Three specific speeches caught the minds of the Fantastic
Five. These speeches include: Muhammad Ali—“Greatest of All Time”, Tim Tebow—“The
Promise”, and Eric Thomas—“Secrets to Success.” Beginning with our third ranked
speech, “Greatest of All Time,” was a poem about himself. It was a lighthearted
speech that had the crowd laughing, though at the same time he was talking
about how badly he was going to defeat his opponents, and was specifically
geared towards the current match against Sonny Liston in 1963. Muhammad Ali
took over the press during his time of championship boxing, though usually used
it to discuss racial and religious issues. He was an active man in the
community aside from boxing alone. You can tell through this speech that he was
a confident man in several aspects.
Our second favorite speech was Tim Tebow’s “The Promise.”
This speech was given before all of his fame in the NFL. It was September 27,
2008 and the Gators had just lost to Ole Miss. Tebow apologized for the loss as
his plan was to execute an undefeated season. This was a turning point for him
and his team, and prior to the speech, the Gators turned around and won the
national championship that same year. We have all always liked Tebow as a
player in the NFL and his Christian values, but knowing that he was even a
genuine guy back in his college days gives us much more respect for him.
Through this speech you can tell that he loves the game, team and his fans—and ended
up showing it when it mattered.
Finally, our favorite speech was Eric Thomas’ “Secrets to
Success.” This speech is very powerful. Although it is a general success
speech, it can be used in any sports setting as well. Eric Thomas grew up in
Detroit, Michigan with his mother and without a father. He dropped out of high
school and became homeless. He was homeless for two years, and once he found
his faith was able to get up and turn his life around, starting with McDonalds.
He ran off of little to no sleep, got his undergraduate at Oxford and ended up
taking a job at Michigan State University in educational leadership. He has
given several speeches to collegiate and professional athletes. This particular
speech speaks to us, though. He speaks about his coming up and becoming
successful, and then gives pointers as to how one becomes successful. He doesn’t
just give point a, b, and c. For example, one of the quotes from his speech
starts with a man who asks a Guru how he can become successful. The Guru tells
him if he wants to be successful, meet him at the beach at four in the morning.
In short, the man shows up and is told to walk into the ocean. The guru comes
beside him and dunks him underwater, holding him there. Once the man comes back
up, the Guru says “how badly did you want to breathe just then?” The man says “more
than anything.” The Guru replies, “once you want to succeed as bad as you want
to breathe, that’s when you’ll be successful.” His speech gives you a perspective
on how you look at things, making you dig deeper and realize that maybe you
aren’t reaching as far as you should to achieve your goals. Eric Thomas is
there to give you a hard wake-up call—and that is why “Secrets to Success” is
our favorite speech.
