People achieve greatness in politics, music, art and sports for a variety of reasons, usually through the encouragement of family, teachers or coaches.
In our Postcard from Home, Bob Jacobs takes us back in time over fifty years to reveal a story of greatness that began with a cruel remark to a kid.
As a high school student in 1955, Kewanee native Bill Scott wanted nothing more than to play sports. His coach said "You're going to have to learn one thing that you're too small to be an athlete. You're never going to be an athlete. Just learn to accept it."
So Bill turned his hurt feelings to a sport of a different kind. His passion was motorcycles and in 1959 he won the most coveted trophy in the world first place in the 100 mile race on the beach in Daytona. On the 50th anniversary of the event, he and friend Denny Packee of Reiman's Harley-Davidson went back to visit.
They found the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association stage a Daytona race every year. Bill thought of that rotten old coach and looked at Denny.
"I said you know I think I still have it, I could get into this. So last fall Denny says lets get your KR out and do a restoration. So we were going to just restore it and then take it to Daytona to run in the legends easy lap. Just go out there. And as it progressed along, we decided we would get it ready to be competitive," said Bill Scott.
It was a full court press at Reiman's Harley-Davidson service department with no guarantee at all that the KR-750 would actually start up and run after 30-years in a basement.
Tune in to WEEK TV's News 25 at 6 or WEEK.com on March 26th to see how Bill's trip to Daytona turns out in our Postcard from Home.
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