Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, December 22, 2006, Washington Post

Every Picture Tells a Sports Story

If you like sports and want something different to do during winter break, the renovated National Portrait Gallery at 8th and F streets in Northwest Washington has a terrific art exhibit called "Champions." The exhibit has more than 25 paintings and other pieces of art portraying some of the greatest figures in sports.

These folks are not players or coaches who had one great season. They are the true legends of the games. And the exhibit gives you a chance to learn more about them.

For example, at the beginning there's Albert W. Hampson's beautiful portrait of Walter Camp, looking like an old movie star in a tan hat and overcoat. Who's Walter Camp? He was a football player and coach at Yale University who thought up many of the rules we take for granted. They include 11 players on a side, four downs to go 10 yards, and six points for a touchdown. Maybe that's why Camp is called the Father of American Football.

Near the Camp painting is a small sculpture by Rhoda Sherbell of baseball manager Casey Stengel. Old and wrinkled but with a sharp baseball mind, Stengel led the New York Yankees to 10 American League pennants and seven World Series titles in 12 years.

Juan Marichal, the great right-handed pitcher from the Dominican Republic, is shown in a series of nine small paintings by Gerald Gooch. The paintings show Marichal's wondrous pitching motion in which he would kick his left leg high above his head before delivering a baffling array of fastballs and curves. No coach today would teach kids that motion, but Marichal won 243 games with it and made the Hall of Fame.

The largest painting -- more than 20 feet long -- shows the 1919 championship boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard. Look closely at this James Montgomery Flagg masterpiece and you will see a world before television, where men wore hats, and a heavyweight championship bout was as big a deal as the Super Bowl is now.

Another bright painting is of baseball slugger Reggie Jackson. Known as "Mr. October" because of his World Series heroics, Jackson is shown by Howard Rogers delivering a powerful home run -- he hit 563 in his career -- in the bright green-and-yellow uniform of the Oakland Athletics.

Two quiet portraits are winners, too.

In a painting titled "Cat's Cradle," Henry Casselli Jr. uses rich brown, black and white paints to portray Muhammad Ali, maybe the most famous boxer and athlete of the past 50 years. Mysteriously, Ali is standing with his arms stretched to the side with strings between his hands as if he were playing the child's finger game.

And in a portrait by Louis Briel, Arthur Ashe looks like a businessman or banker in his crisp white shirt, red tie, creased pants and argyle socks. Only the racquet he's leaning on hints that Ashe was a tennis champion who won Wimbledon as well as the U.S. and Australian opens.

Finally, be sure to watch the short film narrated by Washington Post sports columnist and ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" host Michael Wilbon. The video is a chance to see these legends in action as Wilbon explains why they are included in this wonderful exhibit.