ARCHIVE

This Archive rolls out a series of links to make accessible as much of the Giant Killer experience as we can. Obviously, I had no part in what you did. I'd just returned from Vietnam and had a billet at Marine HQ in DC.

Less obviously, I have no wish to burrow into your experience or attach myself to the warm and inspiring glow of your legend. No. In essence, what you have become is a special interest for me. I have several of them.

Our project (mine and yours) to make accessible a "true" version of your 1967 season is my attempt to do justice to Dee's unrelenting focus on "Body, Mind, and Spirit." He and I, we lived that creed. Always Faithful.

To me, your triumphs were forged out of Dee Andros' elemental grasp of what a young male hungers for, which is the hard-earned recognition of being a Man among Men. His coaching staff was on that exact same wave length.

Could you have had a more exemplary model for a Man among Men than Rich Brooks? But then, wasn't each of the coaches a teaching force to be reckoned with and learned from? And Ropes? He broke the mold.

GIANT KILLERS Virtual Medallion ropes.pn

GIANT KILLERS Virtual Medallion brooks.p

You made clear that your coaches and Ropes and others were core influences in guiding you along the journey from being boys to growing (by fits and starts) into the early stages of Manhood. These guys, they cared for you.

My feeling is, I could not have made that journey had not my Father (and a few others) kept showing me the way. This was based more on how they behaved than by direct talks about how I should be thinking and acting.

So, that feeling is what solidified my desire to create this website, into writing a screenplay in 2003 about you, and into the video tributes I did in 2007 and 2017. This "re-do" of the website may be my swan song. Or not.