DS Talk » me stuck. Thats how Saunders had Palmer lis

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Somewhere in Wayzata, Minnesota, a bunch of teenage boys are plotting when and where theyll next sing Happy Birthday to their coach.The high school swim team tradition started as a random goof, when the boys sensed the best way to get to their modest mentor was to make him the center of attention. So theyd get the song going at a fast food joint and encourage the whole place to join in. Theyd bellow it out on the bus coming back from a meet, or in any public place. David Plummer would just shake his head.Plummer wont turn 31 until October, but the new Olympic 100-meter backstroke bronze medalist is likely to be serenaded before that. Its part of a gift that has been a long time coming.Monday, he and winner Ryan Murphy continued the Americans dominance in the event, extending a gold-medal streak that dates back 20 years and spans six Olympic Games. Murphys gold-medal time of 51.97 seconds was an Olympic record. Plummers 52.4 was a milestone of a different kind.The Oklahoma native, one of four brothers, qualified for his first Olympic team at the U.S. trials last month in Omaha, Nebraska. In the long annals of American swimming, only one older Olympic rookie has stood on the podium: Edgar Adams, who won a silver medal in 1904 for an event called plunge for distance, in which swimmers dove into the pool and floated motionless as far as they could.Plummer, his salt-and-pepper hair still damp, told reporters he didnt have the ideal race but still felt elated.[Murphy] is going to be one of the best of all time and already is, Plummer added. Just to be a little part of his journey is a really cool thing.Along with having no visible ego, Plummer has no agent and no sponsor other than a relationship with Mizuno that provides him with competition suits. He logged the mileage that got him to Rio as a husband, a father of a 3-year-old boy and an infant son, and a coach at two different Twin Cities area high schools -- gigs that keep him on the pool deck at least a couple of hours a day from August through March.He is so down-to-earth and dedicated that its hard to picture the younger version of himself he has described as arrogant and prone to party a little too hard. But Plummer says that less disciplined era doesnt account for the 0.12 seconds that cost him a slot on the London 2012 team. He was hopeful enough of making the team that he cleared his calendar for late July and early August.After that painful near miss, Plummer took off on a monthlong driving trip west with his German shepherd mix riding shotgun, camping, visiting national parks and spending time with friends and extended family. From the outside, it looked like a purposeful voyage to introspection. Plummer, with characteristic self-deprecation, says he simply wanted to avoid hanging around and driving his new bride, Erin Forster, crazy.He returned with renewed commitment, despite the odds stacked against an athlete his age staring down a four-year tunnel. Doubt continued to afflict him any time I had a bad practice, he said. Is this right, is this what Im supposed to be doing?His wifes support was indispensable. Plummer and Forster met on a recruiting trip to the University of Georgia; she enrolled there and he chose the University of Minnesota, but two years later she transferred and they chose each other. They married just before the Olympic trials four years ago.When David weighed whether to continue swimming, she told him, Youd be cheating yourself if you dont. Theyd both finished school with no debt and knew they could stay afloat on what Erin, a physician currently doing a fellowship in neonatal medicine, earned early in her career.We were so lucky it was realistic and we didnt have to struggle with finances, Plummer said.The most intriguing question about Plummer may be when he finds time to sleep. Hes a volunteer assistant for the Minnetonka High School girls team in the fall, working with his close friend and fellow former Gopher Dan Berve.He knows when to challenge them, when to praise them, Breve said. Hes not the kind of guy whos going to blow up on you. He loves being a part of something bigger than himself.Plummer is the head boys coach at Wayzata High School, where one of his volunteer assistants is Peter Rocca, who won two silver medals and a medley relay gold at the 1976 Montreal Games.Rocca recruited Plummer for the position three years ago. The school promptly won the state championship and Plummer was named Minnesota Coach of the Year.He connects with every single kid and makes them feel special, said Rocca, an investment company executive. If you werent getting along, you had to go talk to him. The seniors had to take care of the eighth graders. Theyre squirrelly males at that point, and they all took a lot more responsibility.Monday, Plummer said he didnt think his medal would change his coaching style.Getting high school kids to listen to anything isnt super-easy, but hopefully it gives me a little more credibility, he said.Theres a decent chance of that. At the very least, theyll have to believe him when he says wishes made over candles on a cake sometimes need a little time to come true.ESPN Stats and Information reporter Paul J. Carr contributed to this story. 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LATROBE, Pa. -- A farewell to the King turned somber when Jack Nicklaus, his voice cracking as a large tear formed in his left eye, urged the elite and the everyman to remember how Arnold Palmer touched their lives and please dont forget why.I hurt like you hurt, Nicklaus said. You dont lose a friend of 60 years and dont feel an enormous loss.The service Tuesday at Saint Vincent College in Palmers hometown was filled with just as much laughter and warmth from stories of the most significant figure in modern golf. Nearly 1,000 golf dignitaries from around the world, referred to by former LPGA Commissioner Charlie Mechem as the elite battalion of Arnies Army, crammed into the basilica.Some 4,000 others headed to remote sites across the college to watch. Long lines of traffic formed two hours before the service began.Palmer died Sept. 25 in Pittsburgh at age 87 as he was preparing for heart surgery. His family had a private funeral Thursday and asked that a public service be held after the Ryder Cup so no one would be left out.We were looking down at the air strip and the fog just suddenly lifted, Ernie Els said after landing in one of several private jets that descended on Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe. This is a beautiful day. Weve all met different people in life. He was a man who didnt change. It didnt matter if you cut the grass or you were a president. He was the same with everybody. He was just ... he was the man.Palmer won 62 times on the PGA Tour, including seven major championships. He inspired the modern version of the Grand Slam by going over to the British Open and making it important in the eyes of Americans again. He was a captain twice in the Ryder Cup, and the gold trophy the Americans won Sunday at Hazeltine sat on a table for guests to see as they took their seats.But this service was more about the lives Palmer touched than the tournaments he won.In the large portrait at the front of the stage, Palmer wasnt holding a golf club or a trophy. It was just the King and that insouciant grin that made everyone feel like they were friends, even if they had never met.Have there been better golfers? Perhaps, but not many. Has anyone done more for the game? No one has come even close, former R&A chief Peter Dawson said. Is there a finer human being? I havent met one yet.Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III, Phil Mickelson and a few other members of the U.S. team were there. So was the generation before them, Tom Watson and Curtis Strange, Lee Trevino and Mark OMeara. Dozens of others were there, along with the heads of every major golf organization. All of them alternately smiled and wiped away the occasional tear.ddddddddddddPGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said he had known Palmer since 1957 -- Finchem was 10 that year -- because when you saw him play, it was the same thing as meeting him. He said Palmer brought so many people to golf because of his attacking style, his television appeal and how he carried himself.He had this other thing, Finchem said. It was the incredible ability to make you feel good -- not just about him, but about yourself. I was amazed by how people reacted to him. He took energy from that and turned right around and gave it back.Mechem, the former LPGA commissioner who became one of Palmers closest advisers, set the tone for the service by asking the crowd to remember the image of Palmer walking up the 18th fairway, hitching up his pants and giving a thumbs-up. Still, a touch of sadness was inevitable.Theres an old saying that there are no irreplaceable people, Mechem said, his voice cracking toward the end of the ceremony. Whoever made that line didnt know Arnold Palmer. There will never be another.Among the more poignant tributes was Palmers grandson, Sam Saunders, who plays on the PGA Tour.There wasnt a big difference between the man you saw on TV and the man we knew at home, Saunders said.Saunders grew up calling him Dumpy because thats what his older sister said when trying to call him Grumpy. The name stuck. Thats how Saunders had Palmer listed in his phone, and he used that number more times than he could remember.The last call was a week ago Sunday at 4:10 p.m., shortly before Palmer died.He answered on the first ring. He was in the hospital preparing for surgery the next morning, Saunders said. He told me to take care of my babies, my entire family. I intend to do that and make him proud. I told him I loved him. He told me he loved me back. That was the last thing we said to each other, and I will cherish that the rest of my life. And Ill take the best piece of advice he gave me, to talk less and listen more.Palmers co-pilot, Pete Luster, flew Palmers plane over Saint Vincent College for nearly an hour before the service. The crowd gathered outside the basilica when it was over to watch Luster fly overhead and tip the wing.He made one more pass in the plane -- tail number N1AP -- and then soared upward until it disappeared behind a large, white cloud.Higher. Faster. Thats how Palmer used to fly, thats how he used to play. Thats how he lived.He was the king of our sport, Nicklaus said. And he always will be. ' ' '