March 21, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Friday, March 21.
Does the name Vinko Bogataj ring any bells? No? Well, if you’re over 40, I’ll wager you’ve seen him on your TV, perhaps hundreds of times. On March 21, 1970, he was representing Yugoslavia in a ski jumping competition, and spectacularly... crashed. The ABC show “Wide World of Sports”, which came on every Saturday afternoon for over 30 years, always began with this striking introduction, voiced by sportscaster Jim McKay. “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.” And during that final phrase we would always see the video of poor Vinko careening down that hill.
ABC decided to have a big 30th anniversary broadcast. They tracked down the hapless ski jumper, and were surprised to discover that Vinko had no idea that his really bad moment had become so famous. I guess ABC isn’t too popular in Yugoslavia. They arranged to fly him to New York, but on his way to the airport, he was in a minor car accident. He would tell reporters later, “Every time I’m on ABC, I crash!” After a pretty successful career as an athlete, he became a very successful coach, a celebrated painter, and a beloved husband and father.
Vinko Bogataj didn’t let his one moment of defeat become the theme of his life. Even though, every Saturday afternoon, we winced at his “agony”, Vinko chose to get back up - after recovering from a broken ankle and a slight concussion - and made a good life for himself. Each of us has had moments of failure, times when we did the wrong thing, or failed to do the right thing. And the Bible is filled with “failures” - characters like Abraham, Moses, Jonah, David, Peter, Paul. You could name practically any significant biblical person, and find a record of mistakes, of failure, of defeat. But God is a God of second chances. He was for them... and He is for us.
Meet you back here on Monday,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
