When is a hero a hero? Which are genuine?

There are all kind of heroes in the world.

In the movies, we used to have lots of cowboy and soldier heroes, as well as sports heroes. Some were genuine, most were not.

During World War II, an undersized under-aged Texan Audie Murphy was rejected by the Army, Marines and Navy because he was 15 and was 5’5” at 110 pounds. A year later, his sister helped him forge an older birth certificate and he grew an inch, gained a little weight and was accepted by the Army.

Murphy dropped out of fifth grade when his dad abandoned his family, picking cotton and doing other jobs to feed his family. His mother died a few years later and he took on head of the house duty with 11 siblings. His military pay went to support his family.

While in the Army, he won every medal for courage and bravery available from the United States and France, where he fought in the war. He won the Medal of Honor for single handedly holding off a battalion of German soldiers by firing a 50 caliber machine atop a burning tank to protect his men who were pinned down in the woods behind the tank. He risked his life in countless other engagements, each involving saving the lives of his fellow soldiers.

He became the most decorated soldier of alltime. He was truly a hero. He went on to have a successful movie career, even playing himself in “To Hell and Back,”,a memoir of his experiences in the war.

During World War II, the USO put on shows and entertainment for the troops in the south Pacific, and in one particular tour, John Wayne was brought in to entertain the troops. John Wayne was a popular actor at the time, often playing heroic characters in war films. However, he didn’t enlist in wartime, so all he really ever did was pretend to be a hero. I had an uncle who was present at one Wayne appearance, and the actor was not well received. Men who were risking their lives, receiving very little compensation for it, had little patience for someone being paid piles of money to pretend to be a hero.

Nowadays, we have computer generated heroes, all the marvelous Marvel men who do great and heroic things for this country. Great fun perhaps, but not real. We have lots of video games, Xboxes and the like. One of the Xbox video games come on slogans is “Greatness Awaits.” I’m not kidding. You, too, can be a hero by pushing buttons on a key board.

There are folks in Arkansas who are lobbying the AAA to include video game playing as a recognized high school sport. One supporter felt that there could be kids who could be heroes on a keyboard with as much validity as the heroes on a football field or basketball court. In these cases, the term of heroes is being diluted to near oblivion.

Real heroes are like those men who charged into burning buildings in downtown New York on Sept.11, 2001, hoping to save lives but ended up losing their own. Policemen, firemen, soldiers and others engaged in protecting the public at large often risk death and injury in doing their job. They are heroes.

Being a hero in sports is like a Jesse Owens who won four gold medals in front the Adolph Hitler at the Nazi run Olympics in 1936. Being heroic like the 1980 USA hockey team who whipped a heavily favored Russian team in the Olympic final. Being a hero was when Michael Jordan came to the fifth game of the Utah/Chicago NBA finals likely sick enough to go to a hospital. Weakness, vomiting and blood shot eyes slowed the inimitable Jordan but he still went on to score 38 points including the game winning 3 at the end, collapsing in a heap at the end. His will exceeded his limitations.

In high schools sports, the heroes are the ones who devote themselves and their efforts to the good of their team, their school and their community. You can be fair to middling talent wise and be a hero, and you can be a supremely gifted athlete and not even remotely be considered a hero.

Not that anyone should be required to, or even expected to, be a hero. That comes from within a person.

Athletes who play for the adulation of the fans, or for the press clippings, or for perhaps a chance to play on a higher level without any thought to the good of the team, those teams have a hard time being successful. Heroes motivate their teammates on to greater things while self absorbed athletes fail on that point.

On the local level, one of the most heroic athletic things I have ever witnessed happened years ago when the girls track and field program was first making their climb to the top. Not having placed in the Top Two teams in district in over 20 years, this particular year saw the Lady ’Hawks slowly sneak up on second place Gravette, trailing the host by a single point with just one event left, the 4x400 relay.

The ’Hawks’ chance to take the runner up trophy was in jeopardy when one of the ’Hawk relay runners withdrew due to being ill. Being a runner short, Riley Patrick volunteered to fill in, in spite of the fact that she had just finished the 3,200-meter run the event before. With a steely determination to catch and pass the Lady Lion, she did just that and gave enough lead for the anchor runner to finish ahead of Gravette to earn the trophy.

Winston Churchill often cited the fact that many of the heroes who won the war for Britain in the 1940s, gained their character from the playing fields of their school days.

Heroes aren’t born due to natural birth, they are born from character. Character building is the chief reason schools even have sporting programs. No other nation on earth has educational institutions that include the type of sporting programs that is common in the United States. That’s a big reason why there haven’t been any other armed forces that can go toe to toe or match up to the men and women of the U.S. military.

The future of our country depends on the number and quality of kids who are equipped to be heroes when the times call for them to accept the mantle. In little ways and in big, heroes started this country and have kept it free for a very long time.

Simply put, heroes do heroic things.

4A-1 Girls still rule the polls

Girls basketball teams from the 4A-1 still rule the polls with Berryville and Farmington atop the rankings again in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively. Pea Ridge moved up from ninth to sixth position after their perfect week dismantling previously ranked 15th Gentry and 25th-ranked Huntsville.

Prairie Grove is ranked 12th in the state with Harrison 17th, Gravette 21st, Gentry 22nd, Huntsville 33rd and Shiloh 35th to round out girls conference members standings.

The 4A-1 boys league has tumbled overall from its initial showing in the first poll. Pea Ridge is now the leader in the sixth position with Harrison 10th, Farmington 11th, Huntsville 18th, Gravette 31st, Prairie Grove 33rd, Berryville 39th, Gentry 40th and Shiloh 43rd.

The upheaval in rankings is largely due to the huge turnover in class members for the reclassified new season. Up until now, teams have been playing their traditional schedules for the most part, just now getting into their new conference scheduling. Expect to see the polls begin to develop some stability in about a month.

MaxPrep/CBS 4A State basketball poll Girls Top 25 list Dec. 16, 2018

1. Berryville 11-0 2. Farmington 7-1 3. Brookland 6-2 4. Star City 9-1 5. Batesville 8-2

6. Pea Ridge 10-2 7. DeQueen 7-1 8. Clarksville 8-2 9. Highland 6-3

10. Morrilton 8-3 11. Stuttgart 10-0

12. Prairie Grove 5-2 13. Bauxite 9-2

14. Pocahontas 7-3 15. Heber Springs 5-2 16. Camden 8-3

17. Harrison 6-2

18. Pottsville 5-5

19. Warren 3-1 20. Nashville 6-2 21. Gravette 5-3 22. Gentry 5-3 23. Dardanelle 4-4 24. EStem 7-5 25. Huntsville 2-4

MaxPrep/CBS 4A State basketball poll Boys Top 25 list Dec. 16, 2018

1. Westside 8-1 2. Mills 6-3 3. Blytheville 6-2 4. Forest City 5-3 5. Pottsville 7-2 6. Pea Ridge 11-2 7. EStem 11-5 8. Brookland 6-2 9. Magnolia 4-1 10. Harrison 6-2 11. Farmington 7-3 12. McClellan 4-2 13. Southside 8-2 14. Robinson 5-3 15. Mena 6-3

16. Subiaco 8-4

17. Monticello 5-2 18. Huntsville 6-4 19. Pulaski 3-1 20. Stuttgart 5-3 21. Dardanelle 6-2 22. Valley View 5-4 23. Star City 4-1 24. Warren 3-2 25. Ozark 6-4 Editor’s note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@nwadg.com.