The Way It Used To Be
Football coaching legends share their experiences on the gridiron before laptops, charter jets and mega-million dollar facilities
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If there is one constant, it is that there are no constants. Over
time, everything changes and nothing remains quite the same. Never
is this more evident than in the profession of coaching football.
American Football Monthly recently sat down with a few of the game’s greatest
coaches for a peek inside the ever-changing world of football. From their first
job to their last, their first championship season to their first losing season,
AFM has captured it all – in their words. Men like Bum Phillips, Marv Levy,
John Gagliardi and coaches’ wives like Donell Teaff have provided
AFM with
an exclusive journey down memory lane. Maybe you can’t walk in their shoes,
but perhaps you can at least try them on. Over the course of the next few months,
AFM will feature several of these “firsts” in each issue. So sit
back and enjoy the game of football “the way it used to be.”
Family
Bum Phillips (Houston Oilers, 1974-80)
“This is a funny little tale that you may have heard before … I was
talking with a sports writer (Bob Costas) and he asked me ‘Why I always
took my wife on road trips?’ I said, ‘Because she is too damn ugly
to kiss goodbye!’ Now, obviously I was stretching the truth a bit.”
Donell Teaff (wife of Grant Teaff, Baylor, 1972-92)
“I have a favorite story that involves my youngest daughter (Layne) and
Joe Paterno. She was seven at the time, but she was very competitive even at
that age. Well, we were playing Joe Paterno’s Penn State team in the Cotton
Bowl and the game was rolling along very well. We had just evened the score and
decided to attempt and on-side kick. The coverage team overran the ball and Penn
State picked it up and ran in for the go-ahead score. Right after that they scored
again to make the ball game a little one sided.
“It was an extremely cold day, so Layne put her blanket over her head because
she was not about to watch what was happening to her daddy’s team. She
began to cry and said, ‘I don’t understand why Joe Paterno doesn’t
let us win this game because he has won lots of Cotton Bowls and we have never
won one before. I am going to go and throw a rock at him.’
“Well, she disappeared amongst 60,000 people. I attempted to follow her
and found her at the steps of the Penn State dressing room with a huge rock in
her hand. I took care of the rock and calmed her down. Now this is the part that
I love. Grant decided to have Joe come and speak to our team at the banquet because
it was a championship year and it was special and Joe said he would come. Well,
Layne was absolutely chagrinned that her daddy would invite the opposing coach
to come and speak at such a big and wonderful occasion.
“Layne said that she couldn’t imagine how she could even bring herself
to talk with him. Grant explained to Joe what had happened in a fun context,
of course. When Joe came he brought her a 5-foot, stuffed Nittany Lion, chocolate
from Hershey, Penn, and I tell you he charmed her right out of her shoes. He
stayed with us, along with his son that was the same age as Layne, that night.
The next morning Grant was going to take Joe to the airport and Layne asked if
she could skip school and go with them, so she did and on the way back she said, ‘he
was not nearly as bad as I thought he was.’”
Players
John Gagliardi (St. John’s, 1953-present)
“
We’ve always had good football players here at St. John’s. One of
our players Jim Lehman was one our first great backs … he was a quarterback
for us during his freshman year and led us to a conference championship. But
I decided to move him to tailback during his sophomore year to get him the ball
more. He ended up leading the nation in scoring, while playing both offense and
defense. I can’t imagine what he would have been able to do if he only
played one way.
“Anyway, one day a fellow asked me how Jim did back then and I told him
that he got about 18 touchdowns. He asked what I thought he would get if he played
now and I said, ‘Oh, I think he would get about eight or 10.’ He
looked at me dumbfounded and said, ‘Why only eight or 10?’ I said, ‘Geez,
you gotta understand that Jim is now 70 years old.’
“There is another part to this story.
“In 1976, Tom Lehman (winner of the 1996 British Open: PGA Tour), Jim’s
son, was an incoming freshman … he was a quarterback from a little town
(Alexandria, Minn.) about 55 miles from here. He was all set to come here … his
dad, Jim, was one our great players, plus his brother and uncle played here so
Tom was already a member of St. John’s family. Anyway, Jim called before
the season started and told me that Tom had decided to go to the University of
Minnesota. I said, ‘To play football?’ Jim said, ‘No, no, he
is going to play golf there.’ I said, ‘What? Golf? Jim, there is
no future in golf!’
Marv Levy (Buffalo Bill, 1986-97)
“
Dean Cain, the actor that played Superman (‘Lois & Clark: the New Adventures
of Superman’), came to Bills training camp in 1988 as a rookie free agent
out of Princeton. Dean was a defensive back, and a pretty good one, too. He had
set two college records as a safety at Princeton: most interceptions in a season
(12) and most per game (1.2). However, Dean was plagued by a nagging knee injury
that kept him from ever starting his pro career. Well, one week the Buffalo Bills
were getting ready to play a team that the media was refering
to as a ‘superteam’ … so
I told my players not to worry. I asked the team ‘How many remember Dean
Cain? Well, we are so good that we cut Superman!’”