My first sports injury occurred when I was but a lad.  DeFord, his friend Duke Johnson, and I went up to the playground at Highland Park Elementary to play football.  Duke had the ball and was running to score.  I was on him like white on rice and dove to tackle him.  Duke was wearing spikes and as I was tackling him he kicked me in the head and that’s why I have that little knot on the right side of my forehead.

My next sports injury took place in Hawaii.  I was trying out for little league baseball (the Hornets) and was batting for the coach.  The coach’s son was pitching.  I was hitting the ball pretty well.  The coach’s son started throwing faster and harder and threw one right at me.  Rather than stepping back and away, I turning my back and got smacked right in the middle of the back.  It did hurt.

Another injury occurred while at the University of Utah.  I was “talked in” to play rugby for the University’s rugby club by a couple of friends.  I was pretty quick on my feet so they made me the #8 Lock.  I was the last guy in the scrum for all that means to any of you.  Anyway, we were playing BYU’s rugby team.  The ball had gone out of bounds so we had a lineout.  I was the last guy in the line for our team.  The ball was tipped back to the end and I leaped up to grab it.  My arms were outstretched and my mouth was open when I got clothes-lined by a BYU player.  It dislocated my jaw but not too seriously.  I continued to play but was sore for a couple of weeks.

Another injury took place playing donkey basketball at Emery County High School.  I took a header off of the donkey and stretched my arm out to catch my fall and ended up breaking my hammate (?) bone in my hand.  The entire community got a good laugh from Bro. Cochran’s antics.

The last injury I speak of is from sparring at karate.  I had been in several tournaments and done lots of sparring with other dojos and had been hit but never hurt too bad.  I must admit that I did do some damage to others.  In preparation for a tournament, I was sparring with Ed Anderson from our club.  Ed was 6’ 4” tall and really wiry.  He had about a 4” reach on me but I usually handled him.  While sparring with Ed, I decided to do a particular move that we had – a rib thrust – because Ed was vulnerable there.  The problem was that Ed decided to do the same move at the same time.  All of my weight was going forward but I was 4” short.  Ed nailed me.  I ended up cracking a couple of ribs and bruising a couple more.

There have been other injuries playing basketball, baseball, football, rugby, and other sports but they were mainly minor.