via USALacrosse.com, by Justin Feil, on November 14th, 2024 (photo by AP Content)

FLN: Came across this today and it’s a great read for a 100-year-old man who played in the 1948 Olympics!

Excerpt:

Bill Coleman stores his 1948 Olympic Games medal for lacrosse in his sock drawer. Alongside it rests an Eagle Scout award, some reading glasses and various household items.

It’s a humble collection considering the 100-year-old Coleman is something of a Forrest Gump figure (minus the cross-country running) deserving of his own movie based on the true story.

Coleman scored the first goal for the United States in a 5-5 tie with Great Britain that earned every player a medal the last time lacrosse was a part of the Olympics. It came three years after he became licensed to fly P-47 Thunderbolts in World War II, and before he graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and became a successful entrepreneur in the fiberglass industry, championship-level college lacrosse referee, avid sailor and skier, passionate pianist, a husband of 71 years to wife Billie and playful parent and grandparent.

“If he hadn’t achieved all of these incredible things in his life — especially with the 1948 Olympic lacrosse team and being this go-to referee for college lacrosse for decades — he very much could have been a mayor or a governor,” said his grandson, Chris Potter. “He’s just a person who everybody wants to be around.”

Coleman, who turned 100 in August, is the last living player from the 1948 Games, when lacrosse was included as a demonstration sport in London, England. He has a great sense of humor and a sharp mind that can circle back to details of those days three-quarters of a century ago. He went up in a plane a year ago at age 99 as a passenger, and he still plays the piano every day, though some of his fingers have lost feeling from years of working with fiberglass.

Read the rest HERE