The Super Bowl Shuffle

Just as Classy as the Super Bowl Shuffle, Jim McMahon and Friends Head to the Cayman Islands

Instead parting knowledge specific to the Spanish language and culture, my 2nd period Spanish class went to the gym so we could chat with the likes of Jim McMahon and Grant Fuhr on topics such as his recent beach wedding.

Let’s back up a second. Back in 2014, a Caymanian teenager had been cyber bullied after losing a fight at school. Soon after, so embarrassed and ashamed, he unfortunately took his own life. He had been a basketball player on island. Former European pro basketball player Cory McGee had coached him and decided to act. He made it his goal that no other teenager in the Cayman Islands would be bullied to the point that they felt the only outlet would be taking their own life. He began spreading the word about bullying at local schools and bringing in friends from the sports and entertainment worlds.

Grant Fuhr, Jim McMahon, and Michael Holding

When I walked into the ARC (our basketball gym), standing against the wall were former Chicago Bear’s quarterback Jim McMahon, multiple Stanley Cup winner goalie Grant Fuhr, and West Indies cricket great Michael Holding.

As the 12 to 18-year-old students filed into the ARC, all having been born after 1998, none were aware that the Super Bowl Shuffle even existed.

Teaching Great John White Posing with NHL Great Grant Fuhr

Yet being that these athletes were “famous”, or so their parents told them, the students did what any good citizen does around athletes, they requested autographs. They asked for them on any piece of paper they could find. Since the fine institution of Cayman International School has a strong conglomerate of hockey crazed Canucks, they all flocked like pancakes to maple syrup over to Grant Fuhr. That left Michael Holding comfortably sitting in a metal chair by himself and Jim McMahon stuck leaning against a wall with me talking about golf in Phoenix and his impending graduation from BYU.

Being just a bit wiser and more prepared than the kids, I had printed out three black and white copies of the players to be signed. Originally, the former Atlanta Braves outfielder Fred McGriff was scheduled to appear with McMahon and Fuhr, Holding had replaced him.

After McMahon and Fuhr signed my pieces of paper, I slyly folded the McGriff photo so just the bottom half of blank sheet was visible. Never inspecting the paper, he graciously signed it.

I then mailed the McMahon and McGriff/Holding autographs to my good buddy Dr. Matthew Pepper (He authored a book that is currently #932,353 on the Amazon Best Sellers in Books). Not until Pepper passed the Michael Holding signature on a Fred McGriff photo to a cohort in Georgia, a huge Atlanta Brave’s fan, that it was discovered that it was indeed a mismatched signature and photo.

In the end, all three sports figures spoke about the need to stand up to bullies like New Mexicans should fight to keep Texans off their ski slopes. Most impressive was Michael Holding’s message upon the crowd to simply “treat others like you would like to be treated”.

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