Ed McQuary began coaching high school football in 1963. He coached in a mill town, a farming community, and affluent suburbs. In his 47 seasons as a coach, he compiled over 330 victories, was Oregon Coach of the Year and won a big school state championship. His fondest memories, though, are of his players and fellow coaches.
LIFE’S LESSONS
Brian came into my life when I was coaching in a small farm community in my first varsity coaching position. Brian was a great young man and quite a talented football player. He was always up, always happy with a smile on his face, yet he was a fierce competitor. Brian played for four years with a starting role as a running back for three of those years. He assumed a strong leadership role and contributed to a strong varsity team that contended as a state power over those three years. He, though, had to live in the shadow of an older brother’s athletic exploits that people in the community always talked about.
Brian was quite the opposite of his brother in stature. He was no more than 5’8” tall, yet for his size was muscular and had excellent quickness without burning speed. He played on both sides of the ball with passion and always competed. As a halfback, he also lived in the shadows of an all-state fullback and quarterback. This didn’t seem to bother Brian in the least; he just played to the best of his abilities each and every play. Brian made all-league as a running back his junior season and second team all-state as well. Going into his senior season, our team was ranked second in the preseason.
LIFE LESSON #1
The first came during daily doubles when I posted the second weeks schedule with the team night scrimmage which was always a popular event with the booster club and townspeople. Since the state fair was going to begin on Saturday and the farm community we lived in would be involved, I moved the mandatory scrimmage to Friday night instead of the normal Saturday night time slot. Players voiced their concerns for this night because many of them were going to be involved in the fair and had to be ready for Saturday to show their animals. I threw a “hissy fit” and called a team meeting where I told the team that anyone who missed the scrimmage would not be playing that season.
After I stormed off and went to the coaches’ office, I heard a soft tap on the door and yelled to whoever it was to come in. It was Brian and he had his football gear neatly folded and handed it to me. He and his older brother’s wedding was Saturday and the rehearsal and dinner was being held on Friday night. He went on to say that he was to be the Best Man for his brother and no matter what, he could not be excused and allowed to go since the other players could be lost for the season if they missed the scrimmage. He went on to say the only thing more important to him than football was his family. He had tears rolling off his cheeks as he spoke. I too began to cry from seeing the pain and hurt I had put on this young man’s face. I composed myself and told Brian to sit still and that I’d be right back. I walked into the locker room and told the team to be ready to scrimmage Thursday night!
Yes, I was wrong and needed Brian to show me just that! Since that time, nearly 40 years ago, I’ve never put football ahead of family.
LIFE LESSON #2
During that senior season of Brian’s, I learned another life lesson from him that has stuck with me all these years. Our team was undefeated going into mid-season and we were just getting better and better when the roof caved in. In a game against a less than average team in our league, we lost both our starting tight end and fullback who also were our starting linebackers, place kicker and punter. Both were All-State as juniors. We won that game, but the tight end-linebacker-punter had a serious knee injury while the fullback-linebacker-kicker had a broken collarbone. I came to the realization that we had just gone from the White House to the outhouse in a matter of minutes.
The next week in practice I was less than happy and it carried over to the team. They too showed a lack of feelings we had the week before. After practice, sitting in the coaches’ office, feeling sorry for myself, I racked my brain trying to think of a solution to our problems when there was a familiar knock on the door. Sure enough, it was Brian and he asked if we could talk. We sat there for over an hour with Brian telling me how much he and the team looked up to me and how much I had talked about competing and never giving-up. He made me see what I was doing and what I needed to do.
I went home that night and began to make changes in the offense and defense. First, with an all-state QB, I decided to begin passing more, moving to a run ‘n shoot offense. I also looked for a replacement for our injured fullback and realized we had one that was untested but well skilled, yet young. For defense, the decision was made to bunch the 5-2 and go to a blitzing 6-2 defense utilizing Brian and another small, yet quick and tough senior as the blitzing linebackers. My plan was to use these changes until the two players who were injured might be able to return.
We continued undefeated up to the final game of the regular season and league championship with a single playoff berth on the line. We lost that game and the playoff spot. Unlike today, only one team qualified for the playoffs 40 years ago. Though we were co-champs, the other team, who beat us in that final game, went to the playoffs and lost in the semi-finals. When asked which team was my best in 49 years of my career, I always think of Brian’s team his senior year. Without those injuries, I just don’t know how good we could have been. But whenever I think about that, I think of Brian and how the team competed the rest of the season after our talk. He again gave me a life lesson about the ups and downs and how one deals with what they’re dealt.
Thanks Brian for being you, one very find man today, just as he was as a young man back then.
This excerpt was taken from Coach McQuary’s book, “100 Yards of Memories.” The book can be obtained by going to the Amazon or Kindle website or writing directly to Coach McQuary at coachmcquary@comcast.net. This excerpt was reprinted with the permission of the author.