2010-11-16-Yes You Can · Web viewYes You Can: Harry Cordellos Tells How! Presented by Harry Cordellos Moderated by Billy Brookshire November 16, 2010 Billy Brookshire Folks, you

2010-11-16-Yes You Can

Seminars@Hadley

Yes You Can: Harry Cordellos Tells How!

Presented by Harry Cordellos

Moderated byBilly Brookshire

November 16, 2010

Billy BrookshireFolks, you are going to so enjoy the presentation this morning. I’ve enjoyed visiting with Harry leading up to the presentation. I was aware of him some years ago when he did a film called Survival Run and I also read his book called No Limits. I’d recommend both of those things, especially No Limits. I think it will give you a different look on life, especially those of you who are already physically involved, and there are a lot of them on the phone here doing lots of different kinds of activity; running and triathlons and all kinds of things.

Presenter today, Harry Cordellos is a public speaker and a world class athlete. And I don’t want to use or waste a whole lot of his time, so I’m going to give the

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mic over to Harry. Just if you will, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, something about where you grew up, how did you become blind, where did you go to school, a little bit about your parents maybe, and I’ll turn you lose. Go for it Harry.

Harry CordellosI’m Harry Cordellos. I live just north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. I was born in 1937. That means in a few days I’ll be 73. I was born totally blind with glaucoma. I had eight surgeries before I was a year old that gave my partial vision, which lasted until my teenage years. Then I had six more surgeries and we lost the battle. I went to Sight Saving Classes through grade school and junior high when I had partial vision. I went to San Francisco’s George Washington High School in a regular class and had a lot of trouble with the reading and all that, but I did graduate.

Then through the California Orientation Center for the Blind, where I learned how to use a cane and do all the blind skills, just before total blindness hit me again. Since then I went to college at City College in San Francisco, Cal State University in Hayward just across the Bay and then I worked for eight years with the Bay Area Rapid Transit as an Information Clerk.



Since 1982 I have been self-employed as a motivational speaker.

Billy BrookshireThank you Harry. Tell me a little bit about how you got interested in, what turned the corner for you, what got you interested in physical activities?

Harry CordellosWell I always wanted to do physical activities, but in addition to my eye problem I had a heart murmur which restricted me from all physical activity. I outgrew that and of course my parents knew nothing about rehabilitation. We had never even heard the word rehab or orientation center. And a friend of ours came into my father’s restaurant at the amusement park in San Francisco and wanted to know why I hadn’t gone through rehabilitation.

You asked me earlier about my parents, I didn’t cover that part. Actually my mother was born in San Francisco. She has German background. And my dad came from Greece and he came over when he was 16 years old and eventually got into the restaurant business at San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach’ it was a famous amusement park until 1970.



But I knew nothing about rehabilitation and the Orientation Center turned the page for me. I figured it all started on a weekend outing at the Orientation Center. We went to a lake in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and on Don Pedro Lake at 10:00 in the morning, August the 17th, 1958 my teacher, my shop instructor from the Orientation Center put a handle in my hand and he said “When you’re ready yell hit it.” And I did and I became a water skier. And at that very moment, everything that’s bad about being blind was left on the shores of Don Pedro Lake.

Water skiing led to bowling, 10 pin bowling. Swimming; I actually learned how to swim at the age of 27. Springboard diving, golf, ice skating, marathon running, triathaloning; I have just become an animal in sports. I love just about every sport I’ve ever tried.

Billy BrookshireIt’s amazing Harry, that this didn’t start until you were 27 years old. And I know water skiing was kind of the first thing you did, can you tell me a little bit about what you’ve done in the water skiing world.

Harry CordellosWell after learning to hang on for my life behind that boat at Don Pedro Lake, I thought I’m not the kind of a water skier that would ever appear in the famous



show in Cypress Gardens, Florida, but today I’m a water skier and someday I’m going to be a darn good one. And if you told me back then that I would take second place in the world in the Disable Water Ski Competition, or that I would not only go to Cypress Gardens, I would ski there as a guest, and I became the first blind person to ever fly the Air Chair; that’s a water ski with a hydrofoil on it and you’re strapped into it with a heavy duty seat belt sitting on a seat tower above the ski and when you’re flying you’re about two to three feet above the water just to the underside of the ski. So you’re sitting quite a bit higher.

And as well as skiing slalom around the show stadium, I was invited three times to be in the grand finale of the show, which is a human pyramid; the highest one in the world of water skiing. We had four layers of skiers piled up on top of each other standing on each other’s shoulders and I was the anchor man on the lower right corner. I had to push against the pyramid to keep them from collapsing.

They could have had all kinds of excuses why I couldn’t do it, but they allowed me to put on a costume and get out behind the stadium and when the boat started we came into the stadium, the girls climbed up, they were waving the American Flag at



the top of the pyramid. And I was not a guest before the show; I was in the grand finale of the Cypress Gardens Water Ski Show. So that, along with learning how to go over the water ski jump, and learning trick skiing and learning slalom on the single ski, my life is built around water skiing. Billy BrookshireHarry you told me a story, since we started putting this together, about the first time you skied in a grand finale that I think is just phenomenal. Would you share that with the audience?

Harry CordellosDo we have five days?

Billy BrookshireNo, I think we’ve got plenty of time though, go for it.

Harry CordellosI had gone down there several times as a guest and since the show is all choreographed right to the down beat and they know when each boat will start up its engine according to the music, I don’t do the same things they do. So they would have me do a pre-show. I’d come out and ski before the show. But when the show director asked me to be in the grand finale I said “Wait a minute, you guys practice. I can’t



even see where I’m going and you want me to ski with 11 other skiers and a pyramid?”

She said “Don’t worry. We’ll practice between shows.” Well this was the 2:00 show and I was supposed to ski at 4:00. Well half way between the shows a man took me out behind the show stadium and he had a girl on his shoulders sitting there and we made a start, just like we would in the pyramid. It was a sloppy start; I almost fell down, but he said “Don’t worry you’ll make it.”

So when we skied the course, we came in and were supposed to jump out of our skis and run up on the stage to acknowledge the crowd. Well I didn’t want to run into the stage with my face, so I leaned back and that was wrong because I fell and went under the water. He said “Don’t worry. If you ski the pyramid we don’t care if you fall. Let’s do it.”

So the 4:00 show started. I did my Air Chair before the show. And then half way through the show a man came up to me and he said “Come on down to the Ready Room. We want to fit you for a costume.” And I thought they’re really going to do this. So we went down there and they put me in a robe that went from my neck all the way down to my feet; it was bright blue with sequins sparkling all over it. And then we



went out behind the stadium. And everything down there worked like a clock.

They had six pair of water skis lined up on the dock. Somebody came out with a hose and washed them down so they’d be slippery. And then the men came out and they hosed down our feet so they’d be slipper and slimy and we could get them in those rubber boots. And we all sat on the dock with our feet dangling over. We were probably still a foot off the water.

You have to realize in California we cannot legally water ski near the beach. You have to be 100 feet out unless you’re in a private lake. So, without ever doing a seated start from a dock, I was expected to get up on those skis and be in the grand finale. If I messed up they’d have to drop somebody else off to keep the pyramid even, or they’d have to start the thing all over again and break the momentum of the show.

For those people who have never been to Cypress Gardens, it starts out at a wild pace and it keeps building and building until they bring out the pyramid at the end of the show. Well we were all in position, somebody came by and gave us each a specially color coded robe, because everyone in the pyramid



has a different length robe because of the angles and they have to make sure that you’re in the right place. We sat there and when the rope started going out the man next to me said “Let the coils out and when I tell you to throw it, let go of it.”

So they went out one, two, three, four, five, six, seven he says “Brent, final seconds.” I asked him “Are we in the stadium yet?” He said “We just entered the stadium. The girls are climbing up.” He said “Lean a little to the left; we’re doing great.” Then what seemed just seconds later he said “Okay, we’re turning for the grand stand. Put on a big smile. The girls are at the top of the pyramid waving the flag.” And we went by the stands.

And at that moment, if I hit the winning homerun in baseball in the World Series I wouldn’t have been more happy and proud. When we came around for the final turn, he said “Okay, we’re going to drop off.” And he pushed me out over the wake behind the boat and he said “Three, two, one, let go.” So I slid in and I thought I will not fall this time. I leaned forward, bounced on the beach, jumped out of the skis, we jumped up on the stage, waved towards them and then all the people that were in the pyramid ran over to make a receiving line by the stadium to greet the people as they left.



And when all the excitement was over I reached down and touched my uniform and it was wet from the top of the pants cuffs down to my feet; everything else was bone dry. If I had 20/20 vision I could have not done a better job. And when I think back on that experience it really made me know why we called my book No Limits. Because nobody could give a better example of believing there are no limits then the people at Cypress Gardens.

If I messed up the whole show would have gone flat and there would have been a delay. They believed I could to it and we did it; not once, but on three separate occasions, and it was successful every time.

Billy BrookshireWell belief and expectation are powerful things Harry. I just love that story. And I know our time is going to run out if I don’t keep the questions going, so I’m going to move it right along. I want you to talk some about running. You’ve done a whole lot in the running world. I know you’ve run over 150 marathons. But specifically, I’d like you to talk about your experience in the Hawaii Iron Man Triathlon.

Harry Cordellos



I did that in 1981, when they still had the triathlon in February, because that was declared the International Year of the Disabled and I decided that would be my contribution. I had one man who would do all three legs of the triathlon, the swim, the bike and the run, but neither of us was strong enough or skilled enough to save the other if we got in trouble in 70 feet of ocean water. So we had a man on a paddle board go along with us for the swim. We swam 2.4 miles off the shore of Kailua-Kona in Hawaii.

When we came back we changed and got on the bicycle; we used the tandem of course. We went 112 miles on a bike. And then we went to the Kona Surf Hotel and we got ready for the marathon. And that was of course the official 26.2 miles up the coast of the big island of Hawaii. And I finished in 16 hours, 26 minutes and 17 seconds, which as far as I know is still a record for totally blind participants. I don’t even know of any totally blind who have tried the Iron Man. I have known of one or two partial who have done it.

But even when my record is broken, like all records do get broken, I can always say I was the first one that did it.

Billy BrookshireAbsolutely. How exactly did you get into running?



Harry CordellosI got into running in 1967. I was still at Hayward State College learning how to swim and dive and my brother decided he wanted to run in San Francisco’s famous Bay to Breakers Race; it’s a 12K from the Bay all the way across the city to the ocean. So they called it Bay to Breakers. And I figured if he can do it I can do it. And I told him while he was getting ready, I was learning to do a back somersault of the high diving board at Hayward State, and I said I’m going to learn that dive before you do the Bay to Breakers.

Well I did, and when he did the Bay to Breakers I decided next year I will do it. Well the next year the course was totally destroyed because they dug a hole in the middle of the main street downtown to build the subway for the Bay Area Rapid Transit. So they modified the course and they put in the now famous Hayes Street Hill, which rises 270 feet in five blocks.

Well I ran it in 1968 and the only difference is my brother quit running, but I’ve been running every since. I’ve logged over 55,000 miles and I’ve run the Bay to Breakers 43 times in a row; every year since Hayes Street was added to the course. And I’ve been recognized as the official record holder for



consecutive Bay to Breakers. I know a man who ran over 50, but he had a few gaps in the middle.

And the Bay to Breakers is what led me to running longer races. The famous Dipsea Run, which is featured in that film Survival Run, and 154 marathons, including 12 times in Boston where I set a totally blind record for Americans at 257 and 42 seconds. The world record is lower than that. Last I heard it was at 256. A German runner had done that I think. And I’ve done a couple of triathlons, but the Iron Man was the biggest.



Billy BrookshireFor running, what would you say was your most challenging experience in running and your proudest moment?

Harry CordellosWell there have been a lot of challenging ones, but my proudest moment was in 1982; the first ever World Blind Marathon Championship was conducted in Canada at the Vancouver Nike Games with over 3000 runners. And we had about 15 blind participants from all over the world. I had the best time going into the race at 257, but a New Zealand runner by the name of [Tui Rupee] had run 238 with sight and 310 as a totally blind runner. He had lost all his partial vision.

And the name of the game was beat that American. Well when the race started, everybody else took off and left me, except [Tui]. He knew all about pacing. He stayed with me for 10 miles and then he disappeared off into the sunset and I was worried that I would have to settle for no better than second place. When we got to 15 miles we hit an “out and back” park strip and one by one the other runners were going back and instead of talking about pace we could hear their guides saying “There he is. There he is.” And my guide just laughed. I said “What’s so



funny?” He said “They’re not running their race; they’re trying to beat you.”

Well meanwhile Tui had gone long since passed that point. By the time we got to Stanley Park in Vancouver we’d passed all but three runners. And we saw a young runner at the aide station table at 23 miles working a cramp out of his leg. So my guide said “Two down, one to go.” We came out on the main road in front of the famous Natatorium that they have there, The Swim Center, and there was a man standing there and he said “25 miles, two hours, 52 minutes”. Well I knew now that I wasn’t going to break three hours because I had one mile to go, plus 385 yards all uphill.

And I asked my guide “Do you see Tui?” And he said “No, there’s no men running side by side, but he’s a better man today. You ran Boston two weeks ago and you’re doing almost a three hour pace, so be satisfied.” Well we turned the corner where the big hill started and my guide said “There’s Tui. He’s in the Hurt Locker, he’s walking. You’re going to beat him.” And I said “Just be quiet. If he hears me he’ll start running again.”

We passed him right at the 26 mile mark after battling it out for almost three hours. And as we came up to



the final street in the downtown area there was a lot of cheering but I never caught up with it; it kept moving ahead. And I found out later they weren’t cheering for us, the third woman in the whole race was just ahead of us and the news media got her number and they told the crows, I guess, that she was coming. So I kept telling my partner, I said “Where’s Tui?” He said “Shut up and breathe. Keep running.”

I said “Tom, where’s Tui?” “Keep breathing. Keep running.” Finally he wouldn’t answer me anymore and I was really frustrated. I thought we’ve got the World Championship at our fingertips and he won’t tell me what’s going on. So finally I said “Tom, where’s Tui?” Silence. And then he said “Don’t worry about Tui; he burned out. You just cross the finish line and you’ve won the World Championship.”

Billy BrookshireThat’s a great story Harry. I love it. You still hold the record, is that correct?

Harry CordellosI don’t hole the world record, but as far as I know in America we haven’t had any totally blind marathoners do better than 303, I think. The US Association for Blind Athletes started to do a little promotion of marathoning, but now their biggest focus in on track



and field. And they get all kinds of records for the shorter runs in the stadium.

Billy BrookshireOkay. I’m going to shift now from running Harry; I know you’ve taken on other sports challenges. Do you want to talk about any of those? What come to mind as being the most interesting things you’ve done?

Harry CordellosWell, I like to do 10 pin bowling. I’m in the American Blind Bowling Association. And we have a tournament every year on our Memorial Day, which is the last Monday of May. And I bowl in that both singles and doubles and team and all that. I like to play golf, but as so many of our blind listeners know, the worst problem of being blind is not the fact that your eyes don’t work, it’s getting people to accept you for what you are. And getting someone to walk around the golf course with me is not easy.

I’ve played in several Four Ball Scatter Tournaments where everybody hits the ball and then you pick the best ball and everybody hits that. So there’s no way you’re going to slow down the tournament even if



you’re the worst golfer in the world. And I’ve had some really good shots and we’ve finished about in the middle of the pack in a couple of tournaments. But I wasn’t necessarily the reason all the time that we didn’t get a good score. There was one hole, for example, where everybody hit the ball in the water but we came in and got one over par on that one.

So golf is a great game. I love bowling. Believe it or not, even though I live in the San Francisco are, I go back to Colorado and bowl with our team back there because I fly a lot through that are in my work and I do pre-bowling if I can’t be there every week that we bowl. And we’ve won first place and second place on different occasions on the team event.

We notice that so many of the teams are called such and such blind bowlers – the Light House Blind Bowlers, the New York Blind Bowlers, the Washington Blind Bowlers. And my friend in Colorado, a man by the name of Mike McAvinney, which by the way, he was the first man who was blind who ever got accepted in the Peace Corps. So he’s got quite a story himself. But he says “We’re not going to be the Bay Area Blind Bowlers or the Colorado Blind Bowlers, let’s let them know that we can do something else besides being blind.



And we both love thrill rides and especially roller coasters. So our official team name, and as I speak it, it will go all around the world, we are the Longmont Bowler Coasters.

Billy BrookshireI love it. There have been some questions come into the chat room Harry. They’re not about bowling, but they’re interested in all the things you’ve done. One person asked if you’ve ever sky dived or parasailed.

Harry CordellosNo, I never did. I won’t rule it out. I’d like to parasail, but I just returned from a cruise and they featured it at one or two of the Ports of Call, but it’s just a little too expensive for me. But I’d like to do it. I think the only drawback I have, if you’re going to pay that much money, so much of the parasailing experience is visual and I’d lose so much of it. I could be wrong. But I’ll probably try it before too long.

And as far as sky diving, I have the same comment that so many people have – why jump out of a perfectly good airplane? But I won’t rule that out either. I know a lot of blind people who have done it in tandem, and there are some of them that have done it alone with radio control and they’re brought



down by radio communication. But if radio communication isn’t any better than what we’ve experienced with computers, I’m going to keep my feet on the ground.



Billy BrookshireI’m with you. That reminds me of that very old and very bad joke about if you’re blind and you sky dive how do you know you’re close to the ground. And it’s that the dog guides leash goes slack.

Harry CordellosI’ve heard that one.

Billy BrookshireProbably shouldn’t have told that one. Harry, I wanted to you tell, if you would, we’ve got plenty of time for this story and I love this story, it’s the one about the 10 meter board. I suspect some of the other folks would like to hear that story also.

Harry CordellosWell I was at the US Association for Blind Athletes Annual Competition. We were at the Indiana-Purdue University Natatorium for the swimming event. This was a 22 and a half million dollar swimming stadium. It has some of the best equipment you’ll find anywhere. And the water is so flat. I was warming up in the lane behind a man who was practicing the butterfly stroke, which is turbulent as you know, and I had no trouble at all because the water immediately flattened out.



Well I had always wanted to go off a 10 meter platform, but diving is a thing of the past in San Francisco and all over the United States because of liability. So unless you’re in a swimming club there’s no opportunity to dive. Well the chairperson of the Council for National Cooperation in Aquatics was one of the officials at the Natatorium and she got permission for me to go off the 10 meter tower.

And when I was escorted up there, we went in an elevator. This is the same swimming center where Olympic diver Greg Louganis used to practice. And we get in the elevator and as we’re going up they were calling out “There’s one meter. There’s the three meter. There’s the five meter.” Then they said “There’s the concourse.” And then they said “the bridge” and the elevator stopped. So I stepped out of the elevator. And I had the feeling I was going to bump my head on the skylights on the ceiling, but they were still probably 20 feet above me.

And out at the edge of the board it was just about 33 feet down to the pool. Well at that stadium they have a bubbler – in Olympic diving quite often they sprinkle the water so that it creates little bubbles and it makes a surface that the divers can see. Otherwise you’d see all the way to the bottom of the diving pool. Well, in addition to that thing, they had a bubbler in this pool



that would turn the entire diving well into a Jacuzzi. I t would send up air from the bottom which would cushion the water and make it less dense.

So if you do a dive and you miss it you won’t get hurt. It will still sting a little bit, but the man who was down below stood there and he yelled up at me “I’m going to count down when the bubbles start and when I tell you to jump don’t wait and think about it because they only last so long and we lose pressure.” So he said “I’m going to take pictures of you and I’ll coach you and I’ll tell you when to go.” So he said “Okay the bubbles are starting. Jump now.”

And I stepped off into infinity and I was going down, and down, and down and I thought I know I’m going to hit the water. And I kept going down, and down, it seemed like an hour and my feet started to float up. And I thought if straighten out I’m going to land on my back at 33 miles an hour and all the bubbles in the world won’t make that easy. So I let my feet go up and I did a perfect sheet drop landing; we call that a preachers seat. And I made a big splat in the water; it didn’t hurt. The air cushioned it. But when I came up the coach said “You know I was trying to take your picture and I was trying to watch the bubbler and I may have missed you on the video. Would you go do it again?”



And I said well I’ve always wanted to say I went off the board, but I don’t want to go home knowing I did a sheet drop. So I went back in the elevator and stepped off again, but this time just lowering the head a little bit, because I had nothing to focus on, I went in like a pencil and almost went to the bottom in 18 feet of water. So that’s my experience going off a 10 meter tower.

Billy BrookshireIt scares me. Karen asked again, she missed the name of the place, what exactly was the name of the dive center.

Harry CordellosThat was the Indiana-Purdue University Natatorium. It’s in Indianapolis. I tell people when you jump off the five meter board you can say every prayer in the Bible before you hit the water. And when you go off the 10, you can not only do the Old and the New Testament, you’ve got 20 minutes before you hit water.

Billy BrookshireWow. Harry this brings to mind something else, and it’s something I’ve wanted to ask you ever since we started, and it’s has there ever been a time when you were afraid of a challenge. Or have there been



setbacks that made you rethink you were going in the right direction?Harry CordellosThere have been several of those. I think the biggest one again, results from the greatest handicap of being blind. That is attitudes because people are not willing to accept you. When I went to that Orientation Center I could learn all the skills in the world, but if people don’t let me use them I might as well sit in a rest home. As far as fear, when we had the Disable Water Ski Competition for the first time in Australia, the only blind people that were doing jumping were the British.

And the coach who was there, they were going over that jump ramp and falling on their face and getting up and doing it again. So he wanted to make jumping more worldwide. And he took the time that was allotted to his team and shared it with everyone else. He showed us the position. He had us jumping off picnic table benches to see if we could maintain our position. And then we learned to water ski jump.

I’ll never forget him. His name was Dr. Peter Felix. And he actually took me out and skied beside me with another rope of his own. And he said “Now, when we get close I’m going to call down the distance and then I’m going back behind the boat. You have to be out there alone. The rules don’t allow me to be on the



ramp with you or to touch you when you’re on the ramp.” So he said “It’s just a bloody bump in the water. Don’t worry about it.” I said that’s just it. I don’t want it to have my blood on that bump.

So we started out on a three foot ramp and we got out there and we made the turn around the course and headed for the jump. He said “Okay, you’re 300 meters away.” And I thought that’s nice. Then we got a little closer and he said “We’re now 200 meters away.” And I thought I’m going to be alive for 200 meters. He said “We’re 100 meters away.” Now I could hear my heart pounding. And he said “Get ready.”

So, he cut away from me and he said “Three, two, one, freeze.” And when he said “freeze”, that meant hold your position. And suddenly I went up in the air, came over the top, landed on the water and I thought, I just landed a water ski jump. And the next thing I knew I was under water. So he came over to me, he dropped his rope and came over, he said “Why did you let go? You landed the jump.” Well before it was all over I landed 11 out of 17 jumps for the week. And that included the practice as well as the others.

And again, the biggest thrill out of that was not how scared I was when I did it, but in 1991, just three



years after the first jump, I got second place in the world over all in slalom, trick and jump together. And you know, we watch the Olympics and we see the athletes get up on the podium and they play the National Anthem of the winning country. Well I didn’t win anything; I got second in jump, second in slalom and third in tricks. But the man who won was an American and being an American myself I can’t describe the feeling of hearing the American National Anthem as we stood up on the podium.

People say “Why do you do sports?” You have to be a part of it to know the wonderful rewards you get from the feeling of achievement when you are successful at something. I felt that in running. I felt it in water skiing. I felt it when I bowled four strikes in a row. And even the non-competitive sports, like ice skating, I had one experience in ice skating that I don’t think I’d want to try it again, but it impressed everybody in the rink. Have you got a minute to hear that one?

Billy BrookshireYes please, go for it.

Harry CordellosWell our group goes cross country skiing in Colorado every April because that’s the only time we can afford the hotel rooms. And by April the snow is breaking



up. So we ski every morning and in the afternoon you can’t ski to well, so we either go bowling or we go ice skating. And the Lion’s Club had a bunch of us down at the ice arena and we were pairing up with guides, skating around. We had one lady there, we called her grandma. She was the oldest one in the group, but far younger than I am today. She had partial sight. And one day we were short of guides so a volunteer came as was guiding me and I told her I always wanted to waltz on ice skates; it’s such a graceful thing.

So she said “Well I can teach you the Dutch Waltz.” So she went out to her car and got a tape, they played it for us and we were doing the Dutch Waltz around the ice rink. Now, at 3:00 in the afternoon, the ice rink becomes the public babysitting room. Everyone drops their kids off up there and lets them skate. And they’re scooting around the ice with safety cones for support and they’re shoving them in front of us to see if we’re really blind and everything; I mean it’s really a zoo.

So this lady that we called grandma, the older lady, she says “Everybody talks about how good you can do the Dutch Waltz, will you show me?” So I thought, well she can see well enough I’ll go with her and she can do the guiding and I’ll do the coaching. SO we’re



going around the ice about three times, progressive to the left, swing to the right, turn to the left; I mean we owned the ice rink. And we didn’t care about kids. All of a sudden she said “How can you skate with so much confidence?” I said “Confidence nothing, if I’ve got a guide I’ll go anywhere.”

She said “What guide?” I said “Charlotte you can see can’t you?” “Oh, no I had a diabetic hemorrhage two years ago. I’ve been totally blind ever since.” And all of a sudden these two Olympic bound skaters are on the far side of the ice, we spread our legs like we were going have to be carried off the rink and we supported each other right through center ice and over to the rail. And the Lion’s are standing there laughing. I said “What’s so funny?” I said “You never told me that Charlotte can’t see anymore.” “Oh not she hasn’t seen for two years. But why didn’t you just keep skating? You were doing beautifully.”

Billy BrookshireAmazing how we second guess ourselves sometimes isn’t it? Harry that was a beautiful story. And I want to leave the folks here on the line some time to ask you some questions. So I’m going to ask one more question and then turn it over to the microphones for people to ask their own questions. What I was interested in is, is there anything you’d like to share



with folks about sports in general, about getting involved, about dealing with life in general. What great learnings have you gotten from these experiences?

Harry CordellosWell, I’m not what you would call a religious extremist, but I believe in God and I believe he does answer prayers. I remember one time when I had had a whole bunch of accidents, I ran into a steel stepladder and almost knocked it down off a tall building; I ran into a light pole and hit it so hard that it knocked the fixture off the top and if the pole didn’t have recoil and throw me back, it would have come down and probably killed me. And I tell people that God is going to give me back my sight someday or he’s going to give me something even better.

Now how can you argue that? What’s better than the gift of sight? But I knew I and said the right thing and I had this feeling that came over me, I can’t describe it as anything other than warmth or love. And I think the first time that was answered was when I got up on those water skis. I couldn’t even swim. And when I got off those water skis I got on buses when I got home to the center, rode three buses, came out to my dad’s restaurant and when I walked in the man that



ran the roller coaster was in there having dinner and he said “Look whose outside.”

It took me 10 minutes to convince my parents and the help in the restaurant that my mobility instructor was not hiding somewhere watching me; I had done it for the first time on my own. Before that I couldn’t ride a San Francisco trolley car without an arm to hang on to. And since that day, I’ve been to 19 foreign countries and 45 of the 50 United States; running, swimming, ice skating, bowling and lecturing.

So when people tell me they don’t think there’s a God, I would disagree strongly with them. And I think the best thing I can say is we have so many fears, and most of them deal with our own feeling of our self-esteem or whatever, we don’t like to lose, we don’t like to fail, we won’t try a lot of things because “What if I mess up?” Kind of like when I got in that pyramid at Cypress Gardens or just recently on a cruise ship. They had a belly flop contest – I not only got in it, I won it; got all fives for my belly flop. I can’t dive well but I can sure make a big splash.

So I would like to conclude the formal part of this, and I hope we can answer all the questions, but the book that I wrote, No Limits, there’s two books that you can get from the lending libraries, at least in the United



States. One is called Breaking Through, that’s an autobiography. But No Limits is a biography; I had a co-author who interviewed people who were important in my life. And the opening page has a quote from me, it says “When we can accept ourselves as we are and not be concerned about those things we lack, and when we can face each new challenge with faith, determination, and confidence nothing is impossible to overcome.”

And the end of the book has a little verse that came to me one day when I was riding on the subway. And it hit me, it never needed any revision. And I love to write poems and they always take a lot of revisions, but this one didn’t. And I just feel it was spiritually inspired because the next day I thought about it, there it was again. And I’d like to share that with our listeners because it means so much. And if you don’t remember all the individual crazy things I’ve done, I hope you remember the main point about it. And I call the verse Keep trying. It goes like this:

With faith that strong your greatest goals you’ll conquer by and by

Though disappointment threatens now don’t be afraid to try

It really doesn’t matter if you fail or drop the ballThe only real losers quit or never try at all



So give it everything you’ve got and keep that courage high

And if you do you’ll win the prize that money cannot buy

You’ll always walk with honor as there is no greater pride

Then knowing whether win or lose, with all your heart you tried

God Bless you

Billy BrookshireHarry that was lovely and I’m going to open it now for folks. I’ve already got one request for that poem, so if you don’t mind sending it to me Harry, I’ll get it to folks. Folks, I’m going to open the microphone now for any questions you have by all means go for it.

DuncanHarry my name is Duncan. I am not an athlete; I’m a musician, a Christian musician. And I just want to tell you I first heard about you from a tape by Zig Ziglar and Ken Cooper; are you familiar with both of them.

Harry CordellosAerobics was a new word in our life in 1968 when Dr. Kenneth Cooper wrote his first book. And he opened the Aerobics Institute. He’s been studying my life ever since 1975 and one day during one of my visits



he had somebody take me over to meet Zig Ziglar. But maybe the doctor he’s thinking of is Dr. Kenneth Cooper.

Billy BrookshireAnd you’re exactly right, that’s exactly the name he asked. Thank you Duncan, sorry my hearing is not so good sometimes. So let’s get more questions if you have them.DanWell Harry, you’re quite an inspiration. My name is Dan. I’m in the Chicago area and thank you for this time. Two questions, quick ones. First off a couple of years ago I got in touch with the Chicago Blind Athletic Association and could not find a guide to help me or to work with me when it came to running or jogging. So, I’m wondering how one goes about tracking down a guide who can help out. Second question is how are your knees after all that running?

Billy BrookshireI’m sorry Harry; I was having some trouble getting on the microphone. Dan from Chicago asked a couple of questions. The first one is “To get started in taking on sports challenges how do you find a guide?” And the other thing is how are your knees holding out with all of this experience?



Harry CordellosSometimes my knees have been giving me a lot of trouble lately. Of course I’ve run 55,000 miles since I began over 40 years ago. The biggest problem has always been in finding guides. I think one way to get started is to go to a local athletic place, such as a YMCA. I go to our YMCA in San Francisco, the Stonestown YMCA. I’ve been a member there since 1984. Sometimes just getting word out to a local running club, going to the Y and getting on a treadmill. That’s a great start because you don’t need a guide on a treadmill. You can hold onto the handrail and hold your balance and keep oriented with it.

And a lot of it again is like I say, you can demonstrate that you want to do it, but if people won’t open that door and let you go through it and try it, it gets very frustrating. Just because you can’t see doesn’t mean you can’t run. You don’t run a marathon with your eyes, you run it with your feet. And I wish I had the answer because even with all my background in running I still have difficulty in finding guides at times. And of course the easy way out is when people say “Why do you pick a sport that requires others to do it with you?” Every sport we do people do together in one way or another.



So, I wish I would have an easy answer, but like I say, check with running groups, health clubs, YMCA or anything like that and make it known that you would like to get started. Blind organizations might be able to help you, but I know some of the organizations take the old fashioned overprotective approach. You know they’ll give you free coffee and donuts and they think they’re helping you, but that’s not what we need.

Billy BrookshireThose are really good suggestions Harry. There’s some consumer organizations that are also very helpful I think and have groups that participate in marathons and runs and walks, so that might be a good possibility. Folks I hate to…

Harry CordellosThere’s a group called Team in Training – they train people to run marathons and other races and they raise money for cancer or leukemia or any of those. Contacting them might be a start. Or every year around June we have the Relay for Life for cancer, and if you go to a Relay for Life there’s 100’s of people and we always do it every year and you can always find somebody who might run a little bit with you and just get it started that way even.

Billy Brookshire



Good advice Harry. Thank you very much. Folks our broadcasting time is done and so I’m going to have to close the show pretty quickly. Harry, I know there are probably some more questions out there. Are there any ways that folks could get their questions to you?

Harry CordellosThey can send it to my email address, you have that there, you might put that on the web after we’re finished or I can give it to you over the phone, over the system now and we can do it that way. But I doubt if they’d be able to take it all down. If they write like I do it’s not always that easy. Misspelling one word or one letter and you don’t get it.

Billy BrookshireI’ll go ahead and give it out if you’re okay with that.

Harry CordellosI am certainly, yes.

Billy BrookshireIt’s [email protected]. And Harry thanks for doing that. I appreciate that.

Harry Cordellos


mailto:[email protected]


Well I just feel so glad that we’ve been able to do this and we have definitely tied the knot to make a lifelong friendship. I will email you and send you that poem by email and then we won’t have to worry about it getting lost in the snail mail.

Billy BrookshireHarry thank you, I appreciate it very much.

Harry CordellosThose who are interested in reading the book but don’t want to be bugged with somebody trying to sell then one, it is available in the United States through the lending libraries. It’s called No Limits.

Billy BrookshireAnd folks, this is Billy’s recommendation; you need to read No Limits. If you have questions about whether or not you want to take the challenge and you want to get more physically active, No Limits, will change your mind about a whole lot of that. And it will introduce you to some stories that Harry has got to tell that we haven’t had time to cover today.

I want to remind you that this seminar, like all of our seminars is archived. And you can find them under the topic “past webinars” on our seminar page. So by



all means, go and look. They’re available 24/7. When they have continuing education credit attached that stays with them. So as long as you listen to them and take the little test you can still get continuing education credit.

Hadley related courses – there are several I think you might be interested in folks that are kind of related to this. One is called Going Places. And for parents there are a couple of things that might be helpful to you. One called Early Independence and another called Finding your Way and I think you’ll enjoy all of those courses. I so enjoyed this time with you today Harry. I appreciate you taking the time to share with this audience from literally, all over the world.

For all of you, thank you for participating today and I want you to know that we want your feedback. So if you’ve got future topics you’d like to hear or if you’d like to give us your feedback on today’s topic you can send those to [email protected]. We’d love to have them. That’s [email protected]. And Harry, any farewell comments you want to give to the group?

Harry CordellosWell it’s really been a special privilege to be a part of this thing. And I just wish that my computer had





cooperated a little better; we lost a little time at the start. But I just hope that everyone who was within range of our voices today and our internet whatever you want to call it, I just hope that they’ve gained something from it and that they will never be afraid to try again. And every time we get shot down by people with negative attitudes, just stand strong and keep trying and you’ll make it.

Billy BrookshireThank you Harry. You’ve got a request up here that says “What will it take to get you to Austin, Texas?” So you might want to consider that from Scott Meyer who works here at Crisco Rehab Center in Austin. I want to give…

Harry CordellosTell him I’ll jump on a plane as soon as I can get a ticket.

Billy BrookshireAlright Harry, I’ll tell him. I want to take this time before we close out to say thank you to Alan. Alan, thank you so much for your recommendations for online and kind of getting us up to snuff; I appreciate it very much. And ZZ and everybody else who helped. Harry, take care. Audience, we’ll see you next time.



Next time being December the 2nd. On December the 2nd we have a panel of folks who use dog guides. I think you’re going to find it just a really great presentation. And coming up a little closer to Christmas we’ll have a presentation on holiday depression. So, I wish you all the best. A Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. We’ll see you back December 2nd. Thanks again Harry.

Harry CordellosAnd I will be in Texas on December the 2nd to run the half-marathon.

Billy BrookshireOh rock and roll at the White Rock?

Harry CordellosYou got it. Billy BrookshireSo if you guys are up in Dallas around White Rock you can go and see Harry in person running the White Rock Marathon. Thanks Harry.

Harry CordellosThank you and I will be right on the computer with that poem for you.

Billy Brookshire



Alright thank you sir. Take care everybody.

Harry CordellosGoodbye.

[End of Audio – 0:57:20]


Documents

2010-11-16-Yes You Can · Web viewYes You Can: Harry Cordellos Tells How! Presented by Harry Cordellos Moderated by Billy Brookshire November 16, 2010 Billy Brookshire Folks, you