LSU will play Ohio State for the college football national championship in January. In the interest of "undermining stereotypes," it's worth pointing out that the LSU Tigers' #1 running back, Jacob Hester, is white.
Hester's not a superstar, but he is the main ball carrier (with twice the yardage, 1017, of anybody else) on a team that's been at or close to #1 all season. In LSU's biggest games, he's been at his best, rushing for 120 yards in the SEC title game yesterday against Tennessee and 106 yards (and something like five first downs on fourth down) against 2006 national champion Florida.
The LSU website's biography of Hester, written before this season when he emerged as the mainstay of the running game, says:
Consummate team player who wears a variety of hats... Brings a great attitude and work ethic to the field everyday ... Can play both tailback and fullback, while also serving on special teams ... A throwback player who gets the most out of his ability ... Tremendous blocker as well ... Has 30 special teams tackles for his career ...
Born May 8, 1985, in Shreveport ... Married the former Katie Tilley on July 28, 2007... Proposed outside War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock moments after LSU’s 31-26 win over the Razorbacks in 2006 ... Loves to listen to Elvis and Dean Martin ... Part of his pre-game ritual is to listen to an Elvis CD ... Is a relative of former Pittsburgh Steeler great Terry Bradshaw ... Majoring in sports studies.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
Any relation to this Hester?
ReplyDeletehttp://czabe.com/daily/archives/picoday_devin_hester_ride.jpg
"Sports studies" is a major?
ReplyDeleteSports studies is probably a good major for a future high school football coach.
ReplyDeleteThat bio is full of all the cliches that are always used to describe(and put down) white athletes.
ReplyDeleteSports studies isn't really a good major for a future high school football coach; in most areas, high school coaches have to be able to teach something in addition to coaching, and "sports studies" doesn't sound like anything that was offered in my high school. IMO, that sounds more like a future college football coach (where the coaches don't have to be able to teach anything.)
ReplyDeleteIf you are a hard core nerd who never really played athletics, as I believe most of the respondents to this site are, then you seriously underestimate the usefulness of intellect in playing sports.
ReplyDeleteThe segregation of playing positions in college and pro football is a serious mistake on the part of coaches who've bought into the notion that raw speed is the only attribute necessary for playing running back, wide receiver and defensive back.
Raw speed is not the only attribute necessary for these positions. Remember Fred Belitnikoff? Paul Hornung? Do you think that white guys of comparative skill don't exist today?
The segregation starts very early in sports and builds as athletes move up the ladder.
Negative attitudes within the white community play into this. White guys are not being raised now to duke it out, as they were when I was a kid. Blacks are not going to back down until you show them that you are willing to duke it out. White guys are being raised to be pussies.
Hester is not just a straight ahead back. He's got moves.
Wow. He looks just like my pro-soccer player uncle would have at that age if he'd been stretched a few inches laterally. Same eyes, same expression... Isn't it interesting how certain "types" pop up?
ReplyDeleteMy uncle's #29 in this photo, which, if you look closely at the other players, shows how overwhelmingly English the NASL was, and possibly why it was never that popular.
Another example of a type would be 16 and 17 in the photo. Classic long-faced Englishman type, which you don't see much of here in the US for some reason.
Young white athletes with speed and coordination are moving into sports such as soccer, lacrosse and even hockey in huge numbers.
ReplyDeleteThat is, if they aren't already playing baseball.
White kids look at college/pro football and basketball and realize there is no place for them in those sports.
It's not something anyone talks about ... just a natural "self-selection" that occurs in elementary school.
Of course soccer and hockey -- like baseball -- are investing millions of dollars trying to make themselves more "diverse" because every knows that a mostly white sport must be racist.
Most of the black RB's in the NFL aren't blindingly fast. The argument that all NFL ball carriers are black due to the slight advantage in sprinting speed black Americans have over white Americans breaks down when you look at the actual 40 times of individual players.
ReplyDeleteSteve wrote: "In the interest of "undermining stereotypes," it's worth pointing out that the LSU Tigers' #1 running back, Jacob Hester, is white."
ReplyDeleteWhy not write about Hester "in the interest" of giving a little play to a white brother?
Just cause you're a fairly wide read white guy you don't have to always be so deracinated that you can't pull for a guy just because he's part of your "extremely extended family."
You go on and on about behavioral tendencies of the different races and the politics of race loyalty, how about expressing some of that humananity for one of your own. It's not like you're going to get canned from your job for it.
Usually when a black writer is writing about some special accomplishment of another black you can tell there's a sense of pride or identification with the other guy but it seems when whites write about the accomplishments of other whites it's either done with cold dispassionate language or depreciating commentary.
Where's the PASSION!!!!
Maybe I'm on crack or something, but from that photo it seems pretty obvious to me that I'm related to Hester. I don't look that much like him, but my uncle sure does (am I wrong?).
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, I looked it up, and the Hesters are from Yorkshire. Sure enough, the only English I know of in my family (we're mainly Scottish, Scots-Irish and Welsh on that side), were from Yorkshire.
Well, go get 'em cuz.
This genealogy thing is great fun. My wife's surname originates in the Orkney Islands, so I get to call her an "orc".
House of names is unreliable, it's grossly inaccurate and intended to sell some sort of product. There is no such thing as a "family crest" for a start, armorial bearings are not associated with surnames.
ReplyDeleteThe following information derives from research by University College London. The surname search used to be on their spatial-literact page and I think the research was intended to study population movements.
http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/Map.aspx?name=HESTER&year=1998&altyear=1881&country=GB&type=name
http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/Map2.aspx?name=HESTER&year=1998&altyear=1881&country=GB&type=name
As you can see in 1881 the Hesters seem to be concentrated to the west of London.
Please do not place your trust in sellers of snake-oil who are doubtless trying to sell you fake armorial bearings or the pseudo-title of "lord of the manor" or such sillyness.
Please do not place your trust in sellers of snake-oil who are doubtless trying to sell you fake armorial bearings or the pseudo-title of "lord of the manor" or such sillyness.
ReplyDelete-anon
Haha. I don't plan on giving them any money, but it's good to know it's a fraud I suppose.
I was talking to my aunt the other day, and she said she didn't know where here great grandfather was born, so I suggested going through the Mormons to find out. The best piece of genealogical work I have is a book on my family written in the 1950s that traces our lineage from a 1610 Jamestown settler. However, there are still gaps to fill in, especially around the Civil War, when everything seems to have broken down for a couple of decades in the South. All I know about that time is that my family ended up in Nevada somehow shortly after the Civil War, in the same town Mark Twain did incidentally.
"that traces our lineage from a 1610 Jamestown settler. However, there are still gaps to fill in,"
ReplyDeleteIn reality you can only trace your lineage back to the first gap. You can't "skip over" gaps if you're serious about genealogy. ;)
In reality you can only trace your lineage back to the first gap. You can't "skip over" gaps if you're serious about genealogy. ;)
ReplyDelete-durango
I know, that's actually what I was asking my aunt about. I can only sort of justify skipping the gap because my great-grandfather was named after one of the guys in the book I have, and his father (allegedly) came from the same place. But the guy he was named after was a very popular southern politician and general (not a Forrest -- that's my mom's family), so the name might simply have been a popular one at the time.
But I still need to make a trip to Salt Lake City! Those Mormons hold the key. I do remember from a trip as a little kid that some of the really old folks in the Virginia City area remembered my grandpa. They called him "Billy".