TUPATALK: What do sports mean to me?

Some of my observations about the wonder of sports.

— In 1988, a Jamaican team competing in the bobsled at the winter Olympics. The team crashed — but crashing proved proved the Jamaicans had competed. They pushed their crippled sled past the finish line and lifted it out of way — the symbol they had gone the distance. Going the distance — if physically possible — is the measurement of a winner.

— Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson — and handful of other courageous people — doing more in peaceful baseball competition to bring down walls of inequality since the guns had silenced at the end of the Civil War.

— Wilt Chamberlain’s 85-foot frame dancing in air around the rim like a moth.

— Lou Gehrig, weakened by a disease that would kill him, proclaiming proudly to the packed house at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth!” and enumerating the blessings of his parents, his wife, his teammates, his coaches and the fans.

— Roberto Clemente putting his life on the line to deliver humanitarian supplies to earthquake-shattered Nicaragua — and dying when the airplane carrying him and the goods crashed into the ocean.

— Roberto Clemente ripping his 3,000th-career hit — a double, the last regular season hit of his career.

— Johnny Unitas’ black shoes and his 47 straight games throwing a touchdown pass.

— A Knute Rockne pep talk.

— A Willie Mays basket catch deep in the outfield.

— “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

— An Arnold Palmer smile.

— Jesse Owens standing atop the medals podium in Berlin while angry Nazi officials looked on.

— A Sandy Koufax slider falling off the edge of a table.

— A no-look back-flip pass by Magic Johnson to Byron Scott.

— Ted Williams hitting a homer in his final at-bat.

— The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers scrapping and banging — even slamming each other to the floor — during volatile NBA finals matchups in the 1980s.

— The Super Bowl Shuffle.

— Tom Brady reaching the ball over the top of a pile to break the plane of the goal line.

— Jim Valvano storming around the basketball court after North Carolina State won the 1983 NCAA championship, his arms raised and looking for someone to hug.

— Danny Ainge driving the ball the length of the court in eight seconds, weaving around or scooting past the entire Notre Dame on his way to hitting a winning flip bucket at the end of regulation to propel BYU into the 1981 Elite Eight.

— Pele shouting into the microphone, “Love! Love! Love!” to a crowd of more than 76,000 gathered in the stadium in Rutherford, N.J., in his farewell address as a player. He had asked the crowd to repeat them as he said them, in a plea for a better world for children. As the crowd repeated his words in unison, he broke down.

— Tom Landry’s fedora and stone face.

— Barry Sanders scoring a touchdown and handing the ball to the official and quickly running off the field.

— Buster Douglas stunning Mike Tyson.

— Purple-People Eaters. Steel Curtain. The Fearsome Foursome. The Three Amigos. The Big Red Machine. Doomsday Defense. Wrecking Crew. Orange Crush. No-Name Defense.

— “Do you believe in miracles?”

— Ozzie’s backflip. John Wooden’s glasses. Mahome’s scrambling. The Holy Roller. Josh Allen’s cool under fire. Gronk’s soft hands. Gale Sayers’ magic moves on elusive legs and hips that seemed to glide with effortless ripple as he weaved untouched past strings of would-be tacklers and galloped gracefully into history.

— Brian Piccolo.

— Babe Ruth calling his home run shot — and doing it.

— Louie Zamperini running in January 1998 — four days before his 81st birthday — with the Olympic torch in Japan, not too far from where he had suffered as Japanese POW in World War II.

—

Some of my more personal wonder of sports.

— My mom weeping New Year's Day 1973, after she had learned of Roberto Clemente's passing the prior evening.

— Getting a NFL sidelines pass to a San Francisco 49ers game on Christmas Day in 1993.

— Interviewing Joe Kapp for an hour in the early 1990s in his front room.

— Weeping outside by our lilac tree after the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Vikings in Super Bowl IV.

— Literally leaping for joy and shouting — like a maniac — in the work lunchroom after hearing the radio call of BYU beating Notre Dame in the 1981 Sweet 16.

— Walking in the late 1990s with my sister through the under-construction Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City.

— Interviewing Bob Kurland, Jesse Renick, Venson Cumby, Paul Endacott, Gary Cunningham, Russ McGinnis Bud Adams, Joe Gilbert, Mitch Nash, Jerry Shipp, Red Murrell and many others who helped forge local sports tradition many decades ago.

— Watching Mike Yearout throw a curve ball near his prime.

— Out on an individual 11-mile run around the airstrip at Beaufort (S.C.) MCAS, watching the jets do touchdown and take-off drills. Feeling the power of pumping legs and well-tuned lungs surge through my body during my daily run at the Millington (Tenn.) Navy base to Navy Lake and back.

— Spending many pleasant evenings at the BAAB 14-and-under fields.

— Standing just five or six feet from Mark McGwire near the Oakland A's dugout.

I hope I have been able in my heart and mind to grasp some of the essence of pure athletics — to blend together the physical, the spiritual and the moral to propel individuals to the best version of themselves in all aspects of life.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: TupaTalk column