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

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My first semester back on campus was in the fall of 2004. I was fairly disciplined in those days, and many mornings I would exercise in the Palaestra before heading to my office. On my way out of the athletic facility, I would walk past John’s office. For the first few months, his office door was almost always shut; it was football season, after all.

Gerry Faust and George Korbel carry John off the field after a victory on homecoming weekend in 1962. Saint John’s University.

But one day when the season had finished and I once again found myself walking down the hallway toward his office, the door was wide open. I decided to reintroduce myself.

“Hi, John. I’m Warren Bostrom. I used to play for you.”

“Warren!” he boomed as loud as his soft voice would allow. “I know who you are. You played guard for me in the early nineties.”

He had coached more than two thousand players at that point in his career, so the fact that he remembered me caused my face to light up and my chest to swell with pride. He continued, “And I heard that you returned as a professor. I’ve had a lot of things happen in my career, but this is the first time one of my players has done that.”