By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Steve Beattie’s story is an old one, over 50 years old.
For his friends who knew and loved him and were with him in the football game when he suffered the critical injury that eventually claimed his life, it is a story worth remembering.
Tonight (Aug. 18) as part of the dedication of the new turf at the Bowling Green High School, the memorial created to honor Beattie will be rededicated.
For his friends, including Tom Vogtsberger, Chris Roper, Bob Spitler, Joe Scholler and others, he is more than a name on the school’s track facility. He exemplified values that can inspire future generations.
“We think this story is of value to everyone in the community,” Vogtsberger said.
“Steve clearly demonstrated, despite the ultimate outcome, that the greatest accomplishment of the human spirit is the demonstration of will and tenacity to overcome even in the most extreme adversity. That’s the lesson here. He never quit. He clawed and fought to the end.”
Roper remembers Beattie as someone people looked up to. He was an outstanding student, and a fine three-sport athlete.
He was considered a prospect for Division I athletics.
On Sept.24, 1966, the senior was playing quarterback in a game against tough Mansfield Madison team. On fourth down, he attempted a quarterback sneak and sustained a late hit to the neck.
He was paralyzed. First, he went to Ohio State for treatment, and then was transferred to Ranchos Los Amigos National Rehabilitation in Downey, California, which specializes in treating such injuries.
The community, Roper recalls, sprang into action. It was clear, he said, the cost of the treatment would be “exorbitant.”
People started holding all manner of fund raisers – a telethon, sock hops. Contributions started pouring in, first from Bowling Green, then surrounding towns, then the county and beyond, including southeast Michigan.
“It was a sad time,” Roper said, yet there was a sense of purpose. “It was a time when everyone dropped what they were doing to figure ways to help pay for these expenses.”
Signs urging people to pray for Steve appeared everywhere – in the newspaper, in store windows.
Eventually Beattie came home from California because little could be done.
His friends would go to visit him and were struck, Vogtsberger said, by how the family and Steve worked to make them feel comfortable.
Steve’s dad told Vogtsberger that through it all, he never heard his son complain.
On May 17, 1969, he died from the injuries. Eight years later, with assistance from the Steve Beattie Foundation, the new track facility was named in his honor. The memorial was moved when the track facility was incorporated with the football stadium, and now it was rededicated again.
The money raised for his care and unspent went to help cover the expenses of the track and to create a scholarship in his honor.
His friends get together to help decide what high school senior male best exemplifies the values Beattie represented.
And over the years, Vogtsberger said, as his friends experienced adversity, they looked back to Steve Beattie to draw inspiration to keep going. Beattie was “ultra-special,” he said, “we think his story is of value to everyone in the community.”
