By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) -- It was back in 1949 when the Rev. Billy Graham held his first large crusade -- in Los Angeles -- and that catapulted him to worldwide fame.
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Louis Zamperini lights the Olympic torch he carried at the 1984 Olympic Games (Photo: Brad Graverson) |
Among them was Louis Zamperini, an Olympic Athlete in Berlin where he met Hitler, and a prisoner of war during World War II, and it was a decision that would change his life forever.
On Saturday, September 10, 2011, Zamperini returned to close where he made that decision for Jesus Christ all those years ago, to share his testimony before a huge crowd at Dodger Stadium at Greg Laurie’s Los Angeles Outreach, where thousands followed in the footsteps of Louis and also publically gave their lives to Christ.
What a day it was for Zamperini as in that afternoon, he had done the “coin toss” at the LA Coliseum before 73,821 fans at the Pacific 12 Conference opener when his Alma Mata, USC, beat Utah 17 to 14.
As Louis Zamperini gave his powerful testimony on Saturday night, my mind went back to last December when I was able to interview one of the most inspiring people I have ever met.
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Dan Wooding interviews Louis Zamperini in his Hollywood Hills home |
The book chronicles the extraordinary early life of this former Olympic athlete, POW, and committed Christian.
When we arrived at his picturesque home, Louis was sitting at a desk with a marvelous view of downtown Los Angeles, wearing a red University of Southern California (USC) cap, and was busy signing scores of books for his many fans from around the world.
As I began my interview, I learned that Zamperini, even at his advanced age, remains active and full of life, lecturing to audiences around the world about how to deal with stress, the meaning of the Olympic movement and the freedom he has found through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
During the interview he told me that he was born in Olean, New York to Anthony and Louise Zamperini. The Zamperini family, he said, moved to Torrance, California in the 1920s, where Louis attended Torrance High School.
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Louis posing with some of the wartime planes |
Before long, he went on, he was picking fights “just to see if anyone could keep up with me.” From juvenile thug, he progressed to “teenage hobo.” Hopping a train to Mexico, he courted danger for the thrill of it.
Louis said that he had a “knack for getting into trouble,” so his brother got him involved in the school track team. In 1934 Louis set a world interscholastic record in the mile, clocking in at 4 minutes and 21.2 seconds. The record would last for over twenty years, until broken by Dennis Hansen in 1959. That record helped Louis win a scholarship to the University of Southern California, and a place on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team.
In the Olympic trials at Randall’s Island, New York, Louis finished in a dead heat against world-record holder Don Lash, and qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Unfortunately, Louis ruined his chance at gaining the gold by gorging himself on the free food that was provided to the Olympic athletes during the trans-Atlantic cruise. He shared a cabin with the great Jesse Owens who achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team.
“I was a Depression-era kid who had never even been to a drugstore for a sandwich,” he said. “And all the food was free. I had not just one sweet roll, but about seven every morning, with bacon and eggs. My eyes were like saucers.” By the end of the trip, Louis confessed that he had gained 12 pounds.
As a consequence, Louis only finished eighth in the 5000 meter distance event at that Berlin Olympics, but his final lap was fast enough to catch the attention of Adolf Hitler, who insisted on a personal meeting. As Louis tells the story, Hitler shook his hand, and said simply ‘The boy with the fast finish.’”
I then asked Louis if he had been a Christian at that time, would he have witnessed to Hitler. He smiled and replied, “I would share about Jesus Christ with anyone.”
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Louis during his running days |
Zamperini enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in September 1941, and after being commissioned a second lieutenant the following August, he was deployed to Hawaii as a B-24 bombardier. After flying a number of missions, his aircraft went down due to mechanical failure on May 27, 1943. After 47 days adrift in the ocean, Zamperini and the only other surviving crew member (pilot Russ Phillips) were rescued by the Japanese Navy.
Louis was held in captivity through the end of the war and his family thought he had been killed in action, but he eventually returned to a hero’s welcome. Zamperini was held in a Japanese Navy camp for captives not labeled as Prisoners of War at Ofuna. Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington was held at the same camp and in Boyington’s book, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” he discussed Zamperini and the Italian recipes he would write to keep the prisoners minds off of the food and conditions.
Zamperini then spoke about how, after his return home, he would have horrific nightmares because of what had occurred in the prison camps and one night he awoke to find his hands around the neck of his wife. It was then that he realized he was in deep trouble.
His wife, Cynthia, he told me, went to Billy Graham’s historic 1949 Los Angeles Crusade and there she found the Lord. She then persuaded him to go along with her and he said that was very upset with having to attend, but eventually, he too made a personal commitment to Christ, and his whole life turned around in the right direction.
He said that he has since become close friends with Billy Graham and said that it was Mr. Graham who helped him launch a new career as a Christian inspirational speaker. One of his favorite themes is “forgiveness,” and he has visited many of the guards from his POW days to let them know that he has forgiven them. Many of the war criminals who committed the worst atrocities were held in the Sugamo prison in Tokyo.
In October 1950, Zamperini went to Japan and gave his testimony and preached through an interpreter (a missionary called Fred Jarvis). The colonel in charge of the prison encouraged any of the prisoners who recognized Zamperini to come forward and meet him again. Zamperini threw his arms around each of them. Once again he explained the Christian Gospel of forgiveness to them. The prisoners were somewhat surprised by Zamperini’s genuine affection for those who had once ill-treated him. Most of the prisoners accepted copies of the New Testament which had been given by the Gideons.
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Book cover |
For his 81st birthday in January 1998, Zamperini ran a leg in the Olympic Torch relay for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. In March 2005 he returned to Germany to visit the Berlin Olympic Stadium for the first time since he competed there.
Torrance High School's home football, soccer, and track stadium is now called Zamperini Stadium, and the entrance plaza at USC's track & field stadium was named Louis Zamperini Plaza in 2004. In his 90s, Zamperini continues to attend USC football games and befriended star freshman quarterback Matt Barkley in 2009.
Zamperini was in October 2008, inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago, IL.
During our visit to Louis’s home we were met by a gentle giant called John Naber who showed Norma around the house as I did the interview with Louis who shared with me that John was one of America’s most successful Olympic champions.
He was America’s most highly decorated Olympian at the 1976 Games in Montreal (the second highest ever, at the time) earning four gold medals in swimming, each in world record time. Naber, also a born-again Christian, became the first swimmer in history to earn two individual medals on the same day of Olympic competition, and earned the Sullivan Award as America’s top amateur athlete of 1977. He is enshrined in various Halls of Fame and is one of America’s top Olympic ambassadors. So I also interviewed John for my program.
What a morning and what a joy to be able to meet with new friends like this and we left with an autographed copy of “Unbroken” which we both couldn’t wait to read.
And, as thousands discovered at Dodger Stadium, this great hero remains “Unbroken” and is as lively as ever and continues to share his deep faith in Christ.
| Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 48 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK and also in Belize and South Africa. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 200 countries. You can follow Dan on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link.Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link. |  |
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