THE GREATER LANSING AREA SPORTS HALL
OF FAME
INDUCTION CEREMONY
ROGER CALLARD
July 28, 2022
By Chuck Krafft
Roger
Callard was a body building champion who was a good high school athlete as
well. His accomplishments as a body builder
include:
Saginaw
County Team of the Century
Mr. Michigan
Mr. Western
America
Mr. U.S.A.
Mr. America
Mr. International
He was also
a fast runner who was a Conference Mile Relay Champions.
He has acted
in over 40 TV shows and movies and is an R & B Recording Artist.
He also
helped train people in the U.S. Airforce and has invented and created workout
machines. He has also written eight
screen plays and was a contributing editor for Muscle Builder and Power
Magazine.
I have been
blogging the Hall of Fame induction ceremony since 2015 and my opinion is that
Roger Callard gave the best induction acceptance speech I have ever heard!
He started
out by thanking Bob Every and the Selection Committee for his induction.
He told of
his dreams as a young boy of being the fastest runner in the world and being a
top athlete. He would imagine himself
performing in championship moments. His
older brother introduced him to weight lifting when he was twelve. His strong physique, combined with excellent
running speed earned him a varsity letter as a freshman in high school. He told of hearing Duffy Daugherty, the
former Michigan State football coach giving an exemplary motivational speech
while he was in high school.
He went on
to help his Chesaning High School Football team win a championship and played
for the Michigan State football team.
He told of
losing his father at age 16 and how George Perles, an assistant coach at MSU at
that time became his surrogate father.
He praised George Perles for the way he genuinely cared about his
players.
He noted
that he did some acting in high school.
In fact, his football coach was also his drama coach. He reluctantly joined the cast for his first
play and found out he love acting. He
relayed his experiences meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kurt Russell early in
his acting career.
He relayed
the pain of going through his wife’s struggle with cancer for a few years. There were ups and downs until she finally succumbed
to the disease in 2013.
He again
praised George Perles for giving him faith in himself. He related that there were three attributes
that are necessary to success in any sport.
These are Effort, Love and Gratitude.
He related a
story about an important lesson her learned from his father. It involved making a list of your best allies
and worst enemies. He pointed out that
it is important to respect the people who open doors and pointed out that
dealing with competitors and enemies can contribute a lot to a person’s growth.
Kudos again
to Mr. Callard for an amazing, motivational speech!!
For those
who wish to read about the entire event, here is a link to the Overview page!
https://lansingcivicevents.blogspot.com/2022/07/2022-greater-lansing-area-sports-hall.html
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