Hey, Summer Campers!

In the month premiering the autumn season, I thought I’d write a couple sports-related Celebrities at Summer Camp posts. In the first week of October, I wrote about legendary sports writer, Seth Davis. I picked another Davis for the post today—we’re talking about Al Davis, the previous coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders. The principal owner and general manager spanning 39 years, Al certainly left a piece of himself in this football team.

No longer with us, Al lived a long, full life—starting all the way back to the beginning. He was born on the Fourth of July in Brockton, Massachusetts, 1929. Attending Camp Roosevelt in New York, he spent his summer days making friends and putting together basketball games. And, despite his strong affiliation with the world of football today, at that age, he was passionate about basketball.

His desire to play basketball followed him into his high school days when he met Coach Al Badain from Erasmus Hall High School. Turns out, despite his love for the game, Al just wasn’t very good at basketball. Coach Badain barely played him and, instead, Al spent a lot of time on the bench, studying Badain’s coaching technique.

Though he continuously proved himself to be unimpressive as an athlete throughout his college days at both Wittenburg College in Ohio as well as Syracuse Univ., he started gaining lots of interest in the strategy in football. He’d hang out on the football field during practice drills and never missed a game. He even took a couple academic courses for football strategy—classes only ever attended by football players.

To make up for his athletic inability, Al discovered an admittedly arrogant and brash side of his personality that he effectively used to aid his climb to a coaching career in a sport that he had no experience playing. It’s kind of like the opposite of charm—but Al made it work for himself. After graduation, he went for a position on a college football coaching staff.

After a personal meeting with the president of  Hofstra University, he had the position. With his foot in the door and coaching experience, he set his sights on the professional world next. Al struck after the worst year of a team’s history—Oakland Raiders in 1962. They lost their first 13 games and Al gladly stepped in to replace Red Conkright as head coach.

His motto for the team became “Just win, baby” and under his passionate coaching, the Raiders became one of the most successful teams in the entire league. He remained on the coaching staff far into his old age. Al passed away five years ago. Al did what he loved. What will you do? As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Summer Campers!

We all know camp is popular, but did you know that more than 11 million folks go to summer camp every year? That’s A LOT of people! And since seemingly everybody and their mothers went to summer camp at some point, it’s not surprising to discover the loads upon loads of famous celebrities who were once summer campers just like you.

While some former summer campers like Lady Gaga or Chevy Chase go on to achieve super-stardom the world over, other celebrities are stars within their own realms. Seth Davis is a name well known among the sports writing community. He’s a sports columnist, author, and former summer camper.

He attended Camp Equinunk in Pennsylvania, beside the Pocono Mountains where he enjoyed 400 beautiful acres of fields and wooded trails shared with the sister camp, Camp Blue Ridge. The camps are separated by the camp-owned 75-acre private spring-fed lake.

Born in Potomac, Maryland, Seth went to the Bullis School which covered elementary grades through to twelfth grade. He then went on to graduate from Duke University in 1992 and directly pursued a career in sports writing. Having written as a sports columnist for his university’s daily campus newspaper, ‘The Chronicle’, it seemed only a natural path to follow.

He landed a position at Sports Illustrated covering stories including the NFL, NBA, college basketball, as well as local high school sports. But Seth had more to say than what he could do in a sports column.

He wasn’t done talking about summer camp!

So he wrote a book that was published in 2003 called ‘Equinunk, Tell Your Story: My Return to Summer Camp’ that talks about what camp meant to him. It meant enough that he went back to camp to be a cabin leader back in the day.

You can check out his book right here. Summer camp led Seth to the freedom to do what he loved for a living. Where will it lead you? As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Lots of kids have been hitchin’ a ride to summer camp since the mid-1800s. Many adults nowadays are former summer campers themselves and a bunch of them have gone on to become famous icons. It’s my pleasure today to tell you a little about a guy named Tré Cool—drummer for the insanely popular alternative punk band, Green Day. 

Tré was given a warm welcome to paradise among the beautiful, rolling foothills of Camp Winnarainbow in Mendocino County, California. There, Tré and his camp buddies learned the tricks of the circus trade, specializing in the performing arts of the circus. From circus etiquette to balance training—and don’t forget the ticket to perfect timing—is all taught by the well-trained staff of Winnarainbow.

Back then, he wasn’t known as Tré, but Frankie—as in Frank Edwin Wright III. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany to American parents and he grew up in Willits, California. But it didn’t take long for him to go by the moniker Tré Cool.

At just 12 years old, Tré’s next-door neighbor, Larry Livermore, asked him to join as the drummer in his new band, ‘The Lookouts’. Once he was in the band, Larry gave him the nickname which combined French (trés—for ‘very’) and English so as to say that he was ‘very cool’.

Tré opted to earn is GED instead of finishing high school and got an early start on classes at his local community college. Around this time, Green Day’s original drummer, John Kiffmeyer, left the band and they called Tré for his drumming skills. It took a long while for the band and Tré to fall in sync. So long, that the band discussed breaking up. “It took me a while to get it,” Tré has been quoted. “Play the song, don’t play the instrument.”

Luckily, the band stuck with it and they ended up a huge success! Tré’s dad played a big role of support for the band. He even turned a bookmobile into a means of transport that the band could use. “I watched them go from a bunch of kids to a group of musicians with work ethic,” Tré’s father once said.

Among many other awards and sources of recognition, Tré is thought of as one of the world’s top drummers, right up there with Ringo Starr and Dave Grohl. In fact, he was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Tré followed a bumpy road that led to super success. What road will you follow? As always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Kids!

Summer camp has only increased in popularity since its well-received beginnings in 1861. It spread across the country like wildfire and kids of all different upbringings were brought together to make summer memories of a lifetime. As camp popularity grew, the amount of summer camp alumni grew too. There are so many former summer campers around nowadays and some went on to become famous.

We all know Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. What’s that? The name doesn’t ring a bell? Maybe you know her better as Lady Gaga.

Anyway, before she was known by her professional persona, Stefani attended the YMCA Camp Hi-Rock in Massachusetts. Located on a thousand acres in the Berkshire Mountains, Hi-Rock campers enjoy a home away from home, set aside from the rest of the world with heavy foliage and their crystal clear, private lake of 90 acres!

Back in her camp days, Stefani was just as interested in the theater as she was in music. Following her interest into her high school days, she appeared in high school plays and when she attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, she studied at CAP21 to further her training in theater.

She also had a lifelong passion for music. She started playing the piano when she was four, she wrote her first ballad for piano when she was thirteen, and by the time she was fourteen, she was performing her music at local open mic nights.

Still interested in music in her college days, Stefani formed a band with friends from school—the Stefani Germanotta Band. All their shows eventually brought her some attention and she found herself working with her music producer—Rob Fusari. She traveled to New Jersey every day to record songs she had written and collaborate on new material.

Mr. Fusari explains the origin of Stefani’s stage name saying, “Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing ‘Radio Ga Ga’” (the song from the British rock band of the 70’s—Queen). When sending her trademark song name in a text one day, Rob’s phone autocorrected ‘Radio’ to ‘Lady’ and he sent the text without noticing. Predictably, Stefani responded, “That’s it! Don’t ever call me Stefani again.”

Stefa—I mean…Lady Gaga—rose to fame nearly overnight after her first album, The Fame, and she’s only continued to make music that increases her fan following. Lady Gaga found a path of wild success through her passion for self expression. What path will you find? You can check out Camp Hi-Rock for yourself sometime and, as always, thanks for reading. And check out the video below of the song that inspired Ms. Gaga’s moniker.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Summer camp is a hook for pretty much everybody. It was for the guy who played him anyway—CAPTAIN Hook, that is. I’m talking about the one and only Dustin Hoffman, here. Sure enough a Hollywood star from back in the day, Dustin’s also a former summer camper just like all of you will be one day. Celebrated for his career in film since he was 23, let’s learn a bit about this character and his time at camp!

He spent some of his best summer days at the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp, located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado—150 miles northwest of Denver. With the surrounding Rocky Mountain community of just 9000, Steamboat Springs boasts a natural beauty and charm. The hills of Strawberry Park offered Dustin 76 acres of rustic facilities and gorgeous campgrounds.

The gifted actor he was, you may expect me to say that he was passionate about acting since his days at camp, but the truth is that throughout his camp days, he aspired to be a classical piano player. He attended Los Angeles High School and took classes all the while only to continue his musical studies into college at Santa Monica.

But it was there that he happened to take an acting class. He took it looking for an easy A. Instead, he found a new career path. Dustin observed that, though he had developed his piano playing skills to a point of pride, he was not a gifted piano player. None of it came easy to him. He didn’t have an ear for music. Meanwhile, he had discovered a knack for acting.

When he informed his family of his new interest in an acting career, his Aunt Pearl noted, “You can’t be an actor. You are not good-looking enough.” But Dustin ended up changing all that. Crediting all his success to Mike Nichols, director of ‘The Graduate’, who took a chance casting Dustin before he was known for anything. Presenting a new kind of movie star brought Dustin immediate fame overnight.

From there he only went on to become a national treasure in the eyes of moviegoers across the country (as well as the world). He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1980 for ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’, and then again in 1989 for his excellent portrayal in ‘Rain Man’. And he pulled off a magnificent villain in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 retelling of the classic Peter Pan in the box office hit, ‘Hook’!

A legend of the silver screen, Dustin’s life led him down a road of spiraling success once he discovered the right road. It may take some time before you find what’s right for you, but once you find it, there’s no stopping you! As always, thanks for reading!

- John