Stuttering Didn't Bench Bob Love
NBA All-Star Bob Love will lead the 2007 campaign for National Stuttering Awareness Week, May 14-20.
Love knows first-hand the experiences of someone who stutters. He has overcome considerable frustrations and setbacks since his glory years with the Chicago Bulls.
"Bob is more than a great basketball star and community leader," said Jane Fraser, president of the 60-year-old Stuttering Foundation. "He was chosen to serve as chairman because his courage in coping with his speech impediment serves as an excellent role model for the millions of people worldwide who stutter."
National Stuttering Awareness Week was established by Congress in 1988 to promote public information and understanding concerning this complex speech disorder.
"I know how important it is to receive speech therapy at an early age," Love said. "My grandmother Ella used to swat me in the mouth with a dishrag and say 'Spit out those words, Robert Earl,'" he recalls.
"That approach didn’t work, but it underscores the public’s misunderstanding of stuttering," said Love, who now speaks out about stuttering awareness regularly.
Difficulty in finding a job for those who stutter was no surprise to Love.
"After my retirement from the NBA, reaction by potential employers to my speaking difficulty turned the usually tough post-sports career adjustment into a living nightmare," Love relates. "I had a college degree and a well-known name, but personnel managers seldom call back someone who stutters on the telephone. For years, I was either in poor-paying jobs or out of work."
By the end of 1984 — some seven years after millions had watched him play NBA basketball — Love took the only job offered to him. He would wash dishes and bus tables for a Nordstrom department store in Seattle.
Yet it was here that Love’s story began a slow, grinding and difficult turn for the better. First, there was the corporate manager of Nordstrom’s restaurants, who offered to have his company pay for speech therapy. Enter speech pathologist Susan Hamilton, who would guide Love through countless hours of therapy in which he learned to manage his moments of stuttering and speak more fluently.
"Gradually, I learned how to work on my speech and prepare mentally for speaking situations," Love says today. "I began accepting a few speaking invitations and told whoever would listen about the trials of those who struggle with stuttering."
Adds Hamilton, "More than 20 years after his first speech therapy, Bob’s story continues to inspire people in all walks of life and it provides hope to children and adults who stutter. He reminds us speech pathologists of the importance of life’s work, and challenges us all to work on our individual problems so that we may experience the hidden gifts of those who stutter."
"My message to young people and parents is direct: Don’t wait, like I did," Love emphasizes. Speech therapy during childhood has the greatest chance of success."
Today, the comeback is complete. Bob Love rose from dishwasher to motivational speaker and director of community relations of the Chicago Bulls.
In 1988, the National Council on Communicative Disorders awarded him its Individual Achievement Award.
And, in 1990, the NBA Players Association chose Love to receive the Oscar Robertson Award for achievement outside basketball. Today, Bob Love remains very active with the Bulls. He travels to schools and other places discussing issues important to children and adults alike.
"There is no ‘cure’ for stuttering, but therapy and hard work often can help those affected to speak more easily and fluently," notes Fraser. "Bob Love joins an impressive list of famous people who have not let stuttering hold them back from important careers and rewarding lives. Now he is helping others." |