From Painters to Punters

Monet; Giotto; Michelangelo; Picasso; Bernini; Some man or woman named Ug wearing a bearskin in a Lascaux cave : They all brought breakthrough creativity to the art world. In truth, in every field, one can trace lines of innovators who pushed their professions forward. So if I may transition from painters to punters, I’d like to note that sports has its artistes, too. In our last blog post, I mused on creativity in sports. Today, I provide a by-no-means comprehensive list of a few folks I see as demonstrating the vital role creativity plays in sport.

A power forward depicted on the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome's Piazza Navona, sculpted by Bernini

 I welcome your comments on contributors to add to the list, especially from outside the U.S.

James Naismith

If you invent a sport from scratch, that counts as pretty creative. If it goes on to become one of the most popular in the world, that factor really moves you up in the rankings. Naismith applied his creative mind to the task of creating a winter sport one could play indoors and came up with basketball in 1891.⁽¹⁾ Windmill dunks, salary caps, and Dennis Rodman in a wedding dress were to follow.

William Morgan also deserves a mention in this section for having made up volleyball just four years later. ⁽²⁾  

LPGA Tour

In the 40s and 50s, the very notion of an all-female sports circuit required a major creative leap. The actual implementation of the tour required creativity from those founding players every day, on the business side as well as when figuring out how to address a challenging lie. ⁽³⁾

We should also mention here the ahead-of-their-time All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ⁽⁴⁾ and the All American Red Heads ⁽⁵⁾ basketballers.

Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson

Figuring out a way to overcome institutionalized racism to break down barriers and help your team win at the same time? Brilliant.

Bob Cousy

He led the NBA in assists eight times,⁽⁶⁾ He won six titles. Those accomplishments validate the way Cousy played the game : with unprecedented flair. They changed rules in part because of how creatively he performed the most unproductive act in sports, that of running out the clock.

Slap Shot

Bernie Geoffrion is often, though not definitively, credited with inventing this hockey technique. It added a new dimension to the game. The movie, invented by George Roy Hill, Nancy Dowd, Paul Newman, and some Hansons, also added a new dimension to the game. It is funny, poignant, creative (of course), and now indispensable.

Professional Wrestling

Because, um, professional wrestling.

Harlem Globetrotters

They were groundbreaking as a successful African-American barnstorming team. Then when the sports world changed, they became a show, constantly coming up with new and fun ideas to maintain their business and spread the gospel of basketball.

Football Formations

The single wing, run-and-shoot, shotgun, wing-T, wishbone, one, two, and three tight end sets, trips left, trips right, west coast, spread option, wildcat, even punt formation - creativity abounds just in the naming of these offenses and alignments, to say nothing of finding ways to get eleven burly men to choreograph their movements to execute them.

The ABA

The American Basketball Association provided us with the 3-point shot, the dunk contest, Dr J, and so much other creative greatness. The ABA's only problem is that they could only go to their right. That is, the league seemed to be all right-brain, possessing awesome creativity and not nearly enough bottom-line awareness. Except for those owners in St. Louis, who could easily finance my next movie with their share of the NBA TV money for the past 3+ decades (yes, that was a hint, gentlemen - you'll love the script).

Candy Cummings

He may have invented the curveball in the 19th century.⁽⁷⁾ If he didn't, somebody really creative did. A ball that moves when you throw it? That is steampunk as hell.

NFL Films

Their inspiration changed the way sports are portrayed on all screens and helped propel their league to the top of the American sports scene.

Bill Veeck

He gets credit for Eddie Gaedel, the White Sox in shorts,⁽⁸⁾ and, by extension, just about every other wild promotion tried by anyone in sports ever.

Tastes Great, Less Filling

When I was a kid, my father and I watched a lot of sports on television. We still do, although we now have a lot more choices than we did in the 1970s when Miller Lite sought to counter any possible assumptions that a low-calorie brew might sissify its imbibers. They did so by using former athletes in its TV spots, via a campaign created by Backer and Spielvogel.⁽⁹⁾

In 2014, I am more likely to choose a brew based on whether I am in the mood for something hoppy or stoutish, but back then there would have been no doubt what beer I would have picked. It would have been the one in whose 30-second message Bubba Smith extolled the virtues of the easy-opening can, as his powerful grip easily sundered some defenseless aluminum. I suggested to my fifth grade teacher that I be allowed to recreate this particular spot using the old container from a "barrel of monkeys" toy. The idea did not make the talent show. I was instead made MC, so my remarks could be better scripted, I expect.

By the way, just to be clear, my parents did not encourage my elementary-age self to consume beer. It was left to college to acquaint me with what occupied the hollow space on the inside of the can.

Those beginnings led me to a career creating sports commercials, so I have certainly taken notice over the years of commercial work I considered especially exciting.  These included the Nike Bo Knows commercials (inspiring an intramural team named Diddley and Jackson), Spike Lee's Mars Blackmon spots for Nike, Larry Johnson's Grandmama series for Converse (I had a t-shirt), Wieden + Kennedy' SportsCenter campaign, and my favorite Super Bowl spot of all time, Nothing But Net for McDonald’s with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

Doubleday and Company

Abner Doubleday supposedly invented baseball. William Webb Ellis allegedly had the idea to pick up the ball at Rugby School and run with it. Legend has it that Pheidippides created the marathon with his dash to Athens. Al Gore invented the internet and through it, sports websites. Though history has called into doubt the accuracy of all these narratives, a good story remains a good story.

There are lots of inventive sports stories out there. This short list of important contributions to sports creativity is a little basketball-heavy, not quite as gender-neutral as I'd like, and by no means complete. I welcome your contributions to help correct those shortcomings.

Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.

RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports

Footnotes

⁽¹⁾  “James Naismith,” Kansas Historical Society. https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/james-naismith/12154 (accessed March 27, 2014)

⁽²⁾  “History of Volleyball,” Volleyball Hall of Fame. http://www.volleyhall.org/history.html (accessed March 27, 2014)

⁽³⁾ “The Trailblazers : Adventures of the 50s and 60s,” LPGA. http://www.lpga.com/golf/news/archive/2010/2/the-trailblazers--adventures-of-the-50s-and-60s.aspx (accessed March 27, 2014)

⁽⁴⁾ Jeneane Lesko “League History,” All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association. http://www.aagpbl.org/index.cfm/pages/league/12/league-history (accessed March 27, 2014)

⁽⁵⁾ John Molina, “All American Red Heads 1936-1986,” allamericanredheads.com. http://www.allamericanredheads.com/index.html (accessed March 27, 2014)

⁽⁶⁾ “Bob Cousy,” BasketballReference.com. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/cousybo01.html (accessed March 17, 2014)

⁽⁷⁾ “Cummings, Candy,” National Baseball Hall of Fame. http://baseballhall.org/hof/cummings-candy (accessed March 27, 2014)

⁽⁸⁾ Tim Kurkijan, “Best ‘Extinct’ Uniforms – White Sox : The Shorts,” espn.com. ttp://espn.go.com/mlb/photos/gallery/_/id/9268895/image/1/shorts-best-extinct-uniforms (accessed March 27, 2014)

⁽⁹⁾ Frank Deford, Lite Reading (Middlesex, England : Penguin Books, 1984), p. 12.

Of Jobe and Jay-Z

Much of sport involves fundamentals. Practice. Run some drills. Build muscle memory.

Speaking of muscles, however, a recent event reminded us that creativity plays a major role in sports, too. We’ll have more on that in a moment, but first, here are some thoughts on the creative factor in sports.

Coaches sometimes need to keep a lid on creativity. "Take the sure out, chip the puck off the boards, lay up in front of the hazard," they tell us. The safe strategy has value, of course. Its value lies in setting up the creative play that must follow. After all, the point of safely getting the puck out of the zone is for it to then be picked up by Wayne Gretzky so he can use it to execute multiple dekes and put home a top-shelf beauty.

Two men known to produce excellent creative work in the sports industry : former 39 On Deck host Craig Miller and NHL Hall-of-Famer Wayne Gretzky

So it is in all creative pursuits. The writer must research. The designer must master software. The rhythm players must set the tone for the soloist. Indeed, recent years have seen an ever-increasing influx of creatives in other fields crossing over into the sports world. Master P represented Ricky Williams. Jay-Z started Roc Nation.

Sports offers much that should appeal to the creative spirit : colors, colorful wordplay, personalities, stories, and many, many microcosms of the human condition. Sports innovation comes as spontaneously as a jazz sax break when a Cristiano Ronaldo concocts a never-before-seen dribbling flurry. It comes through the meticulous process of an old master painter when Joe Maddon pores through data that inspires a vision to move his third baseman to some previously unimagined fielding position when a certain hitter bats.⁽¹⁾

Yes, even coaches get creative, though some might not admit it. All the best teachers find fresh ways to help pupils succeed, and the coach who can modify her formulae when called for may also end up modifying the scoreboard in her favor.

The best creative endeavors in all fields build on a game plan. At its heart, creativity is about finding a solution to a problem, whether of communication, of how to thread a pass through a zone defense, or of something greater. Which brings us to the event we referenced at the top of the article.

The muscle (and ligament) related event was this month’s passing of Dr. Frank Jobe. Doctors, too, must endure a minor league journeyman’s career’s worth of mastering the basics before they graduate into the ironically named level of their field known as practice. Dr. Jobe went a step beyond. His decision to replace Tommy John’s cleft elbow ligament with one harvested from elsewhere in the pitcher’s body derived from a boldly creative idea.⁽²⁾ The physician’s solution to Mr. John's problem led to success not only for that player, but also for countless others.

Succeeding in sports (whether playing them, marketing them, coaching them, or supporting them) requires creativity. Hopefully your success doesn't necessitate innovating a surgical technique. But if you drive right every time, the defense will eventually figure it out and you're going to need to think of something else. Maybe you should try dribbling left from time to time, or pull up for a jump shot, or, for goodness sake, pass the ball for once in your life. Some are better at being visionaries than others. In Chris Paul's hands, creativity results in a dunk for his teammate; In mine, a turnover careens out of bounds.

Sports, in all its aspects, can never be about succeeding every time. But it should always be about enjoying oneself. New ideas in all fields come with an aim to improve life, whether through an inspirational film, a morale-building company initiative, or just enabling one to throw with a working elbow ligament. As part of the human condition, sport can be no different.

Creativity is fun. Sports are fun. That they should co-mingle seems fundamental. 

Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.

RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports

Footnotes

(1) Hunter Atkins, “Rays’ Joe Maddon: The King of Shifts,” New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/sports/baseball/rays-manager-joe-maddon-is-the-king-of-shifts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (accessed March 14, 2014)

(2) Will Carroll, “Dr. Frank Jobe, Tommy John and the Surgery That Changed Baseball Forever,” Bleacher Report. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1672080-dr-frank-jobe-tommy-john-and-the-surgery-that-changed-baseball-forever (accessed March 11, 2014)