Don Bennett: Still conquering mountains

When Don Bennett had his right leg severed in a boating accident in Seattle in 1972, and had the left leg mangled, he didn't panic.

What he did do was use his son's belt to make a tourniquet to stop the blood flow in one leg, and use his hands to keep his other leg together the best he could.

Then, the 42-year-old waited for help.

He lost the one leg, but the other, despite needing nearly 500 stitches, was saved.

While most might have given up on life's dreams after such a mishap, Bennett was just getting started with dreaming big.

"Since my accident I've been very busy. Very busy," he said. "I've done a lot of things as an amputee."

He would go on to win medals in amputee downhill skiing. He was the first amputee to climb Mt. Rainier. He played, then formed amputee soccer teams and league. He has coached skiing and soccer, too.

And today, at 80, he's far from done.

He left for Argentina this week, where he'll attend the amputee world cup of soccer, which marks 30 years since Bennett started amputee soccer in Seattle. While there, he'll present the Don Bennett Golden Foot Award. Today, more than 20 countries have hundreds of amputee soccer teams.

"In regular world cup, the athlete with the most goals gets the Golden Boot Award. When I was watching it, I came up with the idea. Instead of Golden Boot, I changed it to the Golden Foot Award for all amputees."

The father of seven has always been a man who only knew how to push ahead, how to get things done, how to stay the course.

"I've done OK," he says with a smile.

It started when he was 16 and he lied about his age, falsified his birth certificate so he could join the Army. He would spend three years during World War II in Italy.

Then there was Mount Rainier.

After failing to reach the summit of Rainier his first try as an amputee (a blizzard rolled in when they were 400 feet from the top in 1981) he returned the next year and did it.

Bennett, who operated a video training center business when he lived in the Seattle area, has always only worked for himself.

"I've always been an entrepreneur. I've never worked for anyone else. No one would hire me," he said, laughing.

He moved to Coeur d'Alene and started Watches by Gosh, and Accessories by Gosh 14 years ago. He finally just sold Watches by Gosh in the Plaza Shops with plans to retire.

But first, there's that Golden Foot Award to present - many, many of them, he hopes.

"I'm going to be taking it for many years. Twenty plaques, I'm hoping I'm able to present the last one. I'll be 100 years old by then."

And until then, he plans to help disabled veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"My objective is to give back," he said.

"I've got some years ahead of me, and the simple thing that I really want to do, I want the amputees who are coming home now, and there's a lot of them, I want to at least give them an opportunity to get out on the field and play soccer. If they do that, I know it's going to make a big difference to them."

How hard was it for you to get past the accident of losing your leg?

Your first thought when you're in the hospital is why me? I was a tennis player, a skier, I had all the nice things in life. I had a nice home, I had a great business. But then all the sudden I'm in the hospital with one leg and the other leg hurt. It was very scary, to be honest with you, very scary, because you don't know what it's like to be an amputee. My first thoughts are, 'I'll never ski again.' and then the other thoughts are, 'I can't even run anymore.' So you start getting a very negative feeling.

How did you turn things around?

My life changed because the next thing after you get out of the hospital, you have to get a prosthesis, you have to wear an artificial leg. So I'm going to this prosthesis place to get an artificial leg. Right in front of me was this young guy in a wheelchair, he had two missing legs. I'm standing right behind him, I'm feeling sorry for myself and it's just like something hit me in the head. I said, 'God, this guy has two missing legs. I am very, very lucky.' After that, I could swear to you I have never felt sorry for myself. So my feeling sorry for myself was a short period of time.

How did skiing with one leg go when you first tried?

I learned how to ski all over again. It's tough doing those things. I was a good skier with two legs. Trying to ski with one leg, the first couple times, all you're doing is falling and falling. Finally, I learned how to do it, I got better and better.

When I was in the hospital, I was signing our contract for our place at Crystal Mountain. The Realtor came into the hospital and said 'Don, do you want to cancel this out?' My first thought, 'What am I going to do at Crystal Mountain? I can't even ski.' Then I said, 'No we won't cancel out because we'll get up there, I'm really buying it for the family.'

I started to ski, got better and better, went to the nationals, won gold and then started to teach skiing. After that, my attitude was right, I knew what I wanted to do. I got involved in soccer.

What led you to start amputee soccer?

One day I was in the garage and Tom, my young son, he was 13 at the time, was shooting baskets. He wasn't great. If he was a good basketball player, there would not be a world cup today. So he kept missing it and the ball kept bouncing. I was standing outside with my one leg and crutches. And it kept bouncing down to my foot. I couldn't pick it up with my hands, so I just kicked the ball with my good leg and I did that four or five times. That evening, I started to think about it. The next morning I thought, 'Wait a minute. We can ski with one leg. Why can't we play soccer with one leg?'

So I called some of my friends who taught skiing, they're all amputees, and I said, 'Come over to Mercer Island High School.' I said, 'Be sure, don't bring your artificial legs.' So we started kicking the ball around on a Sunday morning, it was just like magic. They got excited about it, so we made a pact at that time. Why don't we play next week? And we played next week. The problem we had, we couldn't find other amputees to play soccer with so we came up with the idea, let's challenge other soccer teams. So we started to challenge other soccer teams. They came out to play with us, we gave them crutches, and they had to play on crutches by raising one leg up. All of our goalies had one arm, so they had to put one arm behind their back. We started to have a lot of fun.

We played more teams and others started playing. El Salvador picked it up and it kept growing.

How hard was it to retire from Watches by Gosh?

It was hard to give up because I had great customers. I had a lot of fun. So many of my customers became good friends. I had a great career because I always looked forward to going to work. But maybe at 80, maybe I'm old enough to retire.

No slowing down and taking it easy?

At 80, I still believe you have to keep yourself in good shape. You go down to the Kroc Center, and you'll see me swimming a mile every other morning.

So what's next for you?

My objective now is very, very simple. I would never retire if I didn't have something to do. I'm not the type of guy that's going to sit around at the beach. My objective right now, first I'm going to Argentina to present the Golden Foot Award to the top athlete who scores the most goals. And then when I get back, my objective is to go to Walter Reed hospital. That's where a lot of veterans are going when they come back from Iraq and Afghanistan. I know what it is to be in the hospital with one leg as a young person. It's a feeling, 'Why me? I'll never be able to run.' A lot of those soldiers in hospital beds right now are thinking, 'Why me? I'll never be able to do this, I'll never be able to do that.'

They're looking at the wrong part of their life. So many of them are despondent.

How can you help them?

My objective is to get them back on the soccer field. All of the sudden, instead of feeling bad for themselves, they start feeling good for themselves. They're building their self-esteem, they're building their self-image. Anytime you can change any person from feeling sorry for themselves to having good self-esteem, a good attitude, to feeling good about themselves, then they can do about anything they want. So that's basically, what I'm going to be doing.

Why do all this?

I'm doing things that I want to do, not that I have to do. It's a great reward to watch people get their lives together.

It's a little give back. Giving back to people. So that's the story.

How would you describe yourself and your attitude about life?

I'm an optimist. I'm the guy who's always lecturing people, you can do any damn thing you want.