St Elmo's Fire

Sport has an incredible way of turning unknowns into superstars, heroes into villains, the famous into infamy but once in a while sport does trascend all the virtues of what its meant to achieve excite, elate, sadden, disappoint, and shock, then it goes round all over again. Once in while it becomes the very basis upon which men, women and children are viewed and judged on a political platform. The most disconcerting of all is when sport becomes a powerful tool which splits a country along racial lines.

This has been prevalent for many years in America with the likes of the 1962 Heavyweight Gold Medalist Muhammad Ali originally known by his 'slave name' Cassius Clay, former NFL star and Hall of Famer OJ Sipmson spring to mind.

Down under we have a sporting star simply known as The Man and he has tormentend the hearts of a nation for so long with loud mouth opinionated antics which havent won him any friends at all except those of his colour who have always been protective of their own regardless of their shortcomings. This man has had stellar careers in two very high profile sports which have been heavily dominated by the white majority but he has managed to reach the pinnacle at different times of both sport yet still very proud and constantly acknowledging his heritage.
He was simply the best as a Rugby League star and later became and still is a World Boxing, all this with the full knowledge that very few people wanted or better still beleived he could do it. So he tormented them , told them he was the best and followed that up by proving he was the best in both sports. He talks faster than he can punch and even then its too late for the opponents never see it coming.
He has embraced the under dog tag for so long and yet plenty of times this tag brought victory, recognition and yet even more fury from those who resent who he is and what he stands for.Many have wished the worst but have probably all colluded in bringing the best out of him. At a time when very little of any good is mentioned about the Aboriginal Communities of Australia it is fair to say he is a demi-god in showing the path way upon which many of his creed should follow.He is the ultimate underdog who draws strength from being denied the recognition that he so fully deserves.
His name is Anthony 'The Man' Mundine