Fridays with Mac: "Finding Wilson"

Hall of Fame football coach Bill McCartney is widely-known as an “exhorter” of others, especially men. Whether building collegiate football champions or leading a million dudes to march in our nation’s capitol as a Promise Keeper, the Detroit native is gifted at motivating.

“Southpaw (I’m left-handed), you gotta fire all your guns,” were firm and sincere thoughts immediately flowing from the 81-year-old after sharing a vision about approaching the Denver Broncos’ newly-acquired quarterback Russell Wilson.

Why does a washed-up sports journalist desire to meet the 33-year-old Super Bowl champion? Well, fans of the late Irv Brown, me included, are in the final stretches of raising money to re-purpose underutilized space at Arvada High School and proclaim it as the “Irv Brown Champions Center.”

Brown’s incredible sports career began at Arvada High as a teacher/coach from 1959-70. The gregarious guy went on to coach football/baseball at the University of Colorado, baseball at MSU-Denver, officiate six Final Fours and, with partner Joe Williams, become an icon of Denver radio with the popular “Irv and Joe” show. Brown was a mentor of mine after hitting town in 1988 as the “Buff Guy” for CBSDenver. The Buffs were good then and radio shows invited me to share inside information after the station, upon my hiring, instructed a rookie, “Get in the hip pocket of the CU football program.”

Irv was awesome. Even more outstanding are the dedicated folks at Arvada High teaching kids the business side of sports and winning side of life. This learning pathway, the Sports Business Institute, began at the school three years ago.

Most kids like sports. Most adults do too. We learned through Covid, and the inability to come together for sports, what athletic competition means to the fabric of our country. It’s important. It’s also damn big business. Behind the scenes? There’s a whole lot going on in sports management, marketing, health/performance, media/journalism and coaching/officiating. Arvada High kids have been learning all about it since fall of 2019. We have 83 kids in the program and 85% of them are on track to graduate compared to the overall school average of about 60%. The learning pathway works. We’re fielding calls from parents wanting more information.

Offering hope. 75% of the FAMILIES at Arvada High make less than $35,000 a year. This sports business pathway is a centerpiece to new principal Shannon Vigil’s “100% Arvada” campaign. 100% of our efforts, for 100% of our students, 100% of the time. McCartney’s a big fan of what we’re doing for these deserved but underserved kiddos and quite familiar with the Irv Brown Champions Center project. However, the only coach to ever take Colorado football to a national championship wondered, “How does Wilson fit into all that?”

“Something inside believes Russell Wilson would have loved a guy like Irv Brown,” was the first thought about answering coach Mac’s question. Quickly followed by, “I also think Wilson and his wife Ciara would love we’re using the sports business to get kids excited about learning. Many kids growing up in poverty think sports is their ticket out. It can be, on the business side.”

McCartney was beginning to lean forward in his comfy Barcalounger. “Wrong arm (another nickname), I think you’re on to something.” I had one more nugget. “Plus, in teaching these kids the business side of sports? We’re planting seeds of knowledge in the minds of future employees of teams like the Broncos and Rockies, who drafted Wilson in baseball. We’re helping train their future work force.”

When big-time athletes move to new cities and fan bases, they’re usually looking for ways to get involved in the community. “Mac, I would love to get 15 minutes with Wilson and his wife, share what we’re doing at Arvada High. Something within says they might like supporting a project teaching kids the business side of sports, winning side of life and giving educational legs to an amazing fella, Irv Brown.”

A buddy fighting the good fight against Alzheimer’s almost shoved me out the door with this command, “Don’t let anybody or anything mess with that ‘Something within’ because it’s spot on!”

Finding Wilson. Wish us luck.