Long Beach State University Athletics
Athletics in May Family
7/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | General
| Athletics is a May
Family Tradition Like any dad, Butch May likes to tell stories about his daughter, Misty. Unlike most dads, he has the perspective of having been an Olympic athlete himself, in 1968 in Mexico City. Unlike most people on the earth, he has the perspective of having been a legend in beach volleyball before most people knew the sport existed. He and his late wife Barbara were trailblazers and entrepreneurs who once had their own snack shack outside the courts in Santa Monica. So when he has something to say, it has a foundation a lot harder than the stuff the AVP pros are playing on at Marina Park Green. Like this tale. Last year, Misty was asked by one of her sponsors to make an appearance at a junior event in Omaha, Nebraska. These are the kind of contractual obligations that can drive even the most sincere and gracious athletes up the proverbial wall, especially after traveling all season on the coast-to-coast AVP tour with occasional ocean-to-ocean international dates. Butch remembers telling Misty that you never know what you may run into in life. He went to Mexico City, after all, a volleyball player, and came home a man of the world after spending two weeks with track stars John Carlos and Tommie Smith, whose Black Power salute during the national anthem remains an iconic moment in sports and race. Those games also gave him the chance to meet a boxer named George Foreman, see Bob Beamon destroy the world long jump record, and get the first sniff that there was something called steroids in sports. Misty went to Omaha with an open mind and came home with bruises on her butt. The speaking engagement was with a junior Olympic team, but when she walked through a door at the event, she was met by a dozen men or so who were also members of an Olympic team: The U.S. Men's Amputee Volleyball team. They were mostly veterans who had lost limbs in various wars. They were there to play an exhibition as part of the junior event, and frankly they didn't even have a reasonable expectation to meet Misty. They were thoroughly pleased to meet her. She was merely awe-struck. Her she is one of the most successful athletes in the world, and she walks into a room and finds out what it really means to compete amid adversity. And she joined them. She participated in their exhibition, and like everyone else, played on her butt. "You always had to keep a cheek on the floor," she said with body english Friday after her three wins put her into today's semifinals. "When she got home, it was all he could talk about," Butch said. "She was so touched to meet these people, and she was so glad she had this opportunity. "Life is full of them. You never know when something will come around and take you somewhere you've never been." Butch May says the moments don't even have to be current. Butch wasn't the first member of the family to go to the Olympics, he divulged Friday, and Misty wasn't the first to win a medal. In 1924, Misty's great-great-aunt Mariechen Wehselau, German born but raised in Hawaii and a world-class swimmer, won a gold medal for the U.S. in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay and a silver medal in the 100-meter free. She competed on the same Olympic team as swimmers Johnnie Weissmuller and Duke Kahanamoku, rowers John Kelly and Benjamin Spock, and in the same games as sprinters Jackson Scholz, Charles Paddock and the "Chariots of Fire" Brits in track and field. That's some bloodline. That's some community. "Well, you raise your kids to give to the world, whether they become a doctor, teacher or volleyball player," he said. "There are a lot of people in jobs with less recognition who do as much as anyone in sports. You do what you do. "We've been blessed that volleyball has been very good to us, and that she's found herself in places like Long Beach and alongside people like Kerri (Walsh, Misty's partner)." Butch gazed around the setting, looking at the mass of humanity on the beach, and then back at the harbor, and then toward the Queen Mary, and then at the skyline along Ocean, and then toward his daughter, who was standing with friends and smiling while taking pictures with fans. "Long Beach has been very nice to her," he said. "I don't think she'll ever live someplace else. From the time she arrived at Long Beach State, the people in this community have treated her so well and reach out to her. "She keeps a low profile but is also surprised to find out how many people know of what she does. She'll be in a supermarket and hear people talking about her winning a title. They may not instantly recognize her, but they know about her and like that she's part of the community." Butch pointed across the beach to one of the outside courts, where Annett Davis, of St. Anthony High School, and Jenny Johnson Jordan were playing and being watched by Jordan's father, an Olympian of note named Rafer Johnson. "Rafer told me that when you win a world championship, people get to know you throughout the world," he said, "and when you win a gold medal, your life is never the same." Butch's greatest joy may be that fact that his daughter's life changed with a gold medal, but it didn't change who she is. And she has the butt bruises to show it. |
