Via Posnanski I learned about Ed and Steve Sabol, neither of whom I'd ever heard about, and probably didn't care about either. As the founders of NFL Films however, it's fair to say that the Sabols, father and son, had a profound influence on how sports are broadcast on television. That broadcasting, in turn, influenced the games themselves and the way they're played. That in itself is definitely an interesting and important topic, but what I learned about Ed the father was where I found a connection. The Wikipedia entry on Ed Sabol reports:
While attending Blair Academy, he excelled in several sports, and set a World Interscholastic Swimming record in the 100-yard freestyle race. He continued his noted swimming career at the Ohio State University. He was selected for the 1936 Olympic team but refused to participate because of the games' connections to Nazi Germany.It was, of course, in the 1936 Olympics that Jesse Owens put the lie to Hitler's master race. My father was at Ohio State University at the same time as Sabol, but I never had any reason to ask if he knew him. Jesse Owens was also at Ohio State then. Dad was part of a student delegation that tried to convince Owens not to take part in Hitler's Olympics. And when he would tell this story, numerous times, he would acknowledge that we were all lucky that Owens chose not to listen to that delegation.