His face pulled from right to left by polio, William Nordmark could put up with the pointed fingers, stares and taunting done by children. He looked different and after all, he said, like him they were just kids.
But when those children’s parents started joining, that was different. From those moments came a fire.
“I developed a grit inside that people don’t have any clue about it,” he said. “It’s true of polio survivors.”
Having contracted and survived the disease before Jonas Salk’s vaccine became available in the mid-1950s, Nordmark poured his life into challenges.
It started with basketball, where he walked onto Georgia State’s team as a freshman for the 1967-68 season and is thought to be one of a few polio survivors who have played Division I basketball. He and past players will be honored before Saturday’s game against Texas-Arlington.
That grit carried him through a career helping the poor and underprivileged with Economic Opportunity Atlanta, those in poor health with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the business community with his consulting company that he still runs.
One of the things that drives him is his work with the Atlanta Rotary Club, a part of Rotary International, which in 1985 dedicated itself to eradicating polio when there were approximately 350,000 diagnosed cases around the world. When the international convention comes to Atlanta in 2017, Nordmark said they may be able to achieve their goal. He said there are approximately 50 diagnosed cases in the world, mostly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“That’s a big deal,” he said.
Nordmark was diagnosed with the disease in 1952 in Covington, Ky. His house was quarantined. He and his mother were forced to stay inside. Only his father could come and go. A sign was planted in the yard “Polio here.”
His parents would drive across the Ohio River to take him to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for treatments in an iron lung.
Even though he was just 2 1/2 years old, being placed that contraption is a memory he hasn’t forgotten.
“I thought they were going to kill me,” he said as they put the wet, wool cuff on his neck.
Other than the facial paralysis that is slightly noticeable today, he mostly recovered from the disease in six months.
Basketball became his love. After his family moved to East Point, he tried out for the varsity teams at Headland High School as a junior and senior. He was the last person cut each year, replaced by the tight end on the football team who needed to stay in shape.
“I made up my mind that I was going to continue to work and play,” he said.
He played every day at Sumner Park Gym in East Point from 2-6 p.m. He would go home to eat supper and then head back to play from 7-9 p.m. He learned he was good at defense and a terrific jumper who could put on a dunking show, even though it was against the rules to do so in games.
He enrolled at Georgia State to focus on business and decided to try to walk on to Jack Waters’ basketball team as a 6-foot-4 defensive dynamo. He made it. His reward was a free lunch every day.
As a sophomore, he was given lunch and parking. His junior year he received meals, parking, books and a bit more. For those two seasons, the team practiced at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center from 2-4 p.m. The Hawks would practice there from 12-2 p.m. Whoever the Hawks were playing would practice from 4-6. Nordmark got to watch some of the NBA’s star players — Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Bill Russell, Wes Unseld — practice.
Nordmark still marvels at how West’s jump shot would float like a knuckleball until it settled into the net, where it would suddenly spin.
“You tell me, how does that happen?”
Finally, for Nordmark’s senior year, he earned full tuition while he finished a degree in urban administration.
All because he didn’t let being cut in high school affect him.
“I don’t worry about rejection,” he said.
He points to an inspirational quote credited to Mary Anne Radmacher that is written on the back of his business card as to why.
Courage does not always roar,
Sometime, it is the quiet voice
At the end of the day saying
“I will try again tomorrow!”
Nordmark has one more fight to win. Polio isn’t yet done with him. An issue has developed with his bladder that doctors trace to more than 60 years ago when he contracted the disease.
He is trying to decide what he wants to do to solve the problem.
He seems worried, but is coming up with a plan to win.
He has a wealth of memories from which to draw for help.
“Life’s been really, really good to me, and playing basketball at Georgia State was part of that,” Nordmark said. “You become competitive and make contacts along the way. Having played athletics at a nice level, it’s helped make me who I am.”
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