Category: Friendships

An unlikely uncommon friendship in sports: Jesse Owens and Luz Long

Even though he was one of America’s Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton didn’t receive much attention –that is until Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2015 musical, Hamilton became a Broadway sensation. Alexander likely received less recognition because many of his colleagues (and occasional political enemies) went on to serve as presidents, while Hamilton did not. But the real story of Hamilton’s life is how accountability helps a man grow. In Hamilton’s case, accountability — or lack thereof, helped him realize how to become a better man. – albeit not perfect, man As I wrote in my last post, Frenemies of the State, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were friends who supported each other but were also fierce political rivals. Similarly, Alexander Hamilton endured the death of a good friend and a family member, He also had friends who became enemies. While it’s unclear if any of them supported Alexander after his tragedies, it is

My posts on the friendship of mutual respect between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, the selflessness of Winston Churchill, and the emotional intimacy of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, demonstrate some of the traits needed among the friends in a man’s inner circle. I have two more posts in this subset of friendships from the world of politics: this post about how enemies can still be friends, and another about the life of Alexander Hamilton. After those posts, I’ll begin the next subset of friendships from sports, entertainment, and literature.  Friends With The Enemy?  According to Wikipedia, a “Frenemy” (also spelled “frienemy”) is an oxymoron; the case where one or two words or concepts appear side by side and seem to have opposing meanings. Therefore, the self-contradicting mash-up of ‘friend’ and ‘enemy’ is “a person with whom one is friendly, despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry” or “a person who