Dec 8 / Rob

Gene Swindle Is A Real American Hero

In 2009 Gene Swindle injured his knee less than 1 minute into the only basketball game he ever played in for the VA Tech Hokies. The injury was believe to be career ending. After spending a few years as a undergraduate assistant, the 6’11” 260 lbs center transferred to JMU with dreams of returning to the court. We’re less than one month into the season and Swindle has already overtaken Trevon Flores’ role in the starting lineup. It’s a pretty nice story, so we figured we should learn a little about the guy. Well when we checked out his bio on JMUsports.com we found the following little nugget in his Q&A:

What is the bravest thing you have ever done?

Saved a family of 7 from a burning building.

Hold on. What? Yes, he’s only averaging 2 points and 2 boards a game, but he SAVED 7 PEOPLE FROM A BURNING BUILDING. Surely that’s worth publicizing a little bit, don’t you think? I mean at least put it at the top of the Q&A instead of dropping in between talk of Gene’s goals for the season and best place he’s been on a holiday. Not only does the guy have a name that sounds like he’s a bully from The Wonder Years, but he’s also an honest to God lifesaver. I’m not sure if that makes up for JMU not making one NCAA tourney appearance in almost 18 years, but it helps a little bit.

h/t to @richpriz



         
                  

2 Comments

leave a comment
  1. tedward / Dec 9 2011

    I was talking to someone the other day and mentioned that I went to JMU while we were talking college hoops. The guy’s response was, “they must have had some good teams while you were there.” I graduated in 1997 and had Lefty all four years. I said, “yeah, we went to the NCAA’s my freshman year.”

    I then realized that that was the last time we went. Three coaches later…18 years… That really sucks.

    Oh yeah, that Swindle life-saving thing is pretty cool, too.

Trackbacks and Pingbacks

  1. DMV: Peyton Manning + Redskins × Infinity = This Offseason | Mr. Irrelevant, a D.C. Sports Blog by the Brothers Mottram
Leave a Comment

%d bloggers like this: