AFM RSS Feed Follow Us on Twitter       
AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY THE #1 RESOURCE FOR FOOTBALL COACHES
ABOUT |  CONTACT |  ADVERTISE |  HELP  



   User Name    Password 
      Password Help





Article Categories


AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


The Way It Used To Be

Football coaching legends share their experiences on the gridiron before laptops, charter jets and mega-million dollar facilities
© More from this issue

Click for Printer Friendly Version          

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.”






NEW BOOK!

AFM Videos Streaming Memberships Now Available Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach



















HOME
MAGAZINE
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE COLUMNISTS COACHING VIDEOS


Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved