Football…More than a Game, A Life-Long Learning Experience
Every year as summer draws to a close, my thoughts turn to memories of my youth and playing football. As early as 4 years-old, I had my first full football uniform. I have a picture of me wearing that uniform in my office today. It wasn't until age 8 that I was finally old enough to play little league football. From 1959 through 1972, I would be playing organized football every fall.
Having played youth football, junior high and high school football and then college football, I played a total of 113 football games in my playing career. My record overall was 88-25 as a player that included a high school state championship (1967), an 11-0 season my senior year at Ashland College (now Ashland University, OH), and a trip to the All-Ohio Shrine Bowl in 1972. I also was named 2nd Team Academic All-American in that 1972 season.
Now, as a 58 year-old husband, father, former coach and educator, author, and senior executive, those 113 game days represent roughly one-half of one percent (0.00530) of my life, and yet every day of my life, I find myself reflecting back on either something one of my coaches said to me as a player or something I learned on the football field.
For me, football is far more than a game. Instead, it serves as the foundation for a life-long learning experience. The values that I learned, things like the importance of honesty, being able to believe in yourself and to always be optimistic about the future, developing the will to persevere and always strive for excellence, being a solid teammate and caring more about the TEAM than my own rewards or accolades – these messages are with me today in life, when every day is GAME DAY.
Regardless of our chosen professions, in order to be all that we can be, to reach our true potential, it requires us to live each day with a sense of responsibility and leadership that says, “I must always strive to do my very best” – for that is what life is really all about! Interestingly, as the ultimate team sport, that is what football teaches.
Today, I am thankful for the game of football and for each and every person who ever coached me at any level in my football career. My experiences in football have connected me to some of the finest people I have met and to many of my very best friends in life. As I look back on it all, while it was nice to have won more than I lost and to have some memories from championship seasons, it is the relationships that I made playing the game of football that may be the greatest reward of all. Those friendships will be cherished and will live in my heart until the day I die.
Back to “I Played” Stories
