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John diagrams a play as All-American running back Rick Bell looks on, circa 1982. Saint John’s University

Mark Laswell was a scout team halfback for Saint John’s in the early 1980s. He recalls a game in which Saint John’s went ahead by a large margin, and John cleared the benches. The quarterbacks were allowed to call their own plays, and, it turned out, the plays they called were largely ineffective. “At films on Monday, John stopped the projector, confused by what plays we were running that he was seeing on film. They clearly weren’t working, nor were they part of the game plan. I can still hear his words clearly, ‘What game were you watching? How do you think we got the 70–0 lead? What plays were you guys running? If you find a play that works, don’t look for one that doesn’t.’”

Key to Winning #1: Through his actions and words, John fostered an atmosphere of very high expectations. Any result short of excellence was analyzed and changes were made as needed.

I arrived ten minutes early for the second day of class, and a couple dozen students were already present, sitting guy-gal as instructed and interviewing each other. Taking the spot next to me was Kristin, a senior nursing major. Like most of her peers, Kristin didn’t need the one credit in order to graduate; she was taking this elective class because of John’s reputation.