Montana Viewpoint: Manliness misrepresented

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering Testosterone tests for troops? President Trump insisting on big shoes for big shots? I can tolerate a lot of idiosyncrasies in people, it makes them interesting, but to have our nation’s leaders obsessing about manliness and foot sizes seems pretty strange, maybe an indicator of something hidden deep in their psyches.

Take shoe size. Early this year Trump gave members of his cabinet shoes that he thought were pretty sharp; Florsheim oxfords at $145 a pop. But besides being cheap, the shoes were too big. Remember pictures of Marco Rubio galumphing around the Oval Office in shoes that looked about three sizes too large? 

Some men believe big feet are manly. I understand that, my first father-in-law was such a person. Bud Presley was a basketball coach at Menlo Junior College in California. He was what you might call a coach’s coach. Few people outside basketball knew much about Bud, but people in basketball sure did. If you follow the sport, which I don’t, you will recognize the names of coaches who played for Bud at Menlo; Jeff Van Gundy, Kurtis Townsend and Steve Lavin. Bud spoke with Bobby Knight weekly and shared just about the same temperament. During one game Bud became so furious at a player for not charging his opponent that he ran onto the court, picked the player up and threw him into the third row of seats. The officials were so stunned they let play go on as if nothing had happened.

After the game Bud said he hid from the player who he thought was going to beat him up, but when they met they hugged and cried.

Oh, yeah, the big shoes. Bud was talking to a prospect sitting on the bench when he asked the boy to go out and shoot a few. But the boy hadn’t brought his shoes. So Bud looks at his feet, says “size 11, right? Here, take mine.” Bud takes off his shoes, takes the wadding out of the toes, and hands them to the kid who is looking at Bud’s size 8 1/2 stockinged feet. “Oh, yeah,” says Bud, “Small feet aren’t manly.”

So Bud had his idiosyncrasies, but he didn’t command the United States military or have the code for nuclear destruction.

And testosterone. I assume Bud’s was normal, for what that matters, but it didn’t stop him from teaching poetry or loving his players, or crying, or recommending that coach Ken Ammann read “The Catcher in the Rye” so he could understand the emotions of the young men he would coach. Nor did it prevent him from serving as a paratrooper in World War II.

In his declining years he asked his only granddaughter, my daughter, why she didn’t get married.

“Daddy Bud,” she said. “I’m gay.”

“Oh, yeah,” he replied. “I forgot.” Then, “You know I love you.”

What I am bothered about is that our leaders, mostly Hegseth and Trump, are worried about things like shoe size, hair styles and manliness that don’t make a hell of a lot of sense when you are tasked with running a nation as consequential as America. It is all small stuff of no importance and doesn’t even deserve the time of day. In a word, it is petty.

What is not petty is being able to feed a family, to get medical care when you need it, to not be hounded or shot dead by people with authority but no brains.

If our leaders wanted to be men, they could do worse than to emulate coach Bud Presley who could instill loyalty and love in his players just as he taught them to be tough and fearless, yelling to them, “Charge, charge, charge!”

His record for his 12 years at Menlo (1971-1982) was 266 wins and 88 losses with five consecutive Coast Conference championships.

And by the way, he named his plays for poets.

“Percy Shelley, dammit! Percy Shelley!”

Jim Elliott served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.