Slug a walk-off grand slam in the World Series, and you’re a hero.
Come back from ACL or rotator cuff surgery, and you’re courageous.
Bury long jump shots in the Final Four, and you’re a gunner.
The real heroes, though, are the men and women who demonstrate courage when their lives and the lives of their comrades — not flashy trophies and glittering rings — are on the line.
Today is Veterans Day. A time to recognize, and thank, the thousands of men and women who serve(d) in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or Space Force. Who volunteered or answered the draft call in times of peace and times of world war. Who interrupted their lives, and sometimes delayed promising athletic careers, to serve.
Here are a few of the many whose stories are harrowing and inspiring. You will recognize some of these names. Others you will meet for the first time. We owe a debt of gratitude to each of them and their fellow veterans.
YOGI BERRA, Navy, Yankees
Before he became famous for his catching prowess and illogical sayings, 18-year-old minor-leaguer Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra joined the Navy in 1943 hoping to play for the Norfolk, Va., base team. Instead, he volunteered for a secret mission as a gunner’s mate aboard a 36-foot landing craft equipped with rockets and machine guns and assigned to the attack transport USS Bayfield. His job was to maintain the weapons and ordnance on board and to ensure their proper operation.
On June 6, 1944, the mission became clear. Patrol 300 yards off Utah Beach in Normandy and launch rockets and strafe German machine gun positions in support of the D-Day landings. Years later he described the scene to a writer: “It was just like the Fourth of July.” Berra also participated in the invasion of Provence in southern France and suffered a wound to his left hand.
Yogi Berra never played baseball for the Norfolk navy base. After the war he returned to the New York Yankees organization and embarked on a 19-year career. He was the preeminent catcher of the 1950s, played for the Yankees for 18 years, appeared in 18 All-Star games, won 10 World Series as a player and was a three-time American League MVP. He also managed and coached for the Yankees and Mets. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. He died in 2015 at the age of 90.
HANK BAUER, Marines, Yankees
The youngest of nine children in East St. Louis, Ill., Hank Bauer enlisted in the Marine Corps after Pearl Harbor and volunteered for the demanding Marine Raiders. In August 1942 he was deployed to Guadalcanal in the Pacific. There, he survived Japanese attacks and bouts of malaria. In 1944 he fought in the St. Matthias and New Georgia Islands and was wounded in the back at Guam. In April 1945 he was a gunnery sergeant in the bloody Okinawa campaign. Of the 64 Marines in his platoon only he and five others survived. He suffered a serious thigh wound from Japanese artillery and was sent home to recuperate. He had experienced 32 months of combat, received two Purple Hearts for his wounds, two Bronze Stars for valor and a Navy Commendation Medal. He defined toughness.
Bauer recovered and realized his dream of playing major league baseball. He was a right fielder for the Yankees in the 1950s, played in seven World Series and appeared in three All-Star games. He managed the Baltimore Orioles to their first World Series championship in 1966. He also managed the Kansas City and Oakland A’s. He was 84 when he died of lung cancer in 2007.
CHUCK BEDNARIK, Army Air Force, Eagles
Son of Slovak immigrants who worked in the steel mills in Bethlehem, Pa., Chuck Bednarik enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1943. He was 18 and had never flown before basic training as an aerial gunner.
Bednarik flew 30 combat missions over Germany with the famed Eighth Air Force. He was a waist gunner in a B-24 Liberator, a four-engine bomber. Primary targets were munitions factories. His scariest mission, he said years later, occurred in the winter of 1945. Gen. George S. Patton’s tanks had outrun the Army’s forward lines and were low on fuel. Bednarik’s bomber, loaded with fuel cans, landed on a makeshift airfield behind enemy lines and delivered its valuable cargo.
After the war, Bednarik attended the University of Pennsylvania. He routinely played 60 minutes at center and linebacker and was a three-time All-America. He won the Maxwell Award as the best all-around player in college football in 1948 and finished third in voting for the Heisman Trophy. Philadelphia selected him with the first pick in the 1949 NFL Draft and he played both ways for the Eagles for his entire 14-year career. The 1949 and 1960 Eagles won the NFL championship. The last of the true two-way players is in the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. He died in 2015 at 89.
JOE BELLINO, Navy, Patriots
In 1960 Joe Bellino won the Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award as the best player in college football. As a senior he rushed for 864 yards, caught and threw touchdown passes, averaged 47 yards per punt and returned kicks and punts. He scored 31 touchdowns and set 15 Navy football records in his 5-foot-9, 185-pound body.
Bellino was a three-sport star at Winchester (Mass.) High. The Pittsburgh Pirates offered him a contract out of high school. His basketball team won 55 in a row until losing to Durfee High School of Fall River when he was a senior. Notre Dame, Big Ten and Ivy League colleges recruited him for football after a year of prep school, but he had his heart set on the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. He was the varsity halfback for three years.
Bellino had the skill to play professional football, just not right away. He had to postpone a pro career to satisfy his five-year active duty commitment. When he transitioned to reserve status, he signed with the Boston Patriots of the American Football League. In three seasons with the Pats (1965-1967) he was primarily a kick returner. He rushed for 64 yards, caught 11 passes for 151 yards and scored a touchdown. He also played with the Providence Steamroller semi-pro club.
Bellino was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1977. He died in 2019 at the age of 81.
ROGER STAUBACH, Navy, Cowboys
As big a star as Joe Bellino was, “Roger The Dodger” Staubach was even bigger. A 6-foot-3, 190-pound quarterback, he could run and pass. As a junior in 1963 he led Navy to a 35-14 victory at Notre Dame — Navy’s next win over the Fighting Irish took 43 years, in 2007 — a 21-15 triumph over Army, a 9-1 record and final ranking of No. 2 behind Texas. The undefeated Longhorns defeated the Midshipmen, 28-6, in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1964, for their first national championship.
Staubach won the Heisman and Maxwell in 1963 but missed four games in 1964 with a heel injury. He graduated in 1965, and, like Bellino, had to put his pro football aspirations on hold. Prevented from serving at sea by color blindness, he eschewed a possible stateside assignment and instead volunteered for a one-year tour in South Vietnam. He served as a supply officer at Chu Lai until 1967.
Staubach completed his military obligations in the U.S. The Dallas Cowboys had drafted him in the 10th round in 1964, and in 1969 he was a 27-year-old rookie. Staubach spent 11 years with the Cowboys, played in four Super Bowls and won in 1972 and 1978. The Pittsburgh Steelers won the other two. He retired after the 1979 season to protect his health. He had suffered 20 concussions, and a doctor warned him that another could be life-altering.
Staubach spent the rest of his working career in business and real estate development. He is 82 now and resides in Dallas. He is in the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
ROCKY BLEIER, Army, Steelers
Rocky Bleier’s story is about as apple pie as you can get. Nicknamed Rocky as a baby because his bar-owner dad described him as a rock sitting in his crib. A three-sport star and captain at Xavier High in Appleton, Wisconsin. A three-time all-state running back.
He played at Notre Dame and was a junior in 1966 when undefeated ND and undefeated Michigan State fought to a 10-10 tie in the Game of the Century. The Irish won the national championship. He was a team captain in 1967. The Steelers drafted him in the 16th round of the 1968 NFL Draft, 417th overall. He made the team but the Army drafted him in December 1968.
Bleier volunteered to go to Vietnam and in May 1969 shipped out as a grenade launcher. That August he was wounded in the thigh in an ambush. An exploding grenade severely injured his lower right leg and right foot. Doctors in Tokyo told him he could forget about football. But Steelers owner Art Rooney sent him a postcard with this simple message: “We need you.”
Upon his discharge, Bleier overcame pain, began training, spent the 1970 season on inured reserve, returned to special teams in 1971, was waived twice but came back and in 1974 was in the starting lineup blocking for Franco Harris. In 1976 he rushed for 1,000 yards himself. He played on four Super Bowl championship teams in the 1970s. He retired after the 1980 season with 3,865 rushing yards, 1,294 receiving yards and 25 touchdowns.
Bleier is 78, an author and financial advisor, and lives in the Pittsburgh area.
AL BUMBRY, Army, Baltimore Orioles
Vietnam saved Al Bumbry’s baseball career. Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 1968, the outfielder hit a sorry .178 for Class A Stockton in the spring of 1969. Later that year he reported for duty with the Army. He had been an ROTC student at Virginia State and knew he had a two-year military commitment.
Bumbry served as a tank platoon leader in Vietnam. He received a Bronze Star for his battlefield performance. He was in charge of about 40 soldiers and did not lose one during his tour, “I think I matured quite a bit from that experience,” he told writer Bill Ladson in 2018. “Then when I came back, I guess baseball didn’t seem as [hard] as it was before I went over.”
Bumbry returned to baseball in 1971, reached the big leagues in September 1972 and was the American League rookie of the year in 1973. He played 14 seasons – 13 with Baltimore and one with San Diego – and was the center fielder on Baltimore’s World Series Championship team in 1983. He was an All-Star in 1980. He is 77 and lives in the Baltimore area.
PAT TILLMAN, Army, Arizona Cardinals
An All-America linebacker at Arizona State, he played four NFL seasons for the Arizona Cardinals. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and trained as an Army Ranger. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan. On April 22, 2004 he was killed in the mountains of Afghanistan. Initial reports said by enemy fire. Subsequent investigations indicated he was killed by friendly fire. He was 27.
I could go on. Thirty-nine baseball players eventually elected to the Hall of Fame served in World War II. Ted Williams flew fighters for the Marines in World War II and Korea. Red Sox teammates Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr served. Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford wore an Army uniform during the Korean War.
But you get the idea. Our sports heroes were in some cases war heroes as well. So were thousands of men and women who never saw a playing field. Today, Veterans Day, let’s recognize all of them for their service.
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