A Quote by Bob Beamon

In Jamaica High School in New York, my coach was Larry Ellis, and he said I could probably make the Olympic team. He gave me something to shoot for. — © Bob Beamon
In Jamaica High School in New York, my coach was Larry Ellis, and he said I could probably make the Olympic team. He gave me something to shoot for.
[Larry Laurenzano] gave me a junior high school saxophone to take to high school, because I was always taking one of our school horns home to practice and I couldn't afford to buy one. He gave my friend, Tyrone, a tuba and he gave me a junior high saxophone for each of us to use at Performing Arts High School with. My audition piece was selections from Rocky. We were not sophisticated. But we had some spirit about it. We enjoyed it, and it was a way out.
I remember when I went to try out for the Olympic team in 1972, Coach Iba told me he didn't care how many points I could score because if I couldn't guard anybody, I wasn't going to make the team. I knew to make the team I had to become a better defender. If you can play offense, you can defend. It just comes down to competitive will.
I'll never forget, Jill Ellis, the U.S. national team coach, texted me and said: 'Welcome to the coaching fraternity, you haven't coached unless you've been fired.' It was the most powerful thing anyone could have told me. Of course it hurt like hell, but it was an important learning curve.
In high school I was on the basketball team, but the coach did something I didn't dig and the next day he looked up and saw me practising with the football team.
Fortunately for me, my grandfather gave us a life I could never dream of. He was my high school football coach, my best friend, my school teacher - really my dad.
I coach a high school wrestling team and a middle school team. I consider myself a coach and an activist, so I'm really involved in the community.
My main influence was my father. He was a great high school coach. I thought one day, if I got lucky, I could be a head high school coach.
I graduated from high school early so I could move to New York to do 'A Little Night Music' out of the New York City Opera.
I had been on the junior Olympic team in high school for trampoline; I could do twenty-six back flips in a row.
I missed the Olympic team in 1996 - missed making the team. I tried to make a comeback in my sport, and soon after the Olympic trials, Johann Olav Koss, who is a Norwegian speed-skater, called me up and asked me to be a part of Olympic Aid. Now Olympic Aid is Right to Play. It's a wonderful, narrow focus.
I couldn't make it on the swimming team in high school. In fact, I got thrown off the swimming team and was forced to audition for the school play because they had at the audition about 35 girls show up and no boys, so my swimming coach suggested that I might be able to do the drama department more good than I was doing the swimming team.
I went back to Jamaica after living in New York and started to work on experimental stuff and basically I grew as a filmmaker. I went to film school; I was a PA on a lot of projects and I worked so hard, you know, you're young and I learned from different mentors. And luck put me in the position to work with amazing people. One of my mentors by the name of Little X, who took me under his wing after I came out of film school and moved to New York. I worked in videos for Jay-Z, Pharrell to Busta Rhymes and Wyclef. I quickly realized how much I wanted to make films instead of music videos.
My grandparents actually, whenever they got the chance, took me to Broadway, but that started when I was in high school, because that's when I realized... At the very beginning of high school, I realized, 'Oh my gosh. Okay, this is a career choice for me.' So yeah, then they always brought me to New York to see Broadway shows whenever they could.
I was born in Queens, New York. I've done every job you could think of in New York. Selling peanuts to Larry Fresh Fruit ices to dog walker to unloading trucks at the Jacob Javits Center.
I went to the Professional Children's School in New York, and I started modeling because I could do that until I actually figured out what I wanted to do, and it gave me the opportunity to travel.
When I auditioned for my high school band the band director was excited because my father was known to be a great musician. When he heard me, he said 'Are you sure you're Ellis's son?'
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