Cael Sanderson, 159-0
Cael Sanderson, 159-0
(This column was written in 2006 and published in Fairways Magazine)
As children we all choose heroes.
We took personal ownership of our chosen heroes. They were ours. We protected them. We fought for them. We cheered them and defended them. 
And our heroes were always better than anyone else’s heroes and there were even arguments about it. And when they won we were proud, and their success enhanced our own self value, and in fact, there was a certain unrealistic transformation taking place wherein we actually felt that our support was helping them succeed.
When we discovered that one of our friends also shared our same heroes, then we suddenly realized that our friend was not only a friend, but a friend with very good sense.
My first big hero was Jackie Robinson. After that they came in bunches, including Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Roy Campenella, Ted Williams, and Yogi Berra. New stars would come on the scene, Roger Bannister, Bob Beamon, Mohammed Ali, John Wooden, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan. The ones we chose remained our heroes and it took a lot for any other would-be-heroes to bump our originals off the top perch. One of the new ones who has moved right to the top is Tiger Woods, whose composure, grace, and determination are unmatched in golf today.
My heroes were mostly athletes. Subconsciously they were divided into two groups, the ones who were far away we would never know personally, and the ones who defended the home turf and who could be seen and touched, such as dynamic duos Arnie Ferrin and Vern Gardner, Mel Hutchins and Roland Minson, and Stockton to Malone.
As a kid I remember lying on the floor by the radio listening with my dad to the voice say “Let’s go with Utoco to the basketball game,” and cheering whenever the Aggies, Utes, and Cougars were playing.
Time moved on and the hero list grew, and to the top of the list went Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. It grew closer and closer to home with Merlin Olsen, L.J. Silvester, Max Perry, Cornell Green, Bill Munson, Lee Grosscup, 
John Ralston, Wayne Estes, and Billy McGill. After he moved to Utah Billy Casper joined the list, and of course, Johnny Miller, Kresimir Cosic, LaDell Andersen, LaVell Edwards, Stan Watts, Dick Motta, Steve Young, Danny Ainge, Frank Layden, Mike Reid, and Jay Don Blake were just some of the local heroes who made it big in the Big Time.
Those in the Utah Golf Hall of Fame and our UGA Gold Club are all on my hero list.
As we mature our list broadens from athletes to other areas of interest, and some of our heroes don’t become so until after they’ve passed on and we only become aware of their greatness after the fact. My list includes Nelson Mandella, Martin Luther King, Michel Gorbachev, Albert Einstein, Jimmy Carter, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, and William Greider.
Sometimes we each attach to a ‘special’ hero, one that you can almost call your own. One that the world hasn’t really idolized, but you are way smarter than the rest of the world, and he is your ‘special’ find.
I have one of those heroes. He was featured on the Wheaties box, and so he is no secret, but he is not known far and wide. His achievement was slow and obscure and was building without much public notice and when he finally reached the pinnacle it was suddenly all over. He won’t be forever in the public eye, but his achievement may never be matched.
His achievement was so obscure that I didn’t even know about it until I saw the Wheaties box. His name was Sanderson. He was a wrestler. I knew that name. I had written about a wrestler named Sanderson years before. I wondered about the connection. It was close. It was his dad.
I took that Wheaties box home, and placed it in a prominent place in my den, right on the television where I could see it as a daily reminder of the possibilities of the human spirit.
The Wheaties Breakfast of Champions box declared,
“Cael Sanderson, 159-0.”
Cael Sanderson. Cael!! The name itself is so majestic. I wonder if he would have achieved such high levels of success if he had been named Joe, or John, or Bill. How much does your name mean to you? Is your very name a motivator for excellence? An intimidator of foe?
Cael!! How would you like to fight a Cael? “In this corner Cael Sanderson. In this corner Shrinking Violet.”
159-0. Just what is that all about? Stunning—that’s what it’s all about. At Iowa State, competing in the toughest wrestling league in America, he won his first college match, and his second, and his third and on through his freshman year, and his sophomore year, and his junior year, and his senior year, and yes, four straight NCAA championships with 159 straight wins and zero losses. That unbelievable winning streak occurred over a four year period of time that included normal life crises such as flu, colds, nagging injuries, personal relationships, dating, marriage, jobs, bills to pay, tests to take, making weight, not to mention that all of your opponents are studying films to find your Achilles Heel and lying in wait to beat the unbeatable, but to no avail.
“In this corner, Cael Sanderson. In this corner Shrinking Violet,” all 159 of them.
It is, in my mind, the single greatest athletic achievement ever. Bar none. We could have some healthy arguments over it, but that’s my choice as the greatest of all.
And then, to top it all off, he went on to win the Gold Medal at the Olympics, an incredible achievement made almost incidental by his unbelievable collegiate record. And oh, incidentally, he also won four straight Utah State High School championships.
Yes, that’s right. This hero hails from Heber, a Wasp from Wasatch High School. A local hero making it big in the Big Time.
Do heroes have heroes? Of course, and one of Cael’s childhood heroes was the Bill Probst family. Bill’s son Jake is one of Cael’s best friends.
Bill Probst was the chairman of the Utah State Amateur this year and through Bill we were able to get Cael to speak at our traditional Breakfast of Champions. This year the centerpiece on each of the tables was a Wheaties Breakfast of Champions box featuring our guest speaker. It brought extra meaning to the specialness of our Champions Breakfast that has featured many other heroes, including Bill Korns, Frank Layden, LaVell Edwards, Arnie Ferrin, Bill Korns, and most of our former champions.
Sanderson’s personality came through immediately, quiet, modest, soft spoken, intense, focused:
“Success is a choice….We are responsible for what we think, for what we do, and what we say….If you see a person on top of a mountain you know he didn’t just fall there…Don’t focus on the hurricane around you, focus on the eye of the hurricane….expect obstacles….If you’re going through hell, keep on going….A dog who hunts doesn’t stop to scratch his fleas.”
Those were some of the tidbits Cael gave to a riveted audience that included the 32 match play finalists and our former champions, and for me, getting to meet and listen to my heroes at the Breakfast of Champions will always remain part of the thrill of the tournament I love the most, The Utah State Amateur Championship.
