Walk like Woodie Day

Dr. Woodie Flowers was a huge inspiration to the FIRST community and other robotics competitions around the world. He coined the idea of Gracious Professionalism, competing with each other in a respectful and professional way. He defined the term as "a combination of empathetic response to others and...your obligation to return to society what society has given you". All of us in the FIRST and FTC community take this term to heart in competitions, in our team events, and out into the world.

Today, we honor Dr. Flowers and his contribution and foundation of FTC to what it is today. We celebrate the profound impact that he has had on so many lives, not just through FIRST, but through all sorts of robotics competitions. Thank you Woodie!

Below are our team members' own views on Gracious Professionalism and how it has impacted our team and our lives.