Sunday, June 23, 2013

CENTENNIAL

"If God had figured for a man to know what God was doing, He'd have made it that way.
I reckon He's able to do it, but He don't.
He just sticks them here, looks like, and tell them to work it out the best they can.
So that's what I'll do.
I'll go along, using what tools He gave me the best I know how, and if I manage better'n some, or worse'n some, it'll be my own crop. 
Hell, I ain't a man to change."
                                           Buck Bannon from Douglas Fields Bailey's DEVIL MAKE A THIRD

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store


I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store


I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

Mothers of River City!
Heed the warning before it's too late!
Watch for the tell-tale sign of corruption!
The moment your son leaves the house,
Does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee? 
Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger?
A dime novel hidden in the corn crib?
Is he starting to memorize jokes from Capt.
Billy's Whiz Bang?
Are certain words creeping into his conversation?
Words like 'swell?"
And 'so's your old man?" 
Well, if so my friends,
Ya got trouble,
Right here in River city!
With a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in River City!
Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule!
Oh, we've got trouble. 
We're in terrible, terrible trouble. 
That game with the fifteen numbered balls is a devil's tool! 
Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble!
With a "T"! Gotta rhyme it with "P"! 
And that stands for Pool!!!
Professor Harold Hill in THE MUSIC MAN

"The old lessons of work, self-discipline, sacrifice, teamwork, fighting to achieve, aren't being taught by many people other than football coaches these days. The football coach has a captive audience and can teach these lessons because the communication lines between himself and his players are more wide open than between kids and parents. We better teach these lessons or else the country's future population will be made up of a majority of crooks, drug addicts, or people on relief."

"I'm no miracle man.  I guarantee nothing but hard work." 

"Basically, I was a lazy fat-butt who could barely read and write." Paul Bryant

There's a great Bear Bryant story where all his coaches are laid up in the Foster Auditorium ticket office early one morning right after Bama won their first National Championship under the leadership of the Bear. They're back on campus but they're still celebrating. The students aren't back on campus. Coach Bryant is up in his office and the whole crew is relaxing on the ticket office furniture, feet propped up, smoking cigars and laughing about how they'd showed the whole country what real football was by whipping Arkansas on national television and in front of over 85,000 people in the Sugar Bowl on New Years Day 1962. A 48 year old Paul Bryant comes through the door and nobody's even gets a chance to grin. BAM! He starts kicking ankles and knocking heads. "GET UP, GO TO WORK & LET'S WIN ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP!"

Most of the folks reading this article consider Paul William Bryant to be the greatest college football coach who ever lived. He experienced unprecedented success in his field of endeavor but retrospect he may be remembered today as a man who coached a little too long and who did not live long enough. The last chapter of his life should cause each of us to reflect upon just how does one get off that big old rusty hamster wheel of life.

"Bo, I don't wanna go back to the office. I don't wanna recruit one more kid. I don't wanna coach anymore."

 "You are going to find this out someday. I hired 47 people at the University of Alabama athletic department. If I quit what happens to them? What happens to those assistant coaches and office people and all of them that I brought in here? ... Here's what. They're out in the cold. The new guy will replace them. Now how can I do that to them? ... You'll face that someday, Bo. You will. And, damn it, I hope you are smart about."
Bryant, tired and sick, coached another season at Alabama and died one year later.




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