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 Lou Holtz, Gene Stallings,
John Gagliardi and coaches wives like Ann Bowden and Patti Edwards 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.”
Favorite Ice-breaker ...
Lou Holtz (Notre Dame 1986-96, South Carolina 1998-present)
“One of my favorite stories is of the man with the large farm cart that
needed to be pulled by his one horse. Needing to motivate the horse to maximum
ability, the man called out to the horse ‘on Sandy,’ and snapped
his whip in the air - the horse doesn’t move. Next he calls out ‘on
Daisy,’ and snaps his whip in the air – again, horse doesn’t
move. The man then tries ‘on Beauty,’ followed by another snap of
the whip – still nothing. Next the man calls out ‘on Dusty,’ then
snaps the whip ... the horse starts pulling the cart. A guy watching all this
goes up to the farmer and says, ‘If you knew the horse’s name, why
didn’t you call that one out first?’ The old man replied: ‘Dusty’s
blind ... if she thought she had to pull that cart all by herself, we would’ve
never got going.’”
Losing ...
Gene Stallings (Alabama 1990-96) +
“There is nothing funny about losing.
I can’t think of anything good to tell anyone about losing other than not
to do it ... especially if you are a first year coach at Alabama. I lost my first
three games and I don’t recommend that to anyone coaching in Tuscaloosa.
Other programs may tolerate it, but not the Crimson Tide.”
Midnight run ...
Ann Bowden (Wife of Bobby Bowden, FSU 1976-present)
“When we were at West Virginia we did not have an on-campus facility or
even a local facility for Bobby to record his coach’s show. We had to drive
to Wheeling, W.Va., but before we started going to Wheeling we would drive to
Charleston, W.Va., instead.
“I can remember after the games, whether it was an afternoon or night game,
we would entertain boosters. We would have 45 to 50 boosters, along with members
of the media, over to our house. I would run home immediately after the game
to host the gathering. If it was a night game we wouldn’t leave for the
taping until almost midnight, because we would have to tape the show first thing
in the morning. Then he would have to return right after the show because Sunday’s
are one of the busiest days for football coaches.
“Well, late one night after we moved the show to Wheeling, we were headed
to the taping and I was lying down in the back with a blanket and pillow. I did
this often to catch some sleep, however, this night Bobby was pulled over by
a police officer for speeding. Now you can imagine the look on the officer’s
face when he saw a middle-aged man driving a van in the middle of the night with
what appeared to be a body laying in the back wrapped in a blanket.
“Looking back, those were the good ol’ days.”
Travel ...
Patti Edwards (Wife of Lavell Edwards, BYU, 1972-2000)
“I remember when Lavell was still coaching at BYU, and at the time we were
in the Western Athletic Conference. The WAC had teams from Texas to Hawaii, so
we had a lot of travel. One year we were playing in Wyoming during a blinding
snowstorm that was so bad that workers had to plow the field at halftime. After
the game it was so bitterly cold and frozen with ice that I literally had to
crawl out of the stadium on my hands and knees ... then we sat in the Denver
airport for three hours to have the plane de-iced. The next week we went to Hawaii,
while I was sitting in the stadium I kept thinking about the extreme contrast
from the week before. When we returned to Provo, Utah, there was another snowstorm
waiting for us ... our football players all had shorts and sandals and had to
walk through snow that was up to there ankles. A car was brought up to the plane
to take us home and as we were leaving I looked back and noticed that our plane
had narrowly escaped from plowing into the private jet that was parked right
next to it. But it was no big deal, just another day in the life of a football
coach and his wife.”
Winning ...
John Gagliardi (St. John’s, 1953-present)
“I remember walking onto the St. John’s (Minn.) campus in 1953 with
a goal to make things better. The monks asked me, ‘Do you need scholarships
to win?’ I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ The monks loved
that and said, ‘This is our guy.’ Well, I’ve been here ever
since. Not much has changed when you consider after winning No. 409, I didn’t
get a fancy car or a pay raise, and I still have to go home every day and take
out the garbage.”