John Veldkamp – 3rd Place Winner
9th Grade
Calvin Christian High School
“Holding the Line”
Football is one of America’s most popular sports. Like many sports, it not only entertains, it also teaches important life lessons. Too often, the media seems to focus on negative stories about football players. Recent stories have reported that dozens of college football players illegally accepted money from agents. But many other football players have shown integrity both on and off the field. Integrity is often associated with honesty, but it is more than simply being honest. It is clinging to one’s moral convictions regardless of the consequences. Also, it is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Both are essential parts of integrity. These two aspects of integrity can be seen in the stories of two young football players from the Grand Rapids area.
One of those players was Gerald Ford. In 1933, Ford was a center on Michigan’s football team. On the same team was a much less famous player named Willis Ward. When Michigan was preparing to play at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia Tech requested that Willis Ward not play. Ward happened to be black, and in 1930s Georgia black men never played football with white men. To avoid controversy, Michigan’s athletic director complied with Georgia Tech’s request, and Ward did not play.
This upset Ford and some of his teammates. Ford, an All-American, even threatened to quit the team because he felt so strongly that Ward should not be treated differently solely because of his race. At that time, many people, including Michigan fans, did not think black players were equal with whites. But Ford and his teammates judged Ward based on his abilities and character, not his skin color. Despite criticism and outside pressure, Ford and his teammates showed their integrity by supporting Ward when it was unpopular to do so.
Many years later, Gerald Ford became the thirty-eighth president of the United States. One of his first actions was to pardon disgraced former president Richard Nixon. Ford said that his conscience demanded that he forgive Nixon for his crimes. At the time, this was very unpopular with the American public, most of which wanted to see Nixon punished. But just as he did when supporting his old teammate Willis Ward, Ford showed integrity and held unswervingly to his own values in the face of enormous pressure.
Much more recently, a Grand Rapids high school demonstrated integrity, even though it proved costly. In the fall of 2003, there was much excitement about the football team at Grand Rapids Christian High School (GRC). After many losing seasons, the football team was having a special season. They won their first five games and were well on their way to a conference title and a playoff berth.
Then, a problem arose. While doing a routine check of its records, the athletic department discovered that the football team had been using an ineligible player. The previous summer, the player had transferred from another area high school to GRC without changing his home address. In such a case, Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) rules required that the transferring student must attend the new school for at least one semester before being eligible for athletics, unless given specific permission by an official. The player had not received such permission.
It would have been quite easy to ignore the problem. The ineligible player had only participated in a few plays, none of which had impacted the outcome of the games. Immediately after discovering the mistake, however, GRC athletic officials reported the problem to the MHSAA. The MHSAA ruled that GRC had to forfeit their first five victories. As a result, the football team missed the playoffs and could not win its conference title. But the school demonstrated integrity by placing the rules above their own interests. They admitted their mistake even though nobody else would likely have discovered it.
These two stories, one from the distant past and another quite recent, are good examples of integrity. The people involved demonstrated integrity by remaining true to their convictions, even when it was difficult and costly. For Gerald R. Ford, integrity meant standing for his convictions when others around him were telling him otherwise. For GRC’s football team, integrity meant doing what was right even when no one was watching. Football is only a game, but it provides society with countless examples of integrity that can be used in everyday life.
