wierwille's imaginary sports career.

[WordWolf]

This is a recap of what's been said before.

If you were in twi long enough when vpw was alive,

you heard claims passed around about vpw's supposed athletics history.

Eventually, he had people believing he invented the "hook shot"

(According to Wikipedia, the first OFFICIAL uses were in the 1930s

in Europe.) He certainly had people thinking he was a Varsity

Basketball player in college, and a professional for a time after

college.

The funny thing is, he got people to believe that by not actually

saying it. He INSINUATED that he did both. He phrased himself

very carefully- he never actually SAID either, but he used the

words that would give people the IMPRESSION that he had said so.

Let's review what it said in the book-long advertisement known

as "the Way-Living in Love"...pg-174.

(reviewed in the thread, "the Way: Living in Wonderland")

"I played basketball all through college and was even involved

in the pro-team, the Sheboygan Redskins. "

Now, that's the entire claim.

People have come away from that, thinking, logically, that he said

he was on the college varsity team and played for the

Sheboygan Redskins.

He said he "played basketball all through college."

Someone found photos of his high school team, and he was on that.

Nobody's found any evidence he was ever on the college varsity team.

But his claim doesn't mention any TEAM for college, just that he

played all through college. If he showed up and shot hoops with

his friends once a season, he "played all through college."

vpw was also fond of claiming every title to which he was entitled,

claiming it was the best, then adding false claims on top of those.

If he HAD been on his varsity team, he would have been specific

about that and not been so deceptively vague.

Logically, the reason there's no evidence he was ever on their team

is the same reason he never claimed he actually PLAYED on the team-

he never actually PLAYED on the team.

As for the Sheboygan Redskins,

he never played for them either- and never ACTUALLY claimed he did.

He was "involved in" their team. That's as specific as he got.

The WATERBOY is "involved in" the team. The team dietician is

"involved in" the team. The reporter who covers the team is

"involved in" the team.

A poster here did some research on that team.

"Here's what I know about that:

The Sheboygan Redskins began play in 1938 and were members of the National Basketball

League, which featured, among others besides the Redskins, the Akron Firestone Non-Skids,

the Cleveland White Horses, the Toledo Jeeps and the Indianapolis Kautskys.

The NBL existed until 1949, when it merged with the Basketball Association of America

to form the modern NBA. Shebyogan played one season in the new league before folding

their tent permanently in 1950.

Now, according to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Association for Professional

Basketball Research, nobody by the name of "Wierwille" ever played a game for Sheboygan,

the NBL, or any other professional basketball league going back to the very first one,

the National Basketball League, which started in 1898."

Again, no evidence he played for them- which should not be a surprise,

since he never actually CLAIMED he played for them.

He made the vague comments and counted on people to misunderstand, and pass around

the misinformation.

Oh, one other thing I found about that.

Someone published something with an obvious error.

Someone wrote an anti-cult paper online, and in it is the sole claim

in print that vpw played for the Sheboygan Redskins.

What was their source? The book "the Way: Living in Love."

(They footnoted correctly.)

In other words, the only place where a claim was ever officially made

that vpw played for the Sheboygan Redskins was from someone

who read " was even involved

in the pro-team, the Sheboygan Redskins"

and announced from that that he played for them.

I saw someone later quote the paper- but the paper was in error

and it is easy to catch when all the data's lined up.

[WordWolf]

For fun, I once took an informal poll around the GSC.

After all, we've had claims that vpw was some sort of EXCEPTIONAL

athlete, and a PROFESSIONAL athlete, at times.

Well, the "professional" part was nothing but smoke, and we can

see that clearly from here.

As for "exceptional", he was nothing of the kind among the

ex-twi crowd. His "athletic career" stopped short of both

a varsity team position and an amateur athlete competitive

hobby on the side. We ended up with about 1/3 of the respondents

having at least "played all through college" or having played

an equivalent amount after, or on a JV team,

with another 1/3 of respondents EXCEEDING his accomplishments,

either by performing on the Varsity team in college,

or with national competitions outside of school as an amateur.

So,

it should be clear to any REASONABLE readers that vpw was hardly

a noteworthy athlete by the time he entered college,

having not even lettered in his chosen sport.

However, the myth of the man, the bs, paints him as an accomplished

athlete at the collegiate level and beyond,

and a few people still depict him as some sort of "over-gifted"

athlete with an "overabundance" of brawn.

[waysider]

Maybe he was the team Dr.

[chockfull]

small town jv player "invents" the hook shot. don't even think kareem abdul jabbar claimed that. he had a few more points.

[Bolshevik]

VPW wasn't the first minister to have a huge influence in the sports arena. Did you know that Cotton Mather invented the wrecking ball?