Before John Saint John, before Mike McCann and even before New Orleans… decades before Airlift Productions, there was the discus.
The Discus Throw Event in Track & Field marks the first time that I ever proved to myself beyond the shadow of a doubt that I could do ANYTHING I wanted in life – IF I wanted it badly enough, applied myself, and focused ALL my talents and efforts.
Some lesson.
I’ve often been asked through all these years and all these homes and all these recording studios – about the ever-present discus thrower, Myron’s classic Greek statue – The Discobolus.
Some homophobes have actually implied – or even come right out and said – that I must be “gay” to have some statue of a naked dude so prominently displayed in my Airlift Productions Studios.
Really?
Here’s the REAL story ….
Growing up as the middle child of five, with brothers Tommy & John, who were the true athletes of the family (basketball stars both, brother Steve’s star would rise later), my acting & musical talents often took the “backseat” in the eyes of my father and, at age 15, I was committed to proving that I could “measure-up” and “man-up”!
So, it was the discus that caught my eye. And all my attention.
I built a gym in the basement and went after it. Dumbbells and barbells rang and clanged late into the night.
I studied film (yes, 8mm film) of the great ones – Al Oerter, Jay Silvester, Ludvik Danek (look these guys up) – and perfected my throwing form and style.
Heck, I even almost ended up in the hospital, or maybe even dead, when at one track meet in the spring of 1970, some dude actually threw one INTO MY HEAD!
My mother Phyllis would later laughingly joke, “Oh, maybe that’s what’s wrong with Mike!”
But … I just kept at it. With. Dogged. Persistence. Day. After. Day. Week. After. Week.
I even poured the concrete in a vacant lot by the family home and built my own practice circle.
You know, real ‘Home Work’.
Like I said, I wanted it badly. I applied myself. I focused all my talents and efforts.
So, how did it all come out?
Well, the regulation high school discus weighs-in at 3 pounds-9 ounces, and competition models are made of wood and steel.
I placed 3rd-out-of-18 High Schools in the W.P.I.A.L. (Western PA Interscholastic Athletic League). And went on to set the Northwestern High School Discus Record in 1970 with a toss of 149 feet & 11 inches – that’s half a regulation football field!
My record stood unmatched, untouched and unbroken for 10 years.
No, I never got the cheers and accolades that accompanied my brothers’ pulse-pounding, jam-packed Shadyside & Northwestern High School basketball games; and Papa Charlie never did get a chance to make it out to catch me in action.
But I sure got something else.
The self-satisfied smile as week-after-week I won the discus event. And the knowledge that my mind & spirit had showed my flesh who was the boss.
You see, in metaphysical circles today much is made of the fact that the human mind – sort of like a rubber band – once stretched to a new idea … never quite returns to its original shape.
Mine never has.
And after graduation that year, another crazy passion entered my life – RADIO!
As yours truly, Airlift Mike Ziants, went from hurling discs … to spinning them … on turntables.
And New Orleans, Louisiana wasn’t even on the kid’s radar. Yet.
But that “discus dude”, Myron’s Discobolus, remains to this day in the Airlift Studios as an ever-present reminder that I can accomplish anything in the world that I want to – if I just put my mind to it.
Some lesson indeed.
For a teenage boy. In the summer of ’69.
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“No recording studio I have worked with has given such personal attention toward perfecting the ‘science of sound’ than Airlift Productions in the hands of Micheal Ziants. I thank him for the many voice-overs and sound effects he produced for my syndicated television shows “MORGUS PRESENTS”!
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