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One Blazer fan wins by losing

Commentary: Matt Calkins

The Columbian
Published: March 25, 2011, 12:00am
2 Photos
Arthur Wornum before, after &quot;The Biggest Loser.&quot;
Arthur Wornum before, after "The Biggest Loser." Photo Gallery

PORTLAND — There was a major loser in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, and no, this isn’t a Washington Wizards reference. This guy has dropped a lot more than 51 games over the past few months.

As the Trail Blazers hammered their overmatched competition earlier this week, the world-class loser looked on from section 103 while seated next to his father, wife and two children.

You would have had to look closely to spot him, though. And really, that’s the best part.

Two years ago, Portland resident Arthur Wornum weighed 646 pounds — a Category 5 health risk for a man of any height but a virtual death sentence for one standing 5-foot-8.

A star lineman for Cleveland High in Portland, Wornum was committed to playing Division III football in Minnesota before his failure to complete his high school classes derailed his plans. A few years later, he lost his six-figure-salaried job at an insurance agency upon “making a mistake with one of my deposits.”

As you can imagine, the losses created a sizable pit in Wornum’s stomach. So he decided to give it some company.

Calories became Wornum’s coping mechanism, and as his gut expanded, his world condensed. He became immobile. His wife called him “Al Bundy” because of his refusal to let go of his high school glory days and live in the present.

As painful as anything, though, was the fact that Wornum was forced to suspend his longtime tradition of attending Blazers games with his father, Jesse. Not because he was depressed. Not because he was embarrassed to be seen in public. He simply couldn’t fit in his seat.

“I just stopped asking him to come. I would give my tickets away,” Jesse said. “I didn’t have the heart to tell him why. I think inside he knew why, but he didn’t want to ask.”

Jesse was never shy about broaching the topic of his son’s weight with him, but no matter how much encouragement, pleading or chiding he’d receive, Arthur would always decline help before he would food.

Then one day his son asked, “Daddy, are you ever going be able to come down the stairs again?” No drill sergeant’s words could be as powerful.

In February of 2009, the once ultra-competitor committed himself to losing. No more second helpings. No more weeks of inactivity. Not only was he going to come down the stairs, he’d sprint back up if need be.

By the time Wornum was selected as a contestant for NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” last fall, he’d shed 139 pounds — although he was still the most obese contestant in the show’s history.

Wornum held firm, though. He got himself down to 390 pounds by Week 9 and is at 306 now. If he can drop 94 more pounds by the show’s finale, he will have lost 400 over a two-year span. But he can still reward himself a little in the meantime.

For months, Wornum maintained that his goal was to get back to a Blazers game — not only to resurrect the tradition with his father, but to engender one with his children. And on Tuesday evening, it happened. For the first time since the 2000 playoffs, Wornum was back in the Rose Garden.

Never has a 35-point blowout been so satisfying.

“I can’t tell you how good it felt. The best part about it wasn’t just sitting there with my dad, but sitting there with my kids, being able to pass this onto them,” Wornum said. “To be honest, I never even paid attention to the score. I was so in the moment — watching my kids at the game, eating their cotton candy, eating their hot dog. I could care less what the score was.”

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One day later, Jesse got choked up reminiscing about it, saying that he will never forget the “great big Kool-Aid smile” on Arthur’s face in the first half.

“It brought flutters to my heart,” Jesse said. “He’s come such a long way. I’m getting a little emotional just talking about it.”

Jesse confesses he left in the third quarter Tuesday, but Arthur stuck it out. And with just more than five minutes left in the game, he watched Blazers center Chris Johnson jam an alley-oop pass to push the Blazers over the 100-point threshold. You know what that means — free Taco Bell Chalupa coupons for everyone in attendance.

Safe to say Wornum passed that on to his kids as well.

Matt Calkins covers the Trail Blazers for The Columbian. Reach him at 360-735-4528 or matt.calkins@columbian.com

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