My first great story of the Olympics

When people ask me why I want to pursue a career in sports journalism, the fame and money are not the reasons. Ask your local sportscaster if he gets recognized at the grocery store and he may say yes. Ask him if he drives a luxurious sports car and he’ll laugh in your face. So is it that I want to be recognized by the Hy-Vee sackers that I chose this career? Hardly. I truly believe that great sports stories can affect people on and off the court.

Look back and these stories that transcend the game helped define American culture. Who could forget the 1980 USA hockey team who made people believe in miracles. Or what about that first pitch in Yankee Stadium after 9/11. Barbaro captured the hearts of millions of Americans and the bond between Tiger Woods and his father Earl showed how special that father-son connection is. Cal Ripken showed us even superstars go to work everyday, and California showed Stanford that it ain’t over until it’s over.

One day before the Olympics even start in Beijing, I have already found one of these amazing stories. The athlete is South Africa’s Bruce Jacobs. Along with qualifying for his second Olympics, Jacobs is the first player of color to serve as captain for South Africa. While that is a story in itself, the story of his father is better.

Because of the conditions of the apartheid when Alan Jacobs played hockey, he was not allowed on the national team. Nobody of color was. His son Bruce was introduced to the sport when he was eight and grew up around the sport watching his dad play. He always dreamed that one day he would be able to do what his father never got the chance to, represent his country on the national level.

Jacobs called the 2004 Athens game special as he could live out his father’s dream. Four years later and 4,700 miles east, Jacobs will again be representing South Africa. While it doesn’t hold that first-time special feeling, it still retains importance Jacobs said in an interview with me today. It is tough to describe the passion in his eyes when he explained that it was special again this year. It is an honor to go he said, and a huge honor to lead my team in the Olympics.

South Africa will probably not win gold. They probably won’t even medal. Jacobs won’t end up on the SportsCenter's Top 10 in the next two weeks and his face won’t cover the next Wheaties box. His story probably won’t end up in the USA Today and after his retirement after the Olympics, he will become another Average Joe. But his story is everything I love about sports journalism and why it should never die.

Cheers,
-Matt