TIME. Chuck Taylor. The Story of the Man Behind the Shoe that Changed the Game of Basketball 333#

Transcription

1 TIME 333# The man the myth the legend. The man behind the shoe Page,4. Tick tick tick tick BOOM! The story behind the October 19 th 1987 stock market crash Page,10. The Perfect Not So Perfect Shoe. The story behind the Converse shoe Page,13. Chuck Taylor The Story of the Man Behind the Shoe that Changed the Game of Basketball

2 Table of Contents: The man the myth the legend Learn how Chuck Taylor changed the world of basketball by re-designing the first basketball shoe. 10 Tick, Tick, Boom The Story behind the stock market crash called black Monday p The Perfect, Not so Perfect, Shoe The Story of the Company that Created Chuck taylor shoes

3 Chuck Taylor By Jacob Haaf The Man behind the worlds most famous shoe Charles hollis chuck Taylor an American basketball player was born in 1901 from Indiana. Right out of high school he played for a couple of professional basketball teams, including the Akron Firestones in Ohio. Chuck s story starts to get interesting when joins Converse, the company headquarters in Ohio, in 1921 and became a very good sneakers salesman. A basketball player being a professional salesman may sound crazy for today s basketball players, but this was years before the NBA was founded in 1949 and well before basketball players were being paid millions of dollars to play the sport. The story of Taylor s beginning in sales as told by The Basketball Hall of Fame is like this, in 1921 Taylor hobbled into the Converse Chicago sales office complaining of sore feet and persuaded executives to create a shoe especially for basketball. As a Converse employee, Taylor helped redesign the shoes and also became a promoter for basketball in America serving as a player and coach for the Converse All- Stars, the company s industrial league basketball team and conducting basketball clinics all over the country and the world. Chuck Taylor was so skilled at selling the sneakers and basketball in general that in 1932, Converse put his name on the sneakers and ankle patch. Some improvements that Taylor made to the sneakers include the following; more padding under the ball of the foot, different rubber compound.

4 The happiest people don t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything. - Chuck Taylor in the sole for less marking and a leather ankle patch to protect the ankle bone. Taylor initially took a commission on shoe sales, but soon decided that he would prefer to negotiate a salary from Converse, with 100% paid expenses and a yearly bonus. This included a brand new car (Lincoln?) that would have cost at least $5000 at that time. At the clinics given around the country, a favorite joke Chuck would play on a unsuspecting volunteer at his basketball clinics was to call a boy from the crowd, then run to his left - and his right and then the kid couldn t stop him even if he was a star player on his team. After embarrassing the kid, Chuck would dramatically walk backwards towards him/ her, tuck his basketball on is hip,and his free hand on the other and say, to the joy of the crowd That s the problem, is that he doesn t have Converse All- Stars on! It was during these times that Chuck also helped publish the Converse Basketball Yearbook, which covered the game of basketball on an annual basis. Taylor began naming All-American teams beginning in 1932, however it is not clear when high school All-American teams were first named. From 1942 to 1943 during World War II, the USA sent military bases 20 million dollars in sports equipment. 52 field houses for camps were also build for more than 10,000 men in the camps. The USA wanted the soldiers to be happy and active while fighting in the war after serving for recruiter and physical expert for 2 years for the Navy, Chuck Taylor was asked to serve in another special way, touring with some of the best All-American basketball players in the country, the Air Tecs, named for Air Technical Service Command. In addition to these travels, he also traveled to South America to share his joy of basketball and in the process found many fans for Chuck Taylor. The called him Embajador del Basquetbol. In 1968 Chuck Taylor was nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame by Hoosier Charles Stretch Murphy. He first nominated Chuck in a letter saying; I feel, of course that Taylor is worthy of this top honor in basketball, or I would not be offering his name; that his life s work devoted solely to the promotion of basketball, giving thousands of clinics to hundreds of thousands of players and fans, starting the Converse Basketball Year Book, now in its 46th Edition (copy enclosed), his poll (oldest in the country) and selection of All-American Teams, his staff, now made up of 11 men who he has trained, and who now give clinics throughout the country as he did for many, many years on his own and, last but not least, his developing what is considered (and has been since I can remember) the best basketball shoe in the world-to me this should more than qualify him for admission to the hall of fame as a contributor. As the story is told by Gloria Schroeder Chuck Taylor s longtime nurse - the call to give him the news that he had been accepted into 1969 Hall of Fame while Taylor was smoking a pipe in the shower. Apparently he walked out of the shower naked and dripping wet to take the call telling him he had been accepted. Chuck Taylor s whole life was spent sharing and teaching the joy of basketball. His time and passion for the sport is still celebrated through his story and Converse Chuck Taylor tennis shoe that s named after him and is more popular today than it ever has been.

5 TIMELINE: 1901 Charles Hollis Taylor was born June 24, 1901, Brown County, Indiana, IN 1921 Taylor hobbled into the Converse Chicago sales office complaining of sore feet and persuaded executives to create a shoe especially for basketball Chuck Taylor went to high school at Franklin (Ind.) Wonder Five Chuck Taylor was nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame by Hoosier Charles Stretch Murphy Chuck Taylor died June 23, 1969, at the age of 68 Port Charlotte, FL.

6 tick tick BOOM! By Jacob Haaf Monday, October 19th, 1987 on this date the collapse of stock prices on Wall Street triggered similar declines in markets around the world. This stock market crash, or Black Monday was the largest one-day market crash in history. The DOW Jones, one of the most watched stock indexes in the world, lost 22.6 percent of it s value or five hundred billion dollars on that day. Markets across the world plunged and when individual investors heard that was happening, they rushed to sell their stock. This led to panic. The more people that sold the more people lost and the more scared they got and continued rushing to sell their stock. The majority of investors who were selling did not even know why they were selling except for the fact that everyone else was selling. This emotional behavior is one of the main reasons the stock market crash happened. After the crash, many stock market exchanges were shut down for the day. STOCK MARKET FACTS: The definition of a stock market is an academy where humans and computers buy and sell shares of companies for money. 1. Wall street was laid out behind a twelve foot high wood stockade across lower Manhattan in The stockade was built to protect the Dutch settlers from British and Native American attacks. 2. The Stock Market began in May 17th, 1792 when 24 stock brokers and merchants signed the Buttonwood Agreement. The Buttonwood Agreement which took place on may 17, 1792, started the New York stock exchange. 3. The Buttonwood Agreement was named after the tree which it was signed under, a buttonwood tree outside of 68 Wall Street New York. 4. Muriel Siebert was the first woman to own a seat on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and Joseph L. Searles III was the first African American member of the Exchange in Originally stocks were traded in what s known as a call market. The President would read out each stock and the brokers would trade them. Therew was a morning session and an afternoon session.

7 ...tick...tick...tick...tick...tick... The first stock ticker was invented by Edward A. Callahan in A stock ticker is a report of the price for certain securities updated throughout the trading sessions by the various stock exchanges. A security is a financial instrument of measurement that represents an ownership position in a corporation that is publicly traded, such as Apple or Nike. A tick is any change in price whether that moving is up or down.

8 The Perfect not-so-perfect Shoe By Jacob Haaf Converse, the company that makes Chuck Taylors basketball shoes previously made rain boots. They started in 1908 as a rubber shoe company that produced galoshes. The shoe that changed everything was the Converse All-Star that debuted in 1917 as an athletic sneaker and quickly became the number one shoe for basketball, which was a relatively new sport at that time. The players loved the shoes so much that in the late 1940s, most of the NBA sported Chuck Taylors. Even though many teams switched to leather Adidas in the late 1960 s. Chuck Taylors remain the best-selling basketball shoes of all time, even though very few people wear them for basketball anymore. The All-Star design hasn t really changed since Only making high top shoes, in 1962, Converse rolled out its first oxford style, which has a lower ankle than Chuck Taylor All-Stars. Previously, it had just been a high-top shoe. Four years later, the company would introduce the first colors other than black and white. The company is nervous to change things because All-Stars make up the majority of the company s profits, and like any converse shoe fans love the design. In the 1990s, when the company tried to introduce All-Stars that were more comfortable and had a different design that was better, hardcore Converse fans were not happy. They missed the imperfections in the rubber tape that lines the base of the shoe, according to the Washington Post. The company went back to making a slightly imperfect shoe that all the fans loved and still love so much it s the most popular shoe sold. Cool Facts about Converse the Company and Converse the shoe: 1. Converse used to be a rain boot company started in Sylvester Stallone in when playing Rocky Balboa in the original Rocky movie trains in Converse. 3. The famous current rapper Wiz Khalifa wears them all the time, and he loves the shoes. 4. Converse launched a recording studio in 2011, Rubber Tracks based in Brooklyn where bands can record for free. 5. Converse didn t intend their shoes to be punk, they were designed specifically for sports and athletics. Original Converse Chuck Taylor basketball shoe1917 Collector s Edition Bart Simpson Chuck Taylor shoe 2015

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