Outside Class July 7

I am a frequent reader of “Sports Illustrated,” and there is a section on the back page every week called “Point After,” that is my favorite part to read. It is usually uplifting or amazing stories in the world of sports. This month’s was a story called “Last Round With Tuffy,” by Chris Ballard. The article starts off with Ballard explaining a larger-than life character named Rubin “Tuffy” Jordan. He speaks of stories that Tuffy climbed stairs on his palms, hopped five miles on one leg, bowled an 824 series, and could have been a major league short-stop if he hadn’t spent five years as an anti-artillery gunman in WWII. After setting this man up as unstoppable, the story turns more grim. On May 1 Tuffy found out he had cancer of the bladder, liver, and colon and was spreading day by day.
With Tuffy’s situation deteriorating his son’s friend suggested that the two take him out for one last round of golf. So the two decided to take him to a close by nine-hole course. The son and his friend had to pretty much hold up Tuffy on every swing to make sure he did not fall over or hurt himself. After two rounds of play the three sat on the ninth tee box. It was a par 3 140-yard hole with the green behind two sand traps. The son and his friend both hit decent shots on the green. Then Tuffy hit his ball, while falling off balance. The ball landed over the traps and rolled out of their sight, and he said “Now there’s the way you hit the ball.” The three expected to find a close shot when they reached the green, but instead they could only find two balls on the green. The third was in the hole and it was Tuffy’s. Tuffy died in his sleep four days later. His last golf shot was a hole-in-one at age 86 with cancer destroying his body. This is exactly why I read this section, for uplifting stories like this that make it seem like anything is possible. This section is extremely well written for journalism, and I suggest reading it to anybody that gets the chance.