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Blood, sweat and gears: Kansan in 'Murderball'

By Lilly Rockwell // Wichita Eagle // August 14, 2005 

For anyone else it would be commonplace. Not worth remembering. Certainly not worth a scene in a movie.

But for Kansas native Bob Lujano, typing on a computer is nothing short of amazing.

His legs and most of his arms were amputated after he contracted a rare, deadly form of meningitis at age 9. Doctors gave him a few hours to live.

Now the world is watching him in "Murderball," a documentary about wheelchair rugby players preparing for the 2004 Paralympics. The movie, rated R for its language, opens in Wichita Friday at the Premiere Palace.

It focuses on four players, including the 36-year-old Lujano. Although he's not the star -- the movie devotes the majority of its time to two other players --Lujano is central to establishing the theme of "Murderball."

Watching Lujano prepare a meal, type on a keyboard and play cards shows how routine the lives of the disabled athletes have become.

"It very much shatters the stereotype of Christopher Reeve, who is considered the poster boy for quadriplegics," Lujano said. "It's going to shatter that because you're seeing these guys live independently. You're seeing them drive cars, have girlfriends, be married, have children."

Sports in the blood

Growing up in Newton, Lujano dreamed of becoming a sports star. He loved football and baseball, a gift from his father, who is known in the Newton area for being the first Hispanic quarterback on the high school team.

Sitting in an armchair at his grandmother's house in Newton, Lujano looks very much like a jock, wearing an orange sleeveless shirt and black shorts. He trims his brown hair short, military-style. He is laid-back with a warm smile and an easy laugh.

Visiting his grandmother's house--Lujano now lives in Birmingham, Ala. --brings back memories of 1979, when he became ill.

Across the street from the house, he points to the grassy field at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. That's where he used to run the bases during baseball games. In between games, he was an altar boy at the church.

A grave illness

One Sunday morning, his grandmother found him still in bed at 10 a.m. with a slight fever and some strange red bumps on his chest.

She ordered Lujano's uncle, Richard, to take him to the hospital.

"We arrived about 10:30 or 11," Richard Lujano recalled. By five o'clock in the afternoon Bobby was delirious, and the doctor, who had seen him earlier and was going to come back, could not be found.

Bobby's limbs were turning black and blue. Richard told the nurse he needed an ambulance to take his nephew to a hospital in Wichita.

During the trip, Bobby's heart stopped.

Ambulance workers revived him and brought the 9-year-old, clinging to life, to St. Francis in Wichita.

"You know, I was probably not supposed to survive this," Lujano said. "My uncle just recently told me that I did go into cardiac arrest and die that day. That's definitely a miracle right there from God, keeping me alive."

He lost his limbs to save his life. Today what's left of his arms is heavily scarred.

Lujano stayed at St. Francis for several months and finished recuperating in Chicago, where he was fitted for arm prostheses.

It was in Chicago that Bobby first crossed paths with fame. Out of thousands of people in a crowd, he met and was blessed by the pope. It cemented his already strong Catholic faith.

"He came down and blessed me in Latin, and gave me a rosary," Lujano recalled. "It was a very, very emotional moment for me after being raised Catholic."

Finding his passion

After Chicago, Lujano, then 10, went back to school in Dallas, where his father and sister lived.

"The most difficult part was that I was the only kid there with no arms and no legs," Lujano said. An affable guy, Lujano said it wasn't hard to make friends, act in plays, and have girlfriends. He just had to learn to laugh at himself. It put people at ease, he said.

After graduating from high school in 1988, Lujano went to the University of Texas at Arlington. There he discovered something that changed his life: The school offered wheelchair basketball.

Although Lujano didn't have the dexterity to be successful at wheelchair basketball, the experience opened a door he thought was closed.

Later, he went on to pursue a graduate degree in sports management at the University of Tennessee.

When he started working on the U.S. Paralympic organizing committee during the 1996 games, Lujano caught a glimpse of what would become his calling.

Wheelchairs slamming into one another. Men toppling over. Shouting. Sweat.

It was great, Lujano said. Finally, a sport he could enjoy.

"I had played wheelchair basketball three to five years and was never going to be any better than the 12th man on the team," Lujano said. "With rugby, I'm one of the better players in the league, one of the elite players."

Wheelchair rugby started in Canada and used to be called murderball.

Players use special wheelchairs designed to withstand direct hits as they crash into each other on the basketball court. The object is to get a volleyball past a goal line.

It is a highly aggressive, physical sport. Lujano brags that he is responsible for at least one broken finger and nose.

"It's become very competitive and very elite," Lujano said. "And you know you've got some guys that just want to do it for fun, and you've got guys like me that are real serious with it."

In the spotlight

Out of 500 players in the country, Lujano was one of 12 selected for the 2004 U.S. Team, which would compete in Athens.

When two filmmakers from New York showed up at the U.S. Paralympics practice in 2002, Lujano said he was skeptical.

"They were putting together a documentary," Lujano said. "There had never been anything seriously done with wheelchair rugby before."

Lujano said they started following the team everywhere.

"It shows us as aggressive people. I love to compete. I love to train for competition," Lujano said. "Our four years of training that promotes opportunities for people with physical disabilities to live healthy active lives are very much in line with the Olympians'."

Because Lujano was one of four men the movie spotlights, the filmmakers went to his house and his job. He works at the Lakeshore Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Birmingham, Ala., that promotes opportunities for people with physical disabilities to live independent lives , where he helps kids with disabilities like his.

Amid the skirt-chasing and animosity of other players, Lujano comes across as mostly ordinary.

The movie shows Lujano e-mailing a friend without his prosthetic hand, pouring a glass of juice, driving, playing cards, partying.

In the movie he says his philosophy is just to "work with what you have."

'I just want to live'

His family says he was always strong.

Richard recalls a visit to St. Francis, when he had to help Bobby turn over from his stomach to his back. White gauze covered his freshly amputated limbs.

"When I lifted him up, blood just gushed all over my arms and it was dripping and it was the first time that had ever happened," Richard said. "I thought 'Oh my God, how much pain he must be in.' "

Richard nearly broke down in tears in the hospital, but his nephew didn't flinch.

"He looked at me and said, 'uncle, it will be all right. Don't worry about it. It will be OK, uncle. I just want God to let me live,' " Richard Lujano remembered.

"He said, 'I just want to live.' "

NOW YOU KNOW

Murderball

• Wheelchair rugby originated in Canada.

• The game is played on a basketball court with four players per team.

• The object is to get a volleyball across a goal line. Slamming into another wheelchair is allowed and, in fact, encouraged.

• To keep the game fair, each player is given a score ranging from 0.5 to 3.5 based on his or her mobility. Bob Lujano is a 2. The team's combined score can't exceed 8.

 

 

Would you like Bob Lujano to speak at your function?  Bob is a motivational and very inspirational speaker.  He is available to speak at corporate events as well as conferences, schools and churches. Please contact him for full details.   Contact him here

 

 

 

 

Links:
             

Eagle Sportschairs
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www.EagleSportschairs.com