SPORTS 1B THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL » SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2017 COMMERCIALAPPEAL.COM/SPORTS

HORSE RACING COMMENTARY Former Harding Academy player Dick Clinton spent his life encouraging, counseling and lifting up DREAM COME TRUE others. 12th man had the heart of a lion Former teammates honor Clinton’s dedication to others

COLUMNIST GEOFF CALKINS

Dick Clinton had a modest senior year for Harding Academy back in 1976, at least if you look at the num- bers, which I did. He only got into 19 of Harding’s 30 games. He was 1-of-4 for the line, and 6-of-13 from the field. Clinton had four assists, four turnovers, seven steals and 20 re- bounds. His season high was four points. But Friday afternoon at Harding Academy, they handed out a $1,000 scholarship and a new award named after Clinton. Why? “He knew his role, played hard in practice and kept team morale high,” said Tom Murrey, a lawyer at FedEx who was a member of that 1976 team. “He went on to do great things in life and he was the best AP teammate I ever had.” John Velazquez rides Always Dreaming to victory in the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. So let’s hear it for great team- mates this commencement season. Let’s hear it for dedication and work ethic and for those who have fig- Always Dreaming romps through mud in Run for Roses ured out that life is not all about them. This is not to take anything away BETH HARRIS from the valedictorians and the team ASSOCIATED PRESS captains and the class presidents and the record-holders, who will get LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Always Dreaming their well-deserved acclaim. But splashed through the slop to win the Ken- there’s more than one way to have an 3 tucky Derby by 2 ⁄4 lengths on Saturday, impact, as the remarkable life of giving trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Clinton demonstrates. John Velazquez their second victories in “He used to call himself a 20-20 the race but their first together. man,” Murrey said. “He’d get into Pletcher and Velazquez have teamed the game if we were up by 20 or if up often over the years and are the there were 20 seconds left.” sport’s leading money winners. On their Clinton was one of just two sen- own, they were a combined 2 for 63 com- iors on that Harding team. The other ing into America’s greatest race. senior was a starter. Clinton rarely Together, they were unbeatable on a got off the bench. cool and rainy at Churchill Downs. Sent off at 9-2 odds, Always Dreaming See CALKINS, Page 7B made it the fifth straight year that a Der- by favorite has won, the longest such stretch since the 1970s. “He went on to do Always Dreaming was followed across the finish line by a pair of long- MARK ZEROF/USA TODAY SPORTS shots: 33-1 Lookin At Lee and 40-1 Battle John Velazquez aboard Always Dreaming (5) leads the field at the start of the Kentucky Derby great things in life of Midway. on Saurday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. 1 Always Dreaming ran 1 ⁄4 miles in and he was the best 2:03.59 and paid $11.40, $7.20 and $5.80. Lookin At Lee returned $26.60 and Classic Empire finished fourth, fol- Pletcher also trains Tapwrit and teammate I ever $18.20, while Battle of Midway was an- lowed by Practical Joke, Tapwrit, Gun- Patch. other five lengths back in third and paid nevera, McCraken, Gormley and Irish Thunder Snow, the Dubai-based en- had.” $20.80 to show. War Cry. Hence was 11th, followed by try, didn’t finish. He broke poorly out of Pletcher won his first Derby in 2010 Untrapped, Girvin, one-eyed Patch, J the starting gate and began bucking. He TOM MURREY with Super Saver; Velazquez won the fol- Boys Echo, Sonneteer, Fast And Accu- was caught by the outrider and he A LAWYER AT FEDEX WHO WAS A MEMBER OF lowing year with Animal Kingdom. rate, Irap, and State of Honor. walked back to the barn on his own. THAT 1976 TEAM

OLE MISS FOOTBALL Sanogo eager GREG POWERS / SPECIAL TO THE to find his role CLARION-LEDGER Looks to help Rebels’ linebacker unit

ANTONIO MORALES violent of a game. And people told USA TODAY NETWORK – MISSISSIPPI me, ‘No, Mo is bigger. He’s going to be the one hurting kids.’ ” Hamed Sanogo grew up playing soc- It took some time, but Hamed eventu- cer in the Ivory Coast. ally relented and his son morphed into a His love for the game trickled down to three-star linebacker, who will come to his children as well. His oldest child, Ole Miss with some expectations of help- Abdel, plays collegiately at Colgate and ing the Rebels’ linebacker unit, which re- his youngest, Abby-Lee, 12, is off to a fast ceived some reinforcements this past start in her career. recruiting cycle. Then there’s his middle child, Mo- “We see him coming in as a Mike (mid- hamed, who gravitated toward some- dle) or Sam (strong-side linebacker). thing else. We’re going to play a three-linebacker “I didn’t play football. I thought it was defense in certain situations. He would Mohamed Sanogo is expected to too many hits and I was just not attracted fit the role either place,” Ole Miss line- be a middle or strong-side (to it). He wanted to play and I said no,” backers coach Bradley Dale Peveto said. linebacker for Ole Miss. Hamed said.“He asked several times and we wouldn’t do it. I thought it was too See SANOGO, Page 9B The Commercial Appeal Sunday, May 7, 2017 7B

        
     


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entire career, but then he saw things he wanted to fix “He was the real deal. I thought I Calkins beyond Germantown.“ It started with the tsunami in Thailand. A mission- Continued from Page 1B ary friend asked if Clinton would be willing to help. So would work with him my entire Clinton used his vacation time to go to Thailand to look for bodies and clear debris and help rebuild. career, but then he saw things he “You can’t imagine that someone with such small “He went back multiple times,” Kris said. “He was numbers could have such a big impact on a team,” passionate about it. He’d meet all kinds of different wanted to fix beyond Murrey said. “He had this sixth sense, he knew people, and one gentleman asked him if he’d be in- when guys were down. One game, I had 16 points off terested in doing rescue work with human trafficking Germantown.” the bench. The next game, I barely played three in India, Indonesia and Thailand.” minutes and I was upset. He said, `Let’s go out.’ He Naturally, Clinton said yes. So that became his next MIKE GRAY took me out and cheered me up. He was that kind of adventure, his next mission, his next act of service. SERVED ALONGSIDE DICK CLINTON IN GERMANTOWN guy.” Clinton would pose as a client — most of the clients Clinton’s 1976 teammates all have stories like that. were Western men — and transport girls to safe Small stories about Clinton encouraging, or counsel- houses where they could get help. be be the end of this story — you certainly wouldn’t ing, or otherwise lifting them up. So maybe it should “He was the type of person that, no matter where be reading this column— if not for what happened not be a surprise that Clinton spent his life the same you dropped him on the globe, he would like the food, next. way, encouraging and counseling and lifting up. learn the language and fit in just fine,” Kris said. “At The 1976 Harding basketball team decided to honor First, it was as a police officer in Germantown, the end, he was working in Afghanistan with the Clinton. They decided it was their turn to do some- where he worked for 22 years. troops. He did two tours in Afghanistan. He trained thing for the teammate who had done so much for “Eighteen of those years he worked narcotics, the police in Kabul. He learned Farsi. He would do them. undercover,” said Kris Clinton, his wife, who was also anything that had to be done.” “I sent out an email with the idea of creating an aGermantown police officer. “There were numerous And that, of course, is the common thread in all award and a scholarship,” said Murrey. “Everyone people that he arrested, that he put in jail, that would this. The qualities that made Dick Clinton the best immediately said, `No question, I’m in.’” thank him. Because not only would he arrest them, he 12th man are the same things that made him the best So Friday afternoon at Harding, a senior basket- would mentor them. We’d get cards from the people man, period. He realized the surest way to have an ball player named Collin Anderson won the first he helped.” impact on the Harding basketball team was to put “Dick Clinton Heart of a Lion Award and Schol- Mike Gray served alongside Clinton in German- aside his ego and help the people around him. Then he arship.” Everyone said Clinton would have been town. realized the same thing about life. pleased. Not necessarily because his modest bas- “When I’m stumped a lot of times I still think, Clinton was preparing to go back overseas in 2011 ketball career was remembered all these years `How would Dick handle this?’” Gray said. “He was when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He later, but because that scholarship will help some- the real deal. I thought I would work with him my died six months later, at the age of 53. And that would one else.