Читать книгу A Legacy Unrivaled. The Story of John Gagliardi онлайн

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When I got about two steps past his office, I heard him call out, “Warren!” Why did he want to talk with me again? We had gotten caught up just a few days earlier. I went back, stood in his doorway, and replied, “Good morning, John.”

I called him John now, just as I did when I was a player. He insisted on it. He had started coaching football when he was just sixteen years old—it was 1943, and he was the tailback for his high school football team. His coach was called to serve in World War II, as were many able-bodied men from southern Colorado, and the school principal was planning to shut down the football program. Not wanting that to happen, John asked if he could coach the team. The principal agreed, and John was suddenly in the position of coaching his peers. He figured he couldn’t ask his own teammates to refer to him as “Coach,” so his first-ever players referred to him as “John,” and that never changed.

In this second meeting, John and I talked for a while, until I needed to go teach. The next time I walked past, we chatted for about fifteen minutes before I had to scurry away. It was always me breaking off the conversation and him delaying my exit, periodically even following me out the door to prolong our discussion, if only for a minute.