Louis Zamperini
1917-2014
Winston Churchill once said, "Some men achieve greatness, others have it thrust upon them."
Certainly Louis Zamperini who passed away today, July 3, 2014, at the age of 97 fits tightly into that former category.
I personally never heard his story until recent times, maybe in the last ten years when the book "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand was published and someone passed it on to me to read. That book was preceded by another biography, "Devil at My Heels". Louis' greatness did not come easily.
Born into an immigrant family in Olean, NY, his family moved to California early on, and Louis first distinguished himself with his delinquency. But a caring member of the local police in Torrance, CA took Louis under his wing and pointed him down a better path. To expend his abundance of energy, he became a runner. And what a runner! He was one of if not the first high schooler to ever distinguish himself nationally as a distance runner making the US Olympic team in 1936 at the 5,000 meters. He not only made the team, he made the Olympic finals and ran to a credible 8th place in that race.
In Berlin , a slide back to his former childhood proclivities , resulted in his being arrested by the German police after he 'removed' a German flag off a light pole in the streets of the city. All was however forgiven.
In a well documented tale, his life reads on like an improbable saga of triumph and tragedy. He would go to the University of Southern California, join up for WWII as a flight officer. Crash in the Pacific and survive 47 days adrift in the ocean only to be taken prisoner of the Japanese and spending the rest of the war under one of the harshest prison guards the Japanese had to offer.
His triumphant return home was shadowed by losing bouts with alcohol, then redemption and a life of serving others. He displayed his faith openly and credited it with saving him from a life of misery.
Since "Unbroken" was published, he had become a celebrity again and traveled the country giving speeches and attending various functions. The theme of his message was forgiveness. His is a life to be admired, maybe not envied for all that he had to endure.
A feature film based on the book "Unbroken" is scheduled for release in the near future.
R.I.P. , Louis.
Personal Bests: 880y – 1:53.2 (1938); 1500 – 3:52.6 (1939); Mile – 4:08.3 (1938); 2 miles – 9:12.8 (1939); 5000 – 14:46.8 (1936).
|
Results
Men's 5,000 metres
| Games | Age | City | Sport | Country | Phase | Unit | Rank | T(H) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 Summer | 19 | Berlin | Athletics | United States | Final | 8 | 14:46.8 | ||
| 1936 Summer | 19 | Berlin | Athletics | United States | Round One | Heat Three | 5 | QU | 15:02.2 |
Louie Zamperini dead at 97.
Great Christian, great American, great Olympian.
Appropriate that he leaves us as we celebrate the 4th.
Earl
--
Earl Young
| Richard Trace | 8:02 AM (26 minutes ago) | ||
|
8:11 AM (17 minutes ago)
| | ||
I can't imagine enduring what he did. He is at the top of my hero list.
Richard Mach
George, was on the horn this AM with my WMU track coach , George Dales about
Zamperini's loss. He told me Louis had come to Western about two years ago
and given one of the most inspiring speeches ever given on that campus. What a
guy! 97 years young. RIP
George, here is my review of the book "Unbroken published in Cross Country Journal.
Paul O'Shea
Richard Mach
Zamperini's loss. He told me Louis had come to Western about two years ago
and given one of the most inspiring speeches ever given on that campus. What a
guy! 97 years young. RIP
George, here is my review of the book "Unbroken published in Cross Country Journal.
Paul O'Shea
All He Had He
Gave
Book Review
By Paul O’Shea
“Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience,
and Redemption” by Laura Hillenbrand,
Random House, 2010,
496 pages, $28.
“All I had, I gave it.”
When Lou Zamperini collapsed after running the last lap of
the
l936 Olympic 5,000 meter final in 56 seconds, those six words
eerily
presaged the qualities he would need in the years to come.
Ahead were not Olympic medals or the first sub-four minute mile for a
highly promising athlete, but more daunting challenges that required
courage, immeasurable endurance, and the will to survive the Second
Ahead were not Olympic medals or the first sub-four minute mile for a
highly promising athlete, but more daunting challenges that required
courage, immeasurable endurance, and the will to survive the Second
World War.
Looking back Zamperini can remember when it took all he had
to
survive forty-seven days adrift on the Pacific Ocean, two years
as a
prisoner of war in the most brutal conditions, and a
peacetime enveloped by
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Indeed, all he had he would need.
“Unbroken” has been on The New York Times’ best seller list for
more than three years
since publication. Its author is Lauren
Hillenbrand who also wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning Seabiscuit:
An American Legend. “Louis and Seabiscuit were sports
stars
around the same time, the mid-‘30s to l940,” she remembered.
“They were both based in southern California,
so in the articles
I was looking through for Seabiscuit I kept coming across
articles
for this teenage running phenom.
When I was done working on
Seabiscuit, I called him and we had this
amazing conversation,
and I knew that I had to write this book.”
“I’ll be an easier subject than Seabiscuit,” he told
Hillenbrand.
“At least I can talk.”
Growing up in Torrance, California Lou Zamperini was a
juvenile
delinquent before the term became popular. Described as
“feral,” the youngster was
diverted from a life of crime by being
the fastest kid on the block. Older
brother Phil, a leading miler
on the high school team persuaded the troubling
and troubled
Lou to give track a try.
Progress came quickly. In two years he went from 5:03 to
breaking the
national high school mile record with 4:21.2, a mark
that would stand for
nineteen years. The University of Southern
California was the
next stop where as a sophomore he won the
NCAA mile in 4:08.3.3, missing the
world record by less than two
seconds.
Injuries prevented Zamperini from training for the 1,500, so
he
moved up to the 5,000 and qualified for the Berlin Olympics.
On the trip over training sessions on the
luxury steamer
Manhattan consisted of
running laps on the first deck while
dodging tourists. What he couldn’t avoid was
the irresistibly rich
food that girdled him with a dozen extra pounds. “I was a
Depression-era kid who had never even
been to a drugstore for
a sandwich.”
Most top milers at the time ran their last lap in about sixty
seconds
. Zamperini turned in that 56-second closer in the 5,000, placing
eighth. In a post-race interview Adolph Hitler tells
him, “Ah, you’re
the boy with the fast finish.”
Back home Zamperini is a favorite to be the first man to run
sub-four minutes, and to medal in the 1940 Olympics scheduled
for Tokyo. But the
winds of war plunged the United States and the
world into conflict and put his
Olympic dreams on hold.
Zamperini joins the U.S. Army Air Force and is soon flying
missions as a bombardier over the Pacific. On one flight his
Green Hornet returns with 594 gunshot holes in the fuselage. Not
long after, the Hornet is searching
for a missing aircraft when it
is shot down 850 miles west of Hawaii, killing
eight of the eleven
on board. Zamperini and two other airmen survive.
They drift west from where their B-24 Liberator slipped into
the
Pacific Ocean, enduring brutal heat and life-threatening storms. A
fellow
crewmember lives 33 days. Strafed by Japanese fighter
planes, going
hand-to-hand with sharks that jump into the life raft
and have to be clubbed
into submission with an oar, at the mercy
of a catastrophic typhoon, he and his
mate finally reach one of
the Marshall Islands, two thousand miles from where
they went
down. With little food and no water, Zamperini survives
forty-seven days
before reaching land. The Japanese Navy
quickly takes them captive.
Two violently inhumane years as a prisoner of war follow.
When
authorities learn they have captured an American Olympian, he
finds
himself the Number One Prisoner of Mutsuhiro Watanabe,
who would become one of
Japan’s forty most notorious war
criminals. Zamperini’s life is one of hunger, ferocious
beatings
and medical experiments. Finally, the dropping of atom bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki accelerates the war’s end and his
repatriation.
With peacetime, the war’s imprint is indelible. “As bad as were
the physical consequences of
captivity,” Hillenbrand tells us,
“the emotional injuries were much more
insidious, widespread
and enduring.”
Homecoming was ridden with problems. He launches and invests
in a number of
get-rich-quick ventures. All fail. He starts to train
for London ’48 but is
injured and forced to give up the Olympic
dream. He begins smoking and drinking heavily. He marries and
he and his wife have a baby,
but the marriage is threatened
because of his alcoholism.
Then, after attending a Billy Graham crusade Lou Zamperini
turns
his life around, as a born again Christian. He finds peace as
he finds faith,
establishes a foundation to help troubled boys,
delivers inspirational
speeches, and carries torches for five
Olympic efforts.
Today, 97-year-old lives in Hollywood Hills, California. In his
sixties he climbed a peak in the Santa
Monica Mountains, ran
sub-six minute miles and began skateboarding. At 85 he
returned
to the site of a Japanese prison camp to meet and forgive his
captors
who were still alive. He went skiing in
his nineties. He is, after all still
Lou Zamperini, still giving it all he has, still undefeated.
Lou Zamperini, still giving it all he has, still undefeated.
.
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