January 30, 201511 yr I saw this morning on the Today show and felt it was worth sharing. First Black NFL Draftee George Taliaferro Reunites With High School Rival - NBC News Their friendship was cemented with a handshake on a high-school football field in a segregated steel-mill town — a white player reaching across an invisible barrier to praise his black rival, who would go on to become the first African-American drafted by the NFL. The lives of Carl Biesecker and George Taliaferro would align a number of times after that day in 1944: they both served in World War II, played football for Indiana University as undergraduates, and returned to the school for graduate studies. But time and geography intervened, and before this week, the two old pals had not seen each other in six decades. That all changed a few days ago when, thanks to a program that grants wishes for the elderly, Biesecker and Taliaferro were reunited. Tears and memories flowed like champagne after the Super Bowl as they laid eyes on each other in an Arizona nursing home. "It can't be much better than this," said Taliaferro, 88, who played in the NFL for six years. "God bless you," Biesecker said. "Been a long time, George." The pair first met on a playground in Gary, Indiana, about 30 miles from Chicago, where a sign that ordered blacks to leave after dark illustrated the Jim Crow laws of the time. "The black population lived in their part of town and we lived in our part of town. And when the sun started to set, he headed back to his area. I headed back to my area," Biesecker, 87, said. "And that's the way we grew up." The city's color line extended to the high-school athletic fields. But in 1944, the black school Taliaferro attended, Roosevelt, was allowed to play against all-white Horace Mann, where Biesecker went. Horace Mann won, and at the end of the game, with the fans watching, Biesecker extended his hand to Taliaferro to congratulate him for a game well played.
January 30, 201511 yr Highlight of my week. What a great story. As you age you value those old friends even moreso than when you were 15. Beautiful story.
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