Tiny - big man, bigger heart

Another story of Roosevelt High School, Class of 1940

During the spring days when the sun was out, a fellow student nicknamed "Tiny" who would bring his bass violin (a cello today?) out to the porch of the school and play for us.
Everyone would bring their lunch outside and cluster around to listen - he was so talented.

And he would spin that instrument around so fast - and pluck a string on every turn. Magical even as a soloist.

It was truly amazing that someone so young could master a difficult instrument like that.

But our Head Coach 'Tiger' Bill Harroldson saw this large, 300 pound student and had visions of a football championship team led by such a lineman. So he rushed down to the University of Washington to gather up enough equipment and uniform pieces that would fit such a large individual.

And he put Tiny in that football outfit and expected him to join the team. But Tiny refused to even try the sport where he would be required to sit on his fellow students and possibly hurt them in any way.

Tiny was motivated by the power of music - by the chance of making people feel good through that alone. He wanted to make people happy through music. His heart was bigger than his body.
Upon graduation from high school, the Seattle Symphony immediately signed him to a contract.

I wish I had the chance to have saved up some money and seen him play at the Seattle Symphony... to see and hear him play on his kind of team.

The only team that Tiny would be happy to play for was an orchestra.