Within 60 days, the Englishman and his remaining Omani companion had turned ignominy into gritty triumph by emerging some 800 miles (1,300km) further north in what is now the Qatari capital of Doha.
Scotland opened with defeat at Twickenham but bounced back with a record Six Nations win against at home to Italy and followed that with a gritty triumph over Ireland in Edinburgh.
Recruiters love to hear stories about gritty candidates triumphing against the odds.
"It was an opportunity to bring the story to a wider audience and Neil Patrick Harris was the perfect person to do that: he appeals to so many people and he was keen to go a bit grittier and he triumphed".
The series is level at one game apiece after the hosts replied with a gritty 16-15 second Test victory following the Lions' 23-21 trinmph in the opener.
And though United attacked and attacked on the roar of its crowd, even to the point of having its 6-foot-5, or 1.96-meter, goalie Anders Lindegaard going up to try to head in from corner kicks, Tottenham's triumph was sealed through redoubtable gritty defense in front of its own keeper, Brad Friedel.
From there, both authors follow the amazing trail of professional triumphs that would culminate in Merman's gritty performance in "Gypsy" in 1959.
Yes, these were tough men – "Football's a tough game for tough kids," Gillespie liked to remind me – but the daily challenges, tragedies and triumphs they experienced off the field were mind-boggling, a gritty crucible of modern America.
There's triumph and tragedy, teamwork and sacrifice, squandered potential and hard work, gritty determination and utterly destructive stupidity all the sorts of things you can find anywhere there are humans.
It demands gritty hard work, and even a successful lift looks painful, not like a soaring triumph.
