What We Wanted to Be About
Faulkner University Hall of Fame
In the Spring of 1989, I got a phone call. Before caller id, cell phones, or unlimited calls. It came from Marc Courson or Tim Lee; both were on the search committee at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama to find a new Athletic Director/Head Basketball Coach. So, this call was out of the blue because I didn’t know either one and not sure why they were calling me.
Why would they call me? I was 26 and just finished my first year as a head high school basketball coach at Franklin Road Academy (my 2nd year in coaching). They wanted me to talk to one of the candidates for the position and thought I could offer some insight.
Little did I know that call would change the course of my career.
I knew. I wanted to coach, and I wanted to coach in college. My fiancé at the time and I put together 300 letters and envelopes and sent them out to everywhere looking for any way to get into college coaching. Got one response! A chance to go and work at Western Kentucky University to work on my graduate degree.
There were two problems.
- I had just finished my graduate degree
- The job came with no money.
During this wild quest of trying to find any school that had an opening for a coach, I had these almost nightly calls with either Tim or Mark. One night it would be Mark, and the next night it would be Tim.
Again, why were they calling me?
This particular candidate said they were going to bring me as an assistant coach. Candidate #1 turned them down. They moved on to the next one person. Same story. Going to bring me as an assistant coach
Tim and Mark kept calling me. Thinking I could somehow persuade these coaching candidates to take the job.
Candidate #2 turned them down. Onto candidate #3. Same story. Going to bring me as an assistant coach.
Here we go again. Mark and Tim. Tim and Marc.
As the search process dragged on it was getting to the end of the school year and late to be hiring a new Athletic Director/Head Basketball Coach. I told my fiancé that I should probably go and check things out at Faulkner. Because if candidate #3 takes the job, I would need to make a decision pretty quick.
I had a day free while our school was in exams, so got in my car and made the trip down I-65. The next thing I know I am in Dr. Hilyer’s (The President at Faulkner) office and meeting with Dr. Hilyer and Phil Norton (one of the top donors and boosters).
The only time I had been in an administrator’s offices in college was either because I was in trouble or trying to get out of trouble. So, I had a different vantage point now. They are peppering me with questions, and I begin to think “This seems like an interview.”
For the first time, I think maybe I am supposed to be here. Sure enough a few days later Dr. Hilyer called and offered me the job.
Thankfully my fiance, Edie, who would become my wife in less than two months agreed this was the move to make.
We made this journey together, just married, new town, new job, new friends.
I’ve made some dumb decision over the course of my life, but back in 1989 within a tight window I made two good ones. Marrying Edie and taking the job at Faulkner were two of the best I’ve ever made.
My time here gave me a love for the coaching profession, an appreciation for Christian Education and place to call home. We had two of our first five children here. We bought our first home here. We built relationships with lifelong friends.
We had a group of people here at Faulkner without ego or agendas.
We had everyone on the same page:
The Administration
The Faculty
The Players
The Students
The Community.
You just don’t have that everywhere. Seldom do you get to experience this in college athletics. I am beyond blessed because I was able to experience this again at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi from 2005-2012.
It would be difficult to thank every person who made our time so special. So, let me just say thank you to:
My wife, for her willingness to move down here and join me on the journey and being a voice of reason. What a time we had here and her support in those early days carried me through.
Tim Lee and Mark Courson for being there every step of the way.
I still see Tim a couple of times a year. Not sure who was more excited when I went to work at LSU me or Tim. Spend five minutes with Tim and you will realize he has a tremendous heart.
Dr. Hilyer for believing in me and never wavering in his support. Hard to think of working for better University Presidents than Dr. Hilyer and Dr. Roger Parrot at Belhaven. I pinch myself and don’t call it luck, but God’s hand.
Wayne Baker for being the type of servant leader, we all aspire to be. He is my WWWD guy.
Tough decision, “What Would Wayne Do?” Best listener I have ever been around. Incredible insight, ability to see the big picture like no one I have ever met.
Marty Walker for being the kind of assistant coach that would make any head coach look good. A relentless recruiter. Marty was and is so effective at making people feel comfortable and valued. He connects with people quicker than anyone I have ever been around. No job was too small and his love for the school since he played here, was infectious to all of us.
The faculty, students, and community to embrace what we were doing as a program.
Our church family at Highland who gave us support and love
Mark Jackson, who was with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes during our time here. Kept me sane a lot of days. Incredible loyalty and insights as we met together and prayed together.
Jack White, my good friend from Lipscomb, who came to here at the Jones School of Law. A great sounding board and another voice of reason I needed.
Hal Wynn and Debbie Reynolds for putting this event together. I know this takes a lot of planning, then a lot of work to make it all come together. Thank you!
Every single player for believing in the vision we shared in the recruiting process and as they came on campus.
They taught me a lot more than I could have ever shown them.
They put in the long hours. Early morning conditioning, staying late to work on their game.
They made the sacrifices you make as a college athlete. As a college athlete, your time is not your own as it is for a regular student.
A regular student can miss a class, skip a meal, no worry about a curfew.
If you are part of a program that wants what is best for your players you are checking to make sure they are in class, keeping up with their grades, following up with faculty members, getting them on a proper diet and doing bed checks to monitor their rest.
A moment that shifted the mindset and thinking here came during our second year.
Up until this time we were selling a dream. Selling a vision with our players of what it would take to get national recognition. They began to understand the price to be paid but had yet to see a payoff.
On this particular night, we were playing the defending National Champions Birmingham Southern College.
We had a great crowd.
The type environment we said could happen.
We were playing great up by 18 points in the second half.
Tim or Marc decides at this point how this may be the time to go across the street to the grocery store and buy as much toilet paper as possible. With the idea to throw the toilet paper in celebration once the game is over. They had no idea or understanding of Sports Karma. You don’t celebrate a lead too early!
Our lead shrinks and shrinks until we are behind in the closing seconds.
We call timeout. We are down one with the ball and need to go the length of the floor with less than six seconds.
Let me share an example of good coaching. I tell Medric Bodie (our All-American Guard), here is what we are going to do. Draw it up. Giving instructions that cannot be misunderstood as my college coach, Don Meyer would say. “Medric, whatever you do, don’t pass the ball. You take the shot.”
I then grab Medric again. This time off to the side so no one else can hear after leaving the huddle. And tell him again, “Whatever you do, do not pass the ball!” And I may have said it one more time just in case he missed all the previous times.
Terez Harris sets a perfect screen to get Medric open, Tony Carter inbounds the ball, and Medric has what looks like a path up the floor.
Birmingham Southern runs two defenders at him.
Not sure what Medric misunderstood since he did whatever we told him.
So Medric does what Medric does, and he makes the right play.
He passes the ball. To a wide-open Willie Johnson.
Wille does what we do not teach. We wanted our players to use the glass for any shots near the basket and not try to get the ball over the rim. A much higher percentage shot. “Use the glass, use the glass” Coach Walker would say over and over.
The only problem there was only time for Willie to get the shot off as quickly as possible.
So, he shoots the ball just over the rim.
Except it doesn’t go over the rim.
It stays on the rim and stays and stays.
Like a movie, it finally falls through the hoop.
Now I don’t know if God cares who wins or loses.
But on this night, He was getting begs, pleas, and prayers from whoever went and bought the toilet paper because if we lost they would get the blame.
That game gave us a legitimate feeling we belonged.
Over the next two seasons, we beat both Birmingham Southern and AUM 8 out of 12 times.
The reason that game was important was Birmingham Southern was the defending National Champion, and AUM was only a couple of years removed from being one shot away from the National Championship. They were nationally known programs. They were the standard bearers.
Everyone could not feel Faulkner now belonged.
When we first took the job and competed against the power programs, the feeling was we might be light years away from beating these guys. Would we ever get to the point where we could compete with them?
By having a program filled with people without ego and without agendas we could. There was no way it ever would have happened without the quality and character of the young men we brought here.
Our vision was to be a program of quality and character.
To help build that quality and character we started something our very first year to help solidify the message to our players.
We brought in speakers to share with our team on a weekly basis.
I got this idea from Bill Wade, a dear friend of my wife’s family. Bill is in the Professional Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame. He played at Vanderbilt, #1 Pick in the draft by the Chicago Bears.
He told what he did with his football camp. He would bring in speakers all during the week leading up to the final day where he would share the Gospel.
He said, “Coach, have other people come in and share the same vision and message as you are trying to get across. But they can hear it from other people.”
We put that plan into our weekly routine. It would be something I looked forward to every week.
After a while, we thought what if we let our players share with the team as well scattered throughout the year.
One of our players, Brad Harris, spoke with the team and I share his message often when I am talking to groups. We were seated on the floor, and Brad stood in the center circle to speak. I remember he spoke with such confidence and belief.
He said, “You have to know Where have you been? Where are you now? Where are you going?”
Then he added,
- “Where you have been: teaches you about life and the experiences you have had up to this point.”
- “Where you are now: Enjoy the moment because it does not last too long and make the most of every day.”
- “Where you are going: What are your goals and how do you plan to get there?”
Powerful.
Another player Keiven Mixson had at a girlfriend over at Alabama Christian Academy. One day I hear that Keiven was on campus and went to their chapel. Don’t think he was there for the speaker, but to see his girl.
I wanted to find out what great words he may have heard there, and sure he was taking notes. I asked him at practice. “Keiven I heard you were at Chapel over at ACA today.”
“Yes Sir,” he said.
“What did the speaker talk about?”, I asked.
Blank
“Uh, uh, uh” Shuffling his feet trying to think of an answer.
“Jesus”
Good Answer
And that is The Answer.
When things come full circle, and you think about where you have been, where you are now and where you are going.
Jesus has to be the answer.
There will come trails. Bad times as well as good times.
Last second wins and last-second losses.
Four years after leaving Faulkner I was an Assistant at the University of Alabama. Six years after leaving here I was being wheeled into surgery for a spot on my kidney. We didn’t know what the spot was, but the doctors had a pretty good handle and knew they had to get this out of my body as soon as possible.
At Alabama, we had lost one assistant coach to cancer less than a month before and would lose another staff member from the athletic department, who had been an assistant basketball coach, six months later to cancer.
I knew laying on that cold metal operating table as they were wheeling me from one area of the hospital to another I was going to be ok. How did I know that?
Because of where I had been, where I was at the time and where I was going.
Where I had been.
My wife and I came here, and neither one of us had been Christian for more than a couple of years.
To be a young Christian as well as early in my career and be at a place like Faulkner was instrumental in developing a solid foundation.
A foundation on how to have accountability, prayer partners and to believe in people (much easier to do when you are at a place filled with those who have believed in you).
I feel sorry for those in the education profession who don’t have people who champion them, who invest in them, allow their mistakes to be learning lessons and not an albatross.
Hopefully, we did that for the players in our program. We wanted them to know they could accomplish what they wanted to on the court. Then we wanted that message to permeate through the rest of their lives. As husbands, fathers, sons, friends.
I knew where I was.
The foundation in faith built at Faulkner prepared me for a trial like this. Even not knowing if I would come out of the surgery or if they would be able to contain the tumor I had peace. How could I have peach at a time like that?
Because the message Keiven reminded of, the message is about Jesus. I knew without a shadow of doubt I was in the grip of his hands and he would not let me go.
I knew where I was going.
No matter what happened, God had me. I was His, and he wasn’t going to let go. He had got me this far through many ups and downs.
Brad’s words and Keiven’s words. They along with many others here at Faulkner made big stamps into the person I became.
Those messages were exactly what we wanted our program to be about as we worked with the young men.
We diligently tried to understand where they had been before they came to Faulkner. We didn’t try to make them fit a mold. We had to understand their background along with their values and goals. Then and only then could we make an impact with them.
We found the best way to get someone to buy in is find out what you can about them first. Find what makes them tick. Find what motivates them.
Sure, we wanted them to understand we had rules and standards with the school and our program, but we wanted to value them first. Once we found out about them, we could teach them how to value where they were now.
Then our mission was to help prepare each young man for their future of where they were going. We had no idea where the young men would be, but the goal was to get them ready to be great husbands, fathers, friends, skilled in their chosen profession and share what it meant to live the Christian life.
Wrapped in all of this was the message of Jesus. He was the answer. We wanted to teach about giving an all our effort, how to be a team player, how to be dependable, respectable, have the right attitude, but the entire message at the core was about Jesus.
What it meant to love each other unconditionally.
What it meant to forgive.
What it meant to find the best in others.
What is meant be there and to be counted on.
As we made strides toward those goals one underlying thing made it all possible. And that was the people here.
My wife loves to say, “People don’t forget the way you make them feel. They forget a lot of things, but people don’t forget how you make them feel.”
The one thing Faulkner gets right is how they make you feel. You would have to be here to experience what that means. Again, Faulkner gets that right. Hopefully, we were able to do so as well.
Being part of a Hall of Fame is an incredible honor. I am so appreciative, humbled and glad to be part of such a group.
Faulkner has always had a special place in my heart and will continue to do so.
Thank you for allowing us to be part of this incredible evening.
