Stuttering A Common Denominator: Bob Love joins Tiger Woods, Johnny Damon, Bill Walton, Kenyon Martin

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (April 24, 2007) — NBA All-Star Bob Love joins an array well-known sports figures to speak out for those who stutter: Bill Walton, Johnny Damon, Tiger Woods, Kenyon Martin and Ken Venturi.

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 leads this year’s Stuttering Awareness Week because of his courage in coping with his speech impediment.”

“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 very well, but it underscores the public’s misunderstanding of stuttering that is still prevalent,” said Love.

Difficulty in finding a job for those who stutter is nothing new to him. In the 1970s, he made the NBA All-Star Team three times and led the Chicago Bulls in scoring seven straight years. But he still stuttered, and there were fewer media interviews or endorsements than a player of his caliber would normally receive.

“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, but personnel managers seldom call back someone who stutters on the telephone.”

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 Nordstrom department store.

Yet it was here that Love’s story began a slow and difficult turn for the better. First, there was the corporate manager of Nordstrom’s, 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.

“Today my message to young people who stutter and their parents is direct: Don’t wait, like I did,” Love emphasizes. “Speech therapy during childhood has the greatest chance of success.”

Bob Love joins an impressive list of famous people who have not let stuttering hold them back from rewarding lives and careers. For more information, call the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation at 800-992-9392 or visit www.stutteringhelp.org

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Byron Pitts

Byron Pitts has brought much attention to stuttering with his memoir, Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges, released in September, 2009. The book not only details his speech difficulties, but also his illiteracy until age 12 and his unstable family life. Pitts overcame the odds to become the chief national correspondent with ABC News.

John Melendez

He is a talented musician, actor, and comedian. Listen to a podcast.

Marilyn Monroe

From Edward S. Herrington's letter to Southcoasttoday.com

I am writing in response to "The importance of voice" (May 29), which mentioned that famous actor James Earl Jones struggled with stuttering. Another famous voice that you cited was the trademark breathy voice of Marilyn Monroe; however, you did not make mention of the fact that Marilyn Monroe also struggled with stuttering at various points in her life, sometimes very painfully.

Emily Blunt

Actress Emily Blunt struggled with stuttering early in her life. A teacher encouraged her to act in a school play at age 12 despite her stuttering.

Blunt’s name is prominently featured on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter.