Restless with jet lag on a Nike trip to Vietnam 10 years ago, the first overseas trip of his life, then-University of Missouri athletic director Mike Alden wandered out of a luxury hotel in Ho Chi Minh City around 5:30 a.m.
Standing at a chaotic intersection of five roads converging with infinite motorbikes zooming by, Alden tried to figure out how to navigate the way across. “Like playing Frogger,” he calls such crossings now, perhaps channeling George Costanza’s moves on a “Seinfeld” episode.
But on this occasion, his way was made simply thanks to an older Vietnamese man taking his arm and slowly walking him across the road.