This article by Bruce E. Brown of Proactive Coaching, from the Life Lessons #2 collection, presents the championship principle of loyalty, with excerpts from Seven Essentials of Great Teams. Using the story of Pee Wee Reese standing by Jackie Robinson, it explains what loyalty demands of teammates, what loyalty is and is not, and closes with reflection questions on who you are loyal to and who you can count on.
Introduction
Championship Principle: Learning Loyalty
Excerpts from Seven Essentials of Great Teams - Bruce Brown
When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, Pee Wee Reese the captain of the Dodgers was the first teammate to walk across the field and shake his hand. "I had grown up in a segregated world and it was the first time I'd shaken the hand of a black man." When the season began, Robinson endured vicious abuse from opposing teams and fans, from beanballs and spikings to racial slurs and spitting. Robinson had promised Branch Rickey, the owner and GM of the Dodgers, that for at least his first two years in the majors, he would hold his tongue and fists and not respond no matter how bad it got. One day the attack got so nasty that teammate Pee Wee Reese realized that he needed to take action. He simply walked over to Robinson and put his hand on the black man's shoulder. "Pee Wee sensed the sort of hopeless, dead feeling in me and came over and stood beside me for a while," Robinson recalled. "He didn't say a word but he looked over at the people who were yelling at me and just stared. He was standing by me, I could tell you that." The hecklers ceased their attack. "I will never forget it," Robinson said.