Peter Gaskill

Director, IBSA | Coach, Player Dev, Color Analyst, #FIBACoach, #CoeCollegeAlumni #USABasketball

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

108 years ago today, a red-headed farmer from Pall Mall, Tennessee did something in the Argonne Forest that still doesn't seem real.

Alvin York grew up dirt poor, a hard drinker and brawler, until a religious conversion in his twenties changed his whole life. When the draft notice came in 1917, he asked to be exempted as a conscientious objector. His church opposed war and so did he. The Army said no.

His battalion commander spent hours going through the Bible with him, trying to convince him that a man could fight and still be right with God. York went home on leave, prayed on it for two days on a mountainside, and came back ready.

On the morning of October 8, 1918, York was one of 17 men sent to slip behind German lines and knock out machine guns near Chatel-Chehery, France. They surprised a group of Germans and captured them. Then the machine guns on the ridge above opened up. Six Americans were killed instantly and three more went down wounded, including the sergeant in charge.

That left Cpl. York in command of seven men, most of them pinned flat guarding prisoners.

So York went to work. Every time a German gunner raised his head to fire, York shot him. He'd been shooting turkeys in the Tennessee hills since he was a kid and he was not missing at that range. When six Germans charged him with bayonets, he drew his pistol and dropped all six, starting with the last man and working forward, so the ones in front wouldn't realize what was happening.

A German officer, Lt. Paul Vollmer, emptied his pistol at York and missed every shot. Watching his men fall one after another, Vollmer finally called out in English and offered to surrender the whole position if York would stop shooting.

York agreed. Then he used Vollmer to order other German positions to give up as they marched back through the woods.

By the time he reached American lines, York had killed 25 men and was herding 132 prisoners in front of him with a handful of survivors.

When a general told him he'd heard York captured the whole German army, York said "No sir. I got only 132."

He was promoted to sergeant and received the Medal of Honor. New York threw him a ticker tape parade. Companies offered him a fortune to endorse their products and he turned almost all of it down. He went home to Tennessee, married his sweetheart, and spent years raising money to build a school for kids in the mountains who had no shot at an education.

When Hollywood finally made his story in 1941, he agreed partly to fund a Bible school. Gary Cooper won the Oscar for playing him.

The man who didn't want to go to war became the most famous American soldier of it.

[Pat McAfee @PatMcAfeeShow]

We will donate one million dollars to the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children's Hospital..

We would like to thank that hospital for everything that they do #PMSLive

[NBA @NBA]

Another UNREAL DIME to add to Nikola Jokić’s highlight reel 😮‍💨

[David Eickholt @DavidEickholt]

Every patient at the University of Iowa Stead’s Family Children’s Hospital received this from Ryan Day.

One of the coolest things I’ve seen since I started covering Iowa in 2018.

[VAN MUTOKA @vanmutoka1]

« N'ayez pas peur des opinions des autres ; ce sont leurs pensées, pas votre réalité.»
- Charlie Chaplin

[Bob Bowman @coach_bowman]

I've coached over 30 Olympic gold medals.

I've worked with some of the greatest athletes in history.

Here are the lessons I wish more people understood:🧵

[Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness @coachajkings]

Ben McCollum shares what it feels like to be around first-place people and a first-place culture.

"I went to Northwest Missouri State, and my first practice with Steve Tapmeyer - best coach I've ever been around - I sat there and I'm like, 'This is what first place feels like. This is what a first-place culture feels like. This is what first-place people feel like.'"

That was the wake-up call. He realized what first-place people have:
"They've got an extreme work ethic. They've got an edge to 'em that other people don't - a competitive spirit."

Then he quoted John Thompson:

"You can tame a fool a lot quicker than you can resurrect a corpse...We want guys with a little edge to 'em."

You can coach skills, but you can't coach competitive spirit. You don't want to consistently coach their effort and attitude.

The last thing they look for: Energy givers.

"Over the years, we found that guys that are moody don't make it in our program."

"If you're moody, if you have low energy, if you suck the life out of the building - you don't make it."

Talent isn't enough. Your energy matters. Your attitude matters.

Successful people have a competitive edge, they bring energy, and they look to consistently get better.

They raise the standard through what they do.
(🎥 Watts Happening Podcast)

[The Winning Difference @thewinningdiff1]

EFFORT
It makes a
DIFFERENCE!

[Desiree @DesireeAmerica4]

This right here is how you build a real community.

​These men found out a 6-year-old autistic boy was getting bullied at his bus stop, so they personally stepped in to make sure he felt protected.

Where were the parents of the bullies? Why does it take strangers to teach these kids respect?

​Huge respect to these guys for doing what the school system clearly wasn't doing. Protect our vulnerable kids at all costs.

[Emma 🇺🇸 @Emmaiid11]

🚨INCREDIBLE: During a multi-vehicle collision on the Route 90 bridge in Ocean City, Maryland, a 2-year-old girl was ejected from a pickup truck, falling nearly 30 feet into the Assawoman Bay below.

Jonathan Bauer, who was driving across the bridge with his teenage daughter when the crash occurred, rushed over to inspect the wreckage. Looking down into the water, he saw the toddler floating face down and becoming unresponsive.

Without hesitation, Bauer instructed his daughter to flag down first responders, removed his shoes, and leapt off the bridge into the bay. He swam to the little girl, lifted her onto his shoulder, and patted her back until she coughed up water and began breathing again.

A passing pontoon boat quickly navigated toward them, pulling both Bauer and the toddler out of the water and transporting them to shore, where emergency personnel were waiting. The child was airlifted to a regional medical center for evaluation and released the following day in good condition.

Bauer was later honored by local law enforcement and civic leaders for his decisive actions and selflessness.

[BaseballHistoryNut @nut_history]

A young fan received a baseball from an Astros outfielder when the inning was over. Seconds afterwards, the umpire with a straight face walks up to the kid and tells him “you can’t have that, give it back”. The kid oblige and gave the ball back and went back to his seat.

The umpire started laughing his face off and told the kid he was joking around. Kid started to laugh and gave him a fist bump,

[Hosna ⚖️ בניטה @DOGEQEEN]

INCREDIBLE: A police officer pulled over a young Black man near the university. His license had expired.

"Why are you driving on an expired license?" the officer asked.

The young man said softly, "I just lost my night job. What I have left is just enough for food, rent, and bills. I'm from out of state. I'm here alone for university. And I have a job interview this morning."

The officer could have followed the book and impounded the car. He didn't.

He parked his cruiser, helped the young man straighten his tie, got in the passenger seat, and drove him to the interview himself.

They walked in together. The officer apologized for them being late and explained why. They took a selfie. Wished him luck.

He got the job. And later, he got a temporary permit to drive until he could afford to renew his license.

That's what humanity looks like.

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

It’s past midnight here in Iowa and one of the players is showing us around the facilities. He could be out celebrating the big win, but instead he took the time to do this for some German tourists. Really appreciate it🙏

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

70,000 fans waving to the Children’s Hospital next door

Best tradition in sports

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

It’s a crazy party here. Everyone has been tailgating since the morning. Everwhere you go you see these tents with people drinking and having a BBQ. We should introduce this in Germany before games as well!

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

We are here in Kinnick Stadium!!! What a beautiful stadium. And we even made it onto the field for the warm up!

Also the student section behind us is going crazy already⚫️🟡🌽

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

We found a crazy place on our way to Iowa City: the world’s largest truck stop. They literally had everything in there. A library, barber, movie theater, dentist and even a chiropractor😭

We ate some dinner there before continuing our drive.

[Michelle Maxwell ™ @MichelleMaxwell]

It is because of this beautiful young lady we learned who perpetuated this evil on our country. I hope her two young children have grown up to know what a hero their Mama was💔

"We're flying low. We're flying very, very low." Those were the last words ground control heard from 35-year-old Amy Sweeney. She spent her final moments making sure the world knew the truth.

Twenty-five years ago this morning, Madeline Amy Sweeney was not supposed to be at work. She was a part-time flight attendant who kept a light schedule so she could be home with her kids.

Her daughter Anna was five and had just started kindergarten.

Her son was younger still.

But when a colleague fell ill, Amy did what she always did. She stepped up and took the shift.

That simple act of generosity placed her aboard American Airlines Flight 11, departing Boston for Los Angeles.

At 7:15 a.m., before the plane left the gate, Amy called her husband Mike from the cabin. He later said that was unusual for her.

She was feeling low about missing the chance to see Anna off to school that morning. Mike told her not to worry. There would be plenty of mornings ahead to walk their kids to the bus.

Flight 11 took off at 7:59 a.m. with 81 passengers on board. About 15 minutes later, five terrorists hijacked the aircraft. As panic and violence consumed the cabin, Amy Sweeney chose extraordinary courage over terror.

She picked up an onboard phone, dialed American Airlines Flight Services at Boston Logan Airport, and reached manager Michael Woodward. He was a friend, and he knew her voice.

The first thing she told him was to listen very carefully, because her plane had been hijacked.

Calmly, methodically, and under unimaginable pressure, Amy gave ground control the very first intelligence report of the day.

She reported that the flight was hijacked.

She confirmed two flight attendants had been stabbed and a passenger was critically injured.

The passenger was a man in business class whose throat had been cut.

She reported a bomb threat in the cockpit. One of the hijackers had shown her a device with red and yellow wires.

She relayed the exact seat numbers of the hijackers, providing critical evidence for federal investigators. She named seats 8D, 8G, and 10B. Woodward's team pulled those seats up in the reservation system while she was still on the line.

The name in seat 8D was Mohamed Atta. Within hours, the FBI knew who had led the attack, and Amy Sweeney was the reason.

Woodward later said she spoke very calmly and very quickly, the way a professional does when there is no time to waste. She told him one hijacker spoke excellent English and another spoke almost none.

She told him the hijackers had gotten into the cockpit and she did not know how. She told him that passengers in coach still believed there was a medical emergency up front.

Amy had been flying with American for more than a decade, and every bit of that training showed.

Alongside fellow flight attendant Betty Ong, who stayed on her own line for 23 minutes, Amy became the eyes and ears of a nation in its darkest hour.

Betty's call helped lead the FAA to ground every plane in America for the first time in our history. Amy's call helped the FBI put names and faces to the men who did this.

The two of them, working the same cabin with no weapons and no help coming, gave our country the truth before the rest of us knew anything was wrong.
She stayed on the phone as the aircraft sped toward New York City.

She told Woodward that something was wrong and that the plane was in a rapid descent. Near the end of the call, Woodward asked her to look outside and determine where they were.

Looking through the window at the approaching city skyline, her final reported words were:

"I see water. I see buildings. We're flying low. We're flying very, very low."

At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

She never called her family to say goodbye. Instead, Sara Low used her final 30 minutes to make sure the FBI knew who attacked America.

Trapped at 30,000 feet with no weapon, 28-year-old flight attendant Sara Low held the only tool that could expose the 9/11 hijackers to the world: 14 numbers memorized in her head.

When terrorists stormed the cockpit of American Airlines Flight 11, chaos erupted in the cabin. Flight attendant Amy Sweeney scrambled to grab an onboard airphone to alert the ground team, but hit a devastating wall - she didn't have a calling card to bypass the system lock.

Without her wallet on hand, Sara stepped forward. She didn't have plastic, but she had clarity. She had memorized her family’s AT&T calling card digits.

Sara handed those numbers to Amy, unlocking a lifeline to the ground.

For the next 20 minutes, Amy stayed on the line with American Airlines flight services in Boston. Because of Sara's calling card, the FBI received its very first concrete intelligence of the day: exact seat numbers of the hijackers, physical descriptions, and their movements in the cabin.

While Amy relayed the critical data, Sara spent her final half-hour moving terrified passengers toward the rear of the plane, shielding them from danger.

Sara had the means to use that airphone. She could have called her parents. She could have said a final goodbye to her sister.

She didn't. She chose to make sure the world would know the truth instead.

True heroism isn't defined by muscle or weapons. It’s defined by presence of mind in the face of impossible terror - and the selfless decision of who that mind chooses to serve.

#archaeohistories

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

We made it to Iowa!!!

So far the drive here has been pretty much corn, corn and even more corn🌽