Columbus Dispatch – August 1, 2014 pg. C1-C10
Honored vet thrived on challenges Rob Oller
The retired speed bag hangs illuminated inside its own glassed-in enclosure at the Columbus Athletic Club, a tribute to Dan Carmichael, who hit people not with his hands but with his humility.
Carmichael, who died yesterday in Columbus at age 95, could have stood in the middle of a party room and regaled his audience with stories of how he was the winning pitcher for the Princeton baseball team in the first televised sporting event, a 2-1 win over Columbia in 1939.
If he wanted, the 1936 Columbus Academy graduate could have bragged about how he won the Ohio Amateur golf championship in 1960, or how at age 77 he won an open-wheel race — the Formula Atlantic national championship — at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington in 1995.
And if those accomplishments did not impress you, Carmichael could pile it on with pilot stories from WWII, when as a Navy airman he was credited with shooting down 13 enemy aircraft. One air battle, in particular, is both riveting and enlightening in the way Carmichael graciously complimented even those who meant him harm.
“I had my hands full and this fella was making runs on me, attacks on me,” Carmichael said in a 2010 Veterans Day video shot by Academy student Elizabeth Vaziri. “He would use what we call a beautiful overhead run. He was a very good pilot.”
Carmichael survived the dogfight and safely crash-landed his damaged F6F Hellcat fighter plane onto an aircraft carrier.
As he once said, “I never got shot down. I just got shot up.”
So Carmichael could have puffed his chest and challenged anyone to top his achievements. But he never did. Instead, the humble architect challenged only himself, and by doing so inspired others to aim higher.
“I became a better person just by being around Dan,” said longtime friend Tom Lynch, who got his butt kicked by Carmichael in handball — and pretty much everything else — despite being 20 years younger.
Back to the speed bag: As a 6-foot-1, 175-pound all-around athlete, Carmichael was into cross-training before it became fashionable, using one pursuit to benefit another. The mental discipline required for golf helped calm him on the pitcher’s mound. And while he did not box, pummeling a speed bag helped maintain the hand-eye coordination necessary for his later love of racing cars at 165 mph.
“I can still hear it,” friend Bob Schmitz said of the thump, thump, thump coming from the bag as Carmichael’s fists flailed away.
Another friend, Jim Merkel, still marvels at how an elderly Carmichael smacked the leather when men half his age would not dare try it.
“He’s the only guy at the club who could make that bag hum,” Merkel said.
The takeaway worth noting, beyond Carmichael having the modesty not to trumpet his own successes, is that he mastered multiple pursuits. Variety produces in the participant a perspective that appreciates the mechanics of rebounding a basketball, the fortitude to race a snowmobile 120 mph over ice and the understanding of the best angles by which to beat an opponent in handball.
Unlike many of today’s high-schoolers who focus on one sport, Carmichael earned 16 letters in football, basketball, baseball and golf at Academy, then excelled in basketball, baseball and golf at Princeton from 1937 to ’41.
That kind of across-the-board success deserves a special respect that often eludes those whose feats are more focused on a single athletic endeavor.
And still, Carmichael’s greatest attribute was his strong character: a mix of kindness, fairness and integrity.
“Straight as an arrow,” Merkel said.
Carmichael’s son, Dan, shared how his dad fought hard to stay alive over the past week, comparing the struggle to “falling from his fighter plane through the air, pistols in both hands still shooting at the enemy.”
For Carmichael, his was always an inner fight. No antipathy toward others. And yet few who came into contact with him came away untouched. The man left a mark.
Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dispatch. roller@dispatch.com
In 2013 Dan Carmichael received the Silver Star for his actions as a fighter pilot in WWII.
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Honored vet thrived on challenges Rob Oller
The retired speed bag hangs illuminated inside its own glassed-in enclosure at the Columbus Athletic Club, a tribute to Dan Carmichael, who hit people not with his hands but with his humility.
Carmichael, who died yesterday in Columbus at age 95, could have stood in the middle of a party room and regaled his audience with stories of how he was the winning pitcher for the Princeton baseball team in the first televised sporting event, a 2-1 win over Columbia in 1939.
If he wanted, the 1936 Columbus Academy graduate could have bragged about how he won the Ohio Amateur golf championship in 1960, or how at age 77 he won an open-wheel race — the Formula Atlantic national championship — at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington in 1995.
And if those accomplishments did not impress you, Carmichael could pile it on with pilot stories from WWII, when as a Navy airman he was credited with shooting down 13 enemy aircraft. One air battle, in particular, is both riveting and enlightening in the way Carmichael graciously complimented even those who meant him harm.
“I had my hands full and this fella was making runs on me, attacks on me,” Carmichael said in a 2010 Veterans Day video shot by Academy student Elizabeth Vaziri. “He would use what we call a beautiful overhead run. He was a very good pilot.”
Carmichael survived the dogfight and safely crash-landed his damaged F6F Hellcat fighter plane onto an aircraft carrier.
As he once said, “I never got shot down. I just got shot up.”
So Carmichael could have puffed his chest and challenged anyone to top his achievements. But he never did. Instead, the humble architect challenged only himself, and by doing so inspired others to aim higher.
“I became a better person just by being around Dan,” said longtime friend Tom Lynch, who got his butt kicked by Carmichael in handball — and pretty much everything else — despite being 20 years younger.
Back to the speed bag: As a 6-foot-1, 175-pound all-around athlete, Carmichael was into cross-training before it became fashionable, using one pursuit to benefit another. The mental discipline required for golf helped calm him on the pitcher’s mound. And while he did not box, pummeling a speed bag helped maintain the hand-eye coordination necessary for his later love of racing cars at 165 mph.
“I can still hear it,” friend Bob Schmitz said of the thump, thump, thump coming from the bag as Carmichael’s fists flailed away.
Another friend, Jim Merkel, still marvels at how an elderly Carmichael smacked the leather when men half his age would not dare try it.
“He’s the only guy at the club who could make that bag hum,” Merkel said.
The takeaway worth noting, beyond Carmichael having the modesty not to trumpet his own successes, is that he mastered multiple pursuits. Variety produces in the participant a perspective that appreciates the mechanics of rebounding a basketball, the fortitude to race a snowmobile 120 mph over ice and the understanding of the best angles by which to beat an opponent in handball.
Unlike many of today’s high-schoolers who focus on one sport, Carmichael earned 16 letters in football, basketball, baseball and golf at Academy, then excelled in basketball, baseball and golf at Princeton from 1937 to ’41.
That kind of across-the-board success deserves a special respect that often eludes those whose feats are more focused on a single athletic endeavor.
And still, Carmichael’s greatest attribute was his strong character: a mix of kindness, fairness and integrity.
“Straight as an arrow,” Merkel said.
Carmichael’s son, Dan, shared how his dad fought hard to stay alive over the past week, comparing the struggle to “falling from his fighter plane through the air, pistols in both hands still shooting at the enemy.”
For Carmichael, his was always an inner fight. No antipathy toward others. And yet few who came into contact with him came away untouched. The man left a mark.
Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dispatch. roller@dispatch.com
In 2013 Dan Carmichael received the Silver Star for his actions as a fighter pilot in WWII.
and open this up...
http://ift.tt/1ou5ror
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