Louie Zamperini, the American Olympic distance runner and indomitable POW during World War II, is without question one the most courageous and inspiring people I met during my three decades as a sports columnist.
Alvin James Matthews is undeniably another. “Unbroken” is Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling biography about Zamperini and that title equally described Alvin, who passed away in his sleep at age 50 on April 17.
Alvin was not famous, but his fortitude was measureless. The Ventura native ran two-dozen marathons around the globe in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and the North Pole, which had a race-day temperature of minus-27 degrees Fahrenheit that made even the polar bears shiver.
Alvin Matthews after finishing the 2016 Los Angeles Marathon.
But the most amazing race by the 1989 Buena High graduate was reaching the finish line of the far-warmer 2016 Los Angeles Marathon because he did so powered by his arms rather than his legs.
Two years earlier, Alvin slipped off the rooftop of his apartment and fell three stories. He landed on concrete, on his neck, suffering a “catastrophic spinal-cord injury at levels C5 to C7.” Translation: quadriplegia. Doctors called his survival “a miracle.”
But Alvin did more than survive – he thrived. Through numerous operations and endless physical therapy, he regained movement in both shoulders, arms and hands, albeit limited.
His tenacity, however, was limitless. “Pedaling” a recumbent three-wheeled racing handcycle Alvin navigated the L.A. Marathon escorted by two friends, Mike Pedersen and Brian Dao, running by his side.
“Before the race I was worried, ‘Can I do this?’ and I didn’t want to let myself down,” Alvin admitted to me afterward. “But as the race went on, I knew I couldn’t let down all these people who were supporting me.”
While the cheering from friends and strangers alike warmed his heart, Alvin’s body temperature was at constant risk of overheating because paralysis robbed his ability to sweat. Out of necessity, Mike and Brian doused him with water every mile until Mile 23 when a steady downhill to the finish line allowed the entrant in bib No. 307 to pull away from his two-man entourage.
Magically, wonderfully, unexpectedly, Alvin soon gained two new speedy escorts when his boyhood friends Chris Pryor and Roge Mueller sneaked onto the course pedaling beach cruisers. Together, the trio shared a joyride the final two miles and crossed the finish line as the race clock ticked 5 hours, 34 minutes.
In a photograph with the shiny finisher’s medal draped proudly around his neck, a neck once shattered and the reason he was laying supine in an aerodynamic handcycle, Alvin’s smile is golden and beatific. It is the jubilant smile of a boy in a Matterhorn sled at Disneyland for the first time. A smile of triumph, not tragedy.
“My accident has brought me closer to my mom and my brother,” Alvin shared then. “It has given me new friends. There is so much bad stuff in the world, but I’ve found there is also so much good. So many people have come out of the woodwork to help me, even strangers and anonymous angels. They have all helped me realize I still have a great life.”
Shortly before his great life far too soon ended, Alvin and I talked about getting together after our vaccinations for a Happy Hour for the first time since the pandemic began. Instead, I toasted his memory alone on a cheerless day.
And yet here is an amazing thing about Alvin: I could not help but smile thinking about his ever-present smile – and imagining him now running on healthy legs again.
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn. His SIGNED books are available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.
Personalized Signed copies of WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” are available at WoodyWoodburn.com