Be a Fan of Courage
Kevin Erickson, 21, was already a celebrity golfer when he took to the course with PGA pro David Duval for the televised CBS Sports special, “A Tee Time Like No Other.” By age 20, he had broken a record in 18-hole golf, won numerous Special Olympics medals and scored a famous hole in one. Over the years, his mettle, skill and unflappable focus on the course had been proven many times over.
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A Tee Time Like No Other: PGA golfer David Duval (left) finds inspiration during a round of golf with Special Olympics athlete Kevin Erickson. See video.
But Kevin’s game had proven something else as well – his courage. Kevin was born with a brain tumor. When he was four months old, doctors removed one-third of his brain to save his life. When he was 18 and at the peak of his golf career, the cancer returned. But throughout radiation and chemotherapy, in his weakened condition, Kevin practiced his sport as often as he could – sometimes only 24 hours after treatment. His love of golf kept him positive and sped up his recovery. As soon as he was well, he was back on the course, playing four to five times a week and winning medals in the Special Olympics U.S. Golf National Invitational.
So when Kevin showed up to play alongside the 2001 British Open champion, David Duval could not help but feel impressed. "As frustrating and maddening as my struggles have been, this makes you realize how small they are. I've always believed that people's burdens are what they can manage. I've always felt I was a strong guy. But I'm not as strong as these two men,” Duval said, in reference to Kevin and another member of the foursome, Special Olympics Ireland golf champion Oliver Doherty.
CBS Sports aired the results of their foursome that day in the United States, in a special entitled "A Tee Time Like No Other” – bringing Kevin’s courageous story to millions of sports fans across the nation.
Every Special Olympics athlete is an inspiring story about bravery and courage as they face day-to-day challenges due to their disability and rejection by society. Yet, empowered through their love of sport, Special Olympics athletes show the rest of the world how to fight for a chance, how to train against the odds and how to persevere.
Every day, 365 days a year, on playing fields across the world, through sports training and competition, Special Olympics fosters the growth of athletes who are examples of drive, determination and sportsmanship. Some, like Kevin, surprise the world with their skill, shattering longstanding stereotypes of inability that persist about people with intellectual disabilities. Other athletes overwhelm us with their courage and determination as they strive to cross the finish line of the 50-meter walk.
Like David Duval, thousands of people come to volunteer, compete with or to coach Special Olympics athletes thinking they’ll spend an afternoon or weekend helping people with intellectual disabilities. What they find instead is that they are the ones inspired. They are the ones who leave having learned what it is to achieve greatness and discover one’s humanity. And it was the athletes who were their teachers.
Sports, like intellectual disabilities, transcend boundaries of ethnicity, gender, social or economic status and religion. Because sports easily unite so many in a world where people are so different, Special Olympics is humanity’s greatest classroom, where lessons of acceptance and inclusion are taught on the fields of competition by our greatest teachers – the athletes.
What YOU Can Do
Whether you are an athlete looking to compete, a volunteer looking to make a difference, or you’re just looking to have fun and be a part of something — come be a part of Special Olympics, and experience your own story of transformation.
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