Then-Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune dives into the pool at Manion Park on May 26, 2002. Tulsa World File
Then-Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune jumps into the pool at Manion Park on May 26, 2002. His nine year old son Billy watches. Tulsa World File
Probably the most famous photo of former Mayor Bill LaFortune — at least around the Tulsa World newsroom — shows him leaping into a city pool during a media event for the summer pool season.
Star-spangled swim trunks, halfway “cannonball” (or jack-knife) pose, a gaping mouth. Makes you want to jump in with him.
But it’s been more than a decade since that celebrated plunge in 2002, and Manion Park, the site of that LaFortune media event, no longer has a pool.
Like eight other Tulsa parks, it will get less expensive “water features” instead — water cannons, ground sprays and the like.
But Tulsans still love their pools. And with only five left, we need someone to pique our pool passions even more now.
So whose cannonball is big enough to splash the collective faces of Tulsa’s 400,000 pool-ready citizens, break the awkward toe-dipping, water-testing phase and get us to jump in already — for years to come?
Allow me to nominate City Councilor Blake Ewing.
Full disclosure: It was his idea.
“Love the pools,” he said at a recent council committee meeting. “In fact, I’m willing to pose for any publicity photos for the pools.”
Sure, he immediately clarified that he was kidding – especially when he offered to wear a Speedo. But let’s not let this idea drop so quickly.
It’s been a while since Tulsa’s had the kind of prune-fingered leadership that former Mayor LaFortune exuded. Chlorine dripping from the sunscreen-smothered body of a true visionary. I call it “cannonball leadership.”
So come on, councilor. Lead us in.
And ignore the cynics like LaFortune’s cousin, Councilor G.T. Bynum, who cautioned, “Careful, I have a family member who offered that a few years ago and got a picture on the cover of the paper.”
You of all people should know, councilor, since memorable photo-ops are in your blood: That’s the point.
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