Fridays with Mac: "Mind Cleansing"

The fella I love to call “Billy Mac from Hackensack” and your lucky scribe were driving west on the Boulder Turnpike toward Boulder and hallowed ground: Folsom Field. Yep. We share many a memory of the Hall of Fame coach’s 13-year tenure at the Foot of the Flatirons. The Michigan native as coach, the Missouri knucklehead as reporter. Tasked to, when hired in 1988 at Denver’s KCNC-TV in Denver, “Get in the hip pocket of the CU football program.”

35 years later, what a blessing to remain close to a man who has more than once been there for, at times, a downtrodden dude. My buddy is fighting the good fight against Alzheimer’s. I cherish our time together kinda like Mitch Albom did years ago with one of his college professors who had a profound impact on Albom’s life. It became the best-selling book, “Tuesdays with Morrie.”

We enjoy each other’s company.

As we approached Folsom Field, the only coach to ever lead the Buffs to a (1990) national title, was attentive as the one-time host of his coach’s show was blabbering about a wonderful fundraiser event I had attended a few days before. What a great evening seeing ol’ friends from CU days while raising money for a great guy doing wonderful work, Joe B. Hall. He’s the director of Boulder County’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. My spiritual roots were birthed through FCA and I admire its work with young minds and athletes when it comes to character building and faith.

Anyway, I’m sharing about a fun game the captive crowd played to help raise money. Buff legend Darian Hagan, the magical quarterback of those years, had donned a football official’s striped shirt and was throwing penalty flags at folks in the audience.

Everybody was having a good time and the conversation at our table shifted to Colorado’s infamous 1990 game at Missouri. On a sun-splashed fall afternoon the Buffs, thanks to an incompetent officiating crew, were given five downs and scored the winning touchdown with that extra play. Crazy. Bedlam at Faurot Field. I’ll never forget it.

Apparently, few people have. More than three decades later, Buff faithful and Mizzou zealots each can recite EXACTLY where they were when officials decided CU’s standout backup quarterback Charles Johnson, Orange Bowl MVP that year, pierced the plane of the goal line and scored the winning tally. Five downs and favorable judgements? A good recipe for success in the most unusual way.

As we passed the stadium and starting working our way home, we started talking about those unforgettable moments of life: Good, bad and ugly. Whether it’s an incredible finish for your favorite team, a one-time spouse announcing, “It’s over” and you can tell she means it, or discovering “I have what? Amyloidosis? Never heard of it. Non-curable? Dialysis? Chemo? Really?

Unforgettable moments,. The question always becomes: In those, “I remember precisely where I was” moments running the gamut from elation, frustration, unimaginable grief and everything in between, how are we gonna react?

Two fellas everyone calls “Mac” who went to Mizzou on football scholarships long ago, married WAY OVER OUR HEADS and now are kindred spirits battling life-threatening illnesses? Four of a kind. The latest, and probably final, foe for each? Rogue proteins called “Amyloid” that “muck up” vital organs. Respectively, McCartney’s brain and McIntosh’s kidneys.

It had gotten pretty quiet in the car, Fleetwood Mac was playing on the radio. The 83-year-old was tapping to the beat on his leg. Memorable moments. Forever etched in our bone marrow. For whatever reason my mind zipped to the dialysis treatment earlier in the day. Through two portals, my blood is sucked from my body, sent through the machine, cleansed and then returned. Given the state of my kidneys right now? Probably would be dead without dialysis.

Purification. Essential to life. I looked at my buddy as we pulled into his driveway, “I wish it would be as easy to ‘cleanse’ our minds of negative thoughts like that dialysis machine does my blood and kidneys.”

Without hesitating a nanosecond, the founder of Promise Keepers barked, “Attitude is everything!” Amen buddy.

Mind cleansing.