charleston, West Virginia. The inaugural inductees include: Wilma Rudolph, Jesse Owens and Mildred (Babe) Didrikson Zaharias.