In about 1920, the great Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne went on a recruiting trip to a small Pennsylvania town. He knocked on the door of a high school player named George Gipp.
Now Gipp would normally not have been home at that hour, because he spent most of his time that summer down at the local tavern. But, on this day, he had a cold. He greeted Rockne and came to Notre Dame to play football. He was a standout.
But he died young and, before he did, he encouraged Rockne to give a locker room talk when Notre Dame was in a tough game. “Win one for the Gipper,” he advised Rockne to say. Rockne did, and “win one for the Gipper” became a famous saying.
When it came time to make a movie about Rockne and the Gipper, young Ronald Reagan got the part and launched his famed acting career. From there he became, in time, president of the United States and presided over the end of the Cold War.
But suppose Gipp hadn’t had a cold that day years ago. No Gipper, no Reagan role, no Reagan presidency. The Cold War ended because George Gipp, 70 years earlier, had a cold.
I hope you believe all this. If you do, I’ve got some seafront property in the Dakotas to sell you.
I’m Tom McBride, and that’s my perspective.