By Jay Jones, August 4, 2008
Today at the University of Oregon’s Media Day, I had the chance meet, and interview, any Duck on the football team.
But it’s the Duck I met yesterday that was still on my mind.
You could have called it a media day, of sorts. There was a book signing at Borders in Eugene earlier in the day. Afterwards, it was more of a backyard-family-barbecue that followed, than a fully catered media event.
Sure, there were lots of Ducks in attendance. But only one of them was answering questions and signing autographs. And he was the one I wanted to meet.
Sgt. Don Malarkey. Oregon ‘49.
As a member of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Sgt. Malarkey spent more days in combat during World War II than anyone else in the most recognized fighting unit in American history.
That’s E Company, as in Easy Company. And that’s Easy Company, as in Band of Brothers.
If you haven’t read Stephen Ambrose’s book or watched the Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks produced mini-series, I would strongly encourage you to do one or the other, preferably both. In my experience, watching the mini-series sets a good frame of reference to be filled in by the details of the book.
But if you have read the book or seen the mini-series and you’re a Duck fan, you might remember one particular incident involving a captured German soldier from Eugene. And you might also remember what happened to him and his men.
One of the American soldiers involved in that episode was Sgt. Malarkey. And things didn’t quite happen the way they were portrayed in the mini-series.
Now you can read Mr. Malarkey’s account of his experiences in World War II in his memoir, “Easy Company Soldier”, with The Register-Guard’s Bob Welch.
I’ve met my share of celebrities. I’ve shaken the hands of famous politicians. I can even call some current, and former, professional athletes friends, and family.
But I’ve never met anyone in my life whose accomplishments can bring a tear to my eye.
Until I met Mr. Malarkey.
This member of The Greatest Generation did nothing short of help save the 20th Century.
Sgt. Don Malarkey sitting on a Unversity of Oregon quilt, signing books.
Sgt. Malarkey reminded me a bit of my grandfathers, World War II veterans and members of The Greatest Generation.
But neither of them were in Easy Company.
And neither of them were Ducks.
So, while I’m sure I’ll have plenty more opportunities to ask Oregon athletes questions, I don’t think I’ll remember any of those answers to pass along to my grandchildren.
Instead, I think I’ll tell them the answers I heard to questions about Eisenhower, Patton, and Captain Ronald Spiers.
Because the memory of Sgt. Malarkey, and men like him, his Band of Brothers, will probably still be on my mind.
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Tags: Band of Brothers, Bob Welch, Don Malarkey, Ducks, Easy Company, Easy Company Soldier, University of Oregon, World War II
Marshall Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Im definitely going to go buy this book. Ive not only spent about 70 hours watching Band Of Brothers, but ive read the book, and also Biggest Brother, the Story of Dick Winters. Malarkey was my favorite of the characters, I think I also remember Eisenhower (I think) asking Malarkey about who won the Oregon - Oregon State game one year.. A great hero inside a band of many.
Shaun Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 7:48 am
There will never be another generation of Americans like this one. We all owe them everything we have today in gratitude.
Hank Hosfield Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
It’s ironic, as we both honor and lament the passing of the Greatest Generation, that so many of us pay lip service to the values they sacrificed everything to uphold, yet seem so willing to forsake when push comes to shove, illustrated by our inexorable acquiescence to even stand up against something as trivial as the false promises and corruptive influence of big time college athletics. Heroic idealism is virtually unknown among the current generation. It’s not that we don’t know right from wrong; we’re just unwilling to fight for our beliefs, not when it’s so much easier to make rationalizations and go with the comfortable flow.
David C. Nelson Says:
August 6th, 2008 at 10:30 am
A couple of years before the Greatest Generation went off to war, the University of Oregon won the first NCAA men’s basketball championship with a starting five composed of four Oregonians and one Washingtonian.
Many later served in the Second World War. John Dick rose to the rank of rear admiral and Laddie Gall became the first Oregonian drafted for the war by the newly instituted lottery system.
They played in an era when coaches recruited their own state for talent, coached it for the best results they could get, and then sent their players back home, with diploma in hand, to build up the state whose taxpayers had subsidized their education.
I wonder what members of the Greatest Generation think of players who are recruited from afar, exhaust their eligibility or turn pro early without graduating, and who serve as a test bed for a sports apparel company, the founder of which wields a degree of influence over the university unheard of in their era.
I wonder what the average World War II-era player would think of master’s degrees in sports marketing, training rooms with waterfalls and juice bars, and Civil Wars sponsored by Dodge dealers.