This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2017/05/29/sports-rush-sports-and-the-service/
Last Monday, a former serviceman had an exceedingly rare opportunity
to ask a former U.S. president a question. The veteran decided he would
inquire about baseball.
The next night, I attended another event with vets present. I got to talk to one of them, a recent interview subject
of mine. He had a distinguished pro football career, but it was one he
had deferred to first fly combat missions in the Persian Gulf.
This weekend, baseball teams wore uniforms featuring color schemes
more common to platoons of solders than platooning infielders.
All
these cues reminded me that sports and military service are
inextricably intertwined. For one thing, the two pursuits reward many of
the same traits, including toughness, fitness, and team spirit. That a Chad Hennings
(the former football player I mentioned above) could help the Cowboys
win three Super Bowl rings makes a certain degree of sense. That he
would continue to be involved in military causes, in this case the Airpower Foundation‘s Sky Ball, would also seem logical.
Sports teams have long embraced opportunities to use their venues to
recognize the various branches of the military. The Rangers play the
Rays tonight and they will no doubt do their usual memorable job of
honoring servicemen and women. Teams all over the country will do the
same, and their efforts will not be limited to a single important
holiday, Memorial Day. We see outreach to the armed forces in some form
or fashion on a nightly basis from many (and maybe all) U.S. teams.
The freedom to enjoy diversions like sport is ostensibly one of the
things for which soldiers fight. The man who asked George W. Bush about
baseball wanted to know the ex-commander-in-chief’s opinion on the
Rangers (Bush thinks they’ll rally once Adrián Beltré, Cole Hamels, and
Tyson Ross get healthy). The program at the Bush Center that night
involved a presentation
about the former president’s book of paintings and came after a day of
golf for a number of wounded warriors. Bush also helps support the Invictus Games for injured veterans, rides mountain bikes with them, and clearly sees a role for sports in their recoveries.
In a perfect world, they wouldn’t need to recover, but we
unfortunately don’t live in one. Pundits can debate the merits of
specific foreign policies and whether they truly help or harm the cause
of freedom. What is not debatable is that we hope every individual who
travels abroad to fight returns safely to watch his or her favorite team
or participate in his or her preferred pastime. On Memorial Day, it is
important to remember those who have sacrificed. It is even better to be
able to go to a ballgame with them. First pitch is 7:05.
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for
sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns,
television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities
through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
Monday, May 29, 2017
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Deep Colors
This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2017/05/23/sports-rush-deep-colors/
Sometimes, color matters in sports. Uniforms help us tell the competitors apart. We express allegiance to our teams by wearing silver and blue or victory green. Ballparks contrast a dark batter’s eye backdrop against a white baseball.
In art, color becomes even more essential. A muted palette may suggest one set of emotions, while bright colors imply something whole different. Use of color can define an artist.
Sometimes the worlds of sport and art colorfully intersect, as I noticed on a recent visit to the Dallas Museum of Art. Along an upstairs wall hangs a painting by Ángel Zárraga called La futbolista. The museum brought it in as part of the exhibition México 1900–1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, and the Avant-Garde, an installation of nearly 200 works executed in multiple media by early-20th century Mexican artists.
Zárraga’s painting depicts a female soccer player posed in uniform, seemingly ready for a match to begin. Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA, said via email that “Zárraga, like many other artists in the exhibition, was interested in portraying strong, modern women, engaged in tasks beyond what would have been expected of them in the traditional society of pre-revolutionary Mexico. A woman football player exemplifies this modernity.”
The 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution, which deposed a long-time dictator and hoped to shape a more forward-looking and equitable society, provides context for the artists’ expressions. As their countrymen and women looked to elevate their nation’s status, the painters, sculptors, and filmmakers tried to do their part. Brodbeck describes them as “some of the most sought-after artists in the US and Europe,” with Rivera, for instance, receiving just the second one-person exhibition at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. The art world saw value in the images these men and women created. It didn’t matter that they came from a Central American country many might have previously considered culturally backwards.
In sport as in art, performance should, and often does, trump all else. A Jackie Robinson can show that African-Americans belong in Major League Baseball; A Doug Williams can prove a black quarterback can win a Super Bowl; A Dominican, David Ortiz, can pretty much own a New England city known for bursts of racial intolerance.
It’s tougher to smear a minority group as inferior when members of that group reveal themselves as world-class practitioners of something. The idea that governments should limit business or personal contacts with people solely because of national origin seems less viable when we can envision those persons being the next Diego or Mariano Rivera.
Brodbeck noted, “The exhibition highlights historical moments of close cross-cultural exchange between the US and Mexico—times when pan-Americanism was politically attractive– and is proof that there is strength in our unity and our similarities vastly outweigh our differences.”
The DMA’s México 1900–1950 presents an opportunity for visitors to experience, and more importantly, appreciate a culture sometimes portrayed as second-class. Art devotees know it to be otherwise – this show debuted in Paris, France, not exactly an artistic backwater.
Will it succeed in bringing people together? Kimberly Daniell of the DMA’s public relations staff supplied me with some of the glowing comments visitors have made about the exhibition, including phrases like “The show is spectacular” and “It was fabulous!” As I examined some of the commenters, I spotted surnames like Gomez, Olmos, and Gutierrez. But I also saw monikers like Feingold, Tran, and Sprague writing things like “Love Frida!“ While I don’t know the specific backgrounds of any of those involved, that feels like cross-cultural exchange to me. Based on the attendance figures Brodbeck supplied, more than 50,000 people have participated in such exchange so far, and the exhibition will run through July 16.
Colors often matter in sport and art. But sometimes they don’t. The color of the hand that wields the paintbrush or shoots the basketball carries no importance. It’s what ends up on the canvas or in the hoop that is what we care the most about. That distinction is actually pretty black and white.
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
Sometimes, color matters in sports. Uniforms help us tell the competitors apart. We express allegiance to our teams by wearing silver and blue or victory green. Ballparks contrast a dark batter’s eye backdrop against a white baseball.
In art, color becomes even more essential. A muted palette may suggest one set of emotions, while bright colors imply something whole different. Use of color can define an artist.
Sometimes the worlds of sport and art colorfully intersect, as I noticed on a recent visit to the Dallas Museum of Art. Along an upstairs wall hangs a painting by Ángel Zárraga called La futbolista. The museum brought it in as part of the exhibition México 1900–1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, and the Avant-Garde, an installation of nearly 200 works executed in multiple media by early-20th century Mexican artists.
Zárraga’s painting depicts a female soccer player posed in uniform, seemingly ready for a match to begin. Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA, said via email that “Zárraga, like many other artists in the exhibition, was interested in portraying strong, modern women, engaged in tasks beyond what would have been expected of them in the traditional society of pre-revolutionary Mexico. A woman football player exemplifies this modernity.”
The 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution, which deposed a long-time dictator and hoped to shape a more forward-looking and equitable society, provides context for the artists’ expressions. As their countrymen and women looked to elevate their nation’s status, the painters, sculptors, and filmmakers tried to do their part. Brodbeck describes them as “some of the most sought-after artists in the US and Europe,” with Rivera, for instance, receiving just the second one-person exhibition at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. The art world saw value in the images these men and women created. It didn’t matter that they came from a Central American country many might have previously considered culturally backwards.
In sport as in art, performance should, and often does, trump all else. A Jackie Robinson can show that African-Americans belong in Major League Baseball; A Doug Williams can prove a black quarterback can win a Super Bowl; A Dominican, David Ortiz, can pretty much own a New England city known for bursts of racial intolerance.
It’s tougher to smear a minority group as inferior when members of that group reveal themselves as world-class practitioners of something. The idea that governments should limit business or personal contacts with people solely because of national origin seems less viable when we can envision those persons being the next Diego or Mariano Rivera.
Brodbeck noted, “The exhibition highlights historical moments of close cross-cultural exchange between the US and Mexico—times when pan-Americanism was politically attractive– and is proof that there is strength in our unity and our similarities vastly outweigh our differences.”
The DMA’s México 1900–1950 presents an opportunity for visitors to experience, and more importantly, appreciate a culture sometimes portrayed as second-class. Art devotees know it to be otherwise – this show debuted in Paris, France, not exactly an artistic backwater.
Will it succeed in bringing people together? Kimberly Daniell of the DMA’s public relations staff supplied me with some of the glowing comments visitors have made about the exhibition, including phrases like “The show is spectacular” and “It was fabulous!” As I examined some of the commenters, I spotted surnames like Gomez, Olmos, and Gutierrez. But I also saw monikers like Feingold, Tran, and Sprague writing things like “Love Frida!“ While I don’t know the specific backgrounds of any of those involved, that feels like cross-cultural exchange to me. Based on the attendance figures Brodbeck supplied, more than 50,000 people have participated in such exchange so far, and the exhibition will run through July 16.
Colors often matter in sport and art. But sometimes they don’t. The color of the hand that wields the paintbrush or shoots the basketball carries no importance. It’s what ends up on the canvas or in the hoop that is what we care the most about. That distinction is actually pretty black and white.
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Forecast Calls for Snack Cakes
This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2017/05/19/sports-rush-the-forecast-calls-for-snack-cakes/
Thursday before the Rangers game, I put a snack cake on Rodney Gadsden’s head.
OK, I didn’t actually place it there. That job fell to a girl named Tochi Zama Emeruen. Both fans had come to the game expecting to watch the Rangers go for a sweep of the Phillies and also learn about how weather works. Instead, they found themselves on the visiting dugout, engaged in hijinks.
“It was unexpected,” said Gadsden, who had come to game as a chaperone for his daughter Sierra’s school field trip.
Every year, the Rangers team with the meteorology staff at CBS-11 for a pregame event designed to teach schoolchildren about how weather phenomena work. Getting thousands of youngsters and adults seated before the show starts is by its nature somewhat of a drawn-out process, so I have traditionally assisted team mascot Rangers Captain in performing games and skits to warm up the spectators as they file in. Rangers Six Shooters help us select likely candidates to join us atop the dugout.
We usually have a lot of raised hands from which to choose. A couple of Six Shooters pulled Rodney and Tochi from their seats among the Newman International Academy traveling party. They had no idea what they were in for.
They would compete against two other pairs in the morning’s first game – snack cake stacking. Each adult had to kneel down and each kid had to unwrap a set of chocolate snack cakes and place it on the kneeler’s forehead. The first to successfully balance four total treats would win.
Tochi, who, like Sierra Gadsden, attends NIA, allowed that she was nervous. She doesn’t like to get up on stage and had never done this before, although, let’s face it, pretty much nobody has ever done this sort of thing before. It turns out she’s a natural snack-cake-piler, though, as she finished first. Rodney did his part by making an effort to “just stay still and let her do what she needed to do.”
A young lady named Caroline followed Tochi’s effort by managing to stack three apples in a few seconds (something Rangers Captain and I really didn’t think could be done). The final game involved kids pulling all the facial tissues out of a box with one hand and then it was time for the weathermen and women to do their thing.
“It was pretty interesting just to be a part of their fun and excitement,” said Gadsden afterwards. When you go to a ballgame, there’s always more to it than just watching the on-field action. You could end up on the kisscam, or try some new food concoction, or find yourself on the dugout with the mascot and thousands of people watching you as you attempt to pile sugary confections as skillfully as possible.
Rangers Captain and I agreed that these contests worked as well as any we had done, so expect to see more like them if you attend the Dallas Zoo’s Wildlife Education Day at the ballgame on June 22, or if you return to Weather Day next season.
One attends such events to do stuff one can’t do at home. For Tochi, that was the best part of her snack-game experience.
“We get to play with food, because our parents don’t allow us to play with food.”
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
Thursday before the Rangers game, I put a snack cake on Rodney Gadsden’s head.
OK, I didn’t actually place it there. That job fell to a girl named Tochi Zama Emeruen. Both fans had come to the game expecting to watch the Rangers go for a sweep of the Phillies and also learn about how weather works. Instead, they found themselves on the visiting dugout, engaged in hijinks.
“It was unexpected,” said Gadsden, who had come to game as a chaperone for his daughter Sierra’s school field trip.
Every year, the Rangers team with the meteorology staff at CBS-11 for a pregame event designed to teach schoolchildren about how weather phenomena work. Getting thousands of youngsters and adults seated before the show starts is by its nature somewhat of a drawn-out process, so I have traditionally assisted team mascot Rangers Captain in performing games and skits to warm up the spectators as they file in. Rangers Six Shooters help us select likely candidates to join us atop the dugout.
We usually have a lot of raised hands from which to choose. A couple of Six Shooters pulled Rodney and Tochi from their seats among the Newman International Academy traveling party. They had no idea what they were in for.
They would compete against two other pairs in the morning’s first game – snack cake stacking. Each adult had to kneel down and each kid had to unwrap a set of chocolate snack cakes and place it on the kneeler’s forehead. The first to successfully balance four total treats would win.
Tochi, who, like Sierra Gadsden, attends NIA, allowed that she was nervous. She doesn’t like to get up on stage and had never done this before, although, let’s face it, pretty much nobody has ever done this sort of thing before. It turns out she’s a natural snack-cake-piler, though, as she finished first. Rodney did his part by making an effort to “just stay still and let her do what she needed to do.”
A young lady named Caroline followed Tochi’s effort by managing to stack three apples in a few seconds (something Rangers Captain and I really didn’t think could be done). The final game involved kids pulling all the facial tissues out of a box with one hand and then it was time for the weathermen and women to do their thing.
“It was pretty interesting just to be a part of their fun and excitement,” said Gadsden afterwards. When you go to a ballgame, there’s always more to it than just watching the on-field action. You could end up on the kisscam, or try some new food concoction, or find yourself on the dugout with the mascot and thousands of people watching you as you attempt to pile sugary confections as skillfully as possible.
Rangers Captain and I agreed that these contests worked as well as any we had done, so expect to see more like them if you attend the Dallas Zoo’s Wildlife Education Day at the ballgame on June 22, or if you return to Weather Day next season.
One attends such events to do stuff one can’t do at home. For Tochi, that was the best part of her snack-game experience.
“We get to play with food, because our parents don’t allow us to play with food.”
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
Thursday, May 11, 2017
From Australia with Love, Football, and Basketball
This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2017/05/10/sports-rush-from-australia-with-love-football-and-basketball/
The Dallas Wings’ Erin Phillips had a really interesting offseason. She played professionally in another sport and had a couple of big developments in her family. Meanwhile her team addressed some crucial needs and has given fans and players reason for optimism heading into the new season. In this video interview, she talks about all of it in her awesome Australian accent (alliteration intentional).
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
The Dallas Wings’ Erin Phillips had a really interesting offseason. She played professionally in another sport and had a couple of big developments in her family. Meanwhile her team addressed some crucial needs and has given fans and players reason for optimism heading into the new season. In this video interview, she talks about all of it in her awesome Australian accent (alliteration intentional).
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Food and Football With Chad Hennings
This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2017/05/03/sports-rush-talking-food-and-football-with-chad-hennings/
At the Taste of the Cowboys event May 7, 2017, several prominent local chefs will each prepare a signature dish and serve them to attendees at the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters, The Star in Frisco. Current and former players and coaches attend and entertainment will be provided by Reckless Kelly and two other bands. It al benefits the North Texas Food Bank’s Child Programs.
Former Cowboys defensive lineman Chad Hennings serves as one of the celebrity hosts of the function, so in this video interview, I asked him to explain a bit about it and why he is involved. I also apparently totally set him up to throw some of his fellow celeb hosts under the bus, all in good fun, of course.
Find details on the event here.
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
At the Taste of the Cowboys event May 7, 2017, several prominent local chefs will each prepare a signature dish and serve them to attendees at the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters, The Star in Frisco. Current and former players and coaches attend and entertainment will be provided by Reckless Kelly and two other bands. It al benefits the North Texas Food Bank’s Child Programs.
Former Cowboys defensive lineman Chad Hennings serves as one of the celebrity hosts of the function, so in this video interview, I asked him to explain a bit about it and why he is involved. I also apparently totally set him up to throw some of his fellow celeb hosts under the bus, all in good fun, of course.
Find details on the event here.
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
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