Ep42 Bill Curry (interview edit)
Fri, 4/16 5:12PM • 45:47
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coach, people, thought, talk, life, lombardi, players, coaching, georgia tech, play, team, home, world, years, atlanta, game, rules, stay, huddle, walk
SPEAKERS
Bill Curry, Paul Barnett
Paul Barnett 00:06
Good morning coach, Bill Carey, and welcome to the great coaches podcast.
Bill Curry 00:12
Thank you so much. I feel like a little bit of an imposter because you put that great monitor on there. I'm certainly not a great coach, but I have been a coach most of my life. And I appreciate the compliment.
Paul Barnett 00:26
Coach carry just about every time I say that to a great coach, they say, I feel like an imposter when you say that. So you're just gonna have to trust me that you qualify as a great coach. Let's start with something really simple. Where are you in the world? And what have you been up to so far today?
Bill Curry 00:44
Well, we are 27 floors up in a high rise in Atlanta, Georgia, the most unlikely finishing place because we intend to stay here the rest of our lives. For a couple of kids from College Park, Georgia College Park is the small town that sort of surrounds our airport, which is now the world's largest. And we grew up listening to the airplanes and we decided we didn't want to do that we've been through the NFL and the coaching ranks and all those kinds of things that happen. And then our married life of 58 years, we've moved 34 times and my wife has announced that that this will be the last move. We intend to leave this condominium feat first. So that will and we hope that's a long time from now. So we're in Atlanta, Georgia. We love Atlanta, it is our home. We've loved the other places we've lived, which is virtually all over America. But this is what we love most.
Paul Barnett 01:53
Coach Gary, I can't wait to talk to you about Atlanta and all your experiences you've had over such a long and illustrious career. But Could I just start by taking you back a little bit in time because you yourself have had experience with some pretty handy coaches. Bobby Dodd Don Shula and a little guy called hang on I want to get the pronunciation right Vince Lombardi. I think it
Bill Curry 02:17
got the pronunciation.
Paul Barnett 02:18
Thank you. What is it you think great coaches do differently from the others?
Bill Curry 02:26
The really great ones. And now we're not playing with words. I'm talking about the people. I started to say the guys but it doesn't have to be a male. There are plenty of females that are among the great, great coaches. They have a they have something I think it's God given I think it's inborn. I think it's genetic. [PB1] And you can almost feel it if you're my father was one of those. And so I watched it. From the time I was an infant. He was a hand to hand combat instructor in the United States Army infantry. During World War Two and my first memories of my dad were in his military uniform. And then he was really a hard nosed guy, and he was hard on his number one son me. And there was some good things about that. And there were some things that weren't so good. But he he mellowed. He experienced a conversion in his faith and became a wonderful guy. He stopped being a hand to hand combat instructor and but I learned from him what it's like to compete with all your heart because that's what he did. He had been a skinny sickly kid. And in four years time he became a junior national light heavyweight weightlifting champion in the three Olympic lifts and then coached weightlifting at a military school when I was a kid. And he coached boxing, and he coached gymnastics, and all of his teams were champions. He had that special something while he was coaching, he moved on into the business world and had success there as well. And then, Bobby Dodd was a gentle, he seemed like a kind soul and he was unless you cut class, if you cut class, he turned into the world's greatest monster. And you found yourself at 6am running up and down stadium steps until at some point you decided to chemistry at eight o'clock in the morning was a wonderful idea. That's what that's what he did for us, which was maybe the best thing any of the coaches Tim Lombardi expressed his interest in the most forceful rhetoric in which he could just Willie Davis the Great Hall of Fame deep Event who had such an impact on my life, we'll probably talk about him later. Well, he said, I felt like when Lombardi jumped on me, I had been slapped in the face.
05:10
slapped
Bill Curry 05:12
Lombardi had the gift of a kind of a rhetoric that was that was painful, it hurt. And you didn't want to hear it again, for the rest of you didn't want to hear the rest of your life. So he could, he could force feed his system into you in ways that whether you liked it or not, if you were going to stay there. Number one, you weren't going to be a racist. And number two, you were going to run the system that he told you that he designed and you were going to implement his system, or you were going to be on the next Greyhound out. Don Shula had this remarkable capacity to be the hardest of all, he was physically the most demanding of all of those guys that I've mentioned. Our training camps were just unbelievable. Lombardi had 10 days of to Shula had six weeks of two days. Today practices in football with pads, both practices, that's not even him. But we did that every year. If you survive the training camp, you are ready. And that's why I think of physically his teams were tougher, but he then managed to shape a relationship with the guys such that we knew he trusted us. And we trusted him. And nobody could beat us. And nobody can beat us if I could say that for all of those coaches that have just mentioned the shoe as the winningest coach in the history of the NFL. And I believe that's the reason but he also had, he had the capacity to look into your soul, he did this for me. And he could see something in you that you had not seen in yourself. He would say you can do this, when you had not thought you could do it. And so each one had a different personality and a different mode of expression. But eat the certain something that you're asking for here is something that's inexpressible. It's a gift from God. It's something that when the when the person walks in the room, you say, Oh my gosh, what is it about that guy? What is it about that woman that makes them different? And Gee, I'd like to play for that person. And I would throw my I would throw my heart into the fray, if that played for that person[PB2] . So that's a long winded answer. But they got something that other folks don't have
Paul Barnett 07:49
talked about racism, right, and decision making under duress. And I'd like to come back to them later on if we could, because I'd like to just build a little bit along on your coaching journey, because and your journey as a human being as well, because you started off actually talking about your wife who has a PhD and I can see what other people won't be able to see on this podcast behind you is a stack of books. And I've actually heard and seen seen you interviewed where you've talked about leadership and you've referenced everyone from Helen Keller, Rudyard Kipling, Teddy Roosevelt, there was even one article I read where you talked about Goethe, the German polymath. So I wanted to say, if you could go back to 1976, when you were starting out as a coach, what leadership advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know, now?
Bill Curry 08:43
spend more time with each individual. Get inside their head, get inside there, so and find out what it is that makes that person tick. I thought I could do that. On the practice field and in the meeting room, with a couple hours a day. I think I could have done a much better job of that. [PB3] I have players with whom I have a wonderful relationship. I hear from somebody. Of course now we're talking about 1000s of people. So this may be not something that so that I ought to be bragging about, but I am I'm bragging I hear from one of my guys almost every day now. It fills my soul. And it's not always complimentary coach, why didn't you tell us about this but, but a lot of times they'll say we remember what you said about leadership and we remember the characteristics of a champion. But my my, what I would say to young bill curry is number one, you don't know everything you don't know much about have anything, I thought I knew a lot of football 1976, I was given my first coaching job as the offensive line coach at Georgia Tech, I had the worst possible preparation to be a, an assistant coach or a head coach in college football is to play in the NFL for a long time. And that's what I had just done. I had just completed 10 years as a player in the NFL. And what that means is this, that means, in my case, I was always the smallest lineman on every team. And it took every fiber of my being to survive as an offensive center. So I knew a lot about playing football as an offensive center. I didn't know anything else. I didn't understand recruiting. I didn't understand relationships, I didn't understand staff structure, I didn't just understand fundraising. So all those things that are fundamental to success as a college coach, I thought and worst of all, I thought I knew a lot about them. I didn't. So when you think you're smart, and you're stupid, that's a real bad combination.
Paul Barnett 11:15
Great advice to live by actually, I wanted to challenge you a little bit on that, actually, because you might not have come in with a lot of knowledge. But b 1980, you are at becoming the head coach of Georgia Tech. And in 85, you win the all American bowl, and you're named ACC Coach of the Year. So something happened early in your coaching career that allowed you to have this results. But what I wanted to ask you was, what were the first things you did in 1980. If you can remember, when you got hold of that team that drove that result in 1985.
Bill Curry 11:52
I walked into the first team meeting. And honest to goodness I don't know what people's maybe each of us chooses what our religious perspective is going to be. I believe very much in freewill. And I grew up in a Christian tradition. And then I saw my very hard to live with Father become a wonderful human being. And all of a sudden that conversion stuff started to make sense to me. But then I became very much a lost sheep. For a long time. I ran as far and fast as I could. I'm not proud of that. But then I walked into the team meeting with 105 teenage males in the heart of Atlanta. And I knew I did know this in my heart and in my head. I was responsible for those kids. 24 seven. Now we're talking about Atlanta, Georgia at a time when we were having the missing and murdered children's Episode 30 children disappeared over a period of a few months. I have I was having parents call I was a brand new head coach and I was getting phone calls is my son safe on your campus. I look into those eyes. And my life was changed in a heartbeat[PB4] . Because I realized I either had to walk right back upstairs and call the president of the University of Georgia Tech is an institute is not a universities. And I had to call Dr. Pettit, our president and resign, or I had to take the leap of faith that I was capable of being responsible for 105 teenage lives 24 seven, because this was a lot more than a football game. And the way they looked at me and those intelligent eyes, and we're talking about really bright guys now. And I'm sure other schools have plenty of bright guys, but you don't come close to Georgia Tech unless you got a little bit of something between your ears. And every one of them. They might not have been Rhodes Scholar candidates. They were very bright. And they were looking at me and they were looking at me. Some of them happy, some of them very skeptical. And if I have a strength is that I can tell pretty much what you think of me in a few minutes. Whether you say anything or not. I knew that Georgia Tech was betting the house on me. And I knew that by the time I had visited with him for 10 or 15 minutes, I knew that I was not Gonna go see Dr. Pettit and resign, that I was going to stay and somehow together, we're going to link arms and that that bunch of guys, and we're going to get this done together. And it became an became an obsession instantly. And I love them with all my heart and I still do.
Paul Barnett 15:24
I've heard you talk about the importance of thinking under duress decision making, and you took that from Coach Dodd. But was it a something that you practiced, and a key part of your coaching style as well?
Bill Curry 15:43
When you're a college coach, you're always under duress. Almost any college coach that did prolonged Time will tell you that there's the catch phrase, it's overused is a crisis a day. Well, that's, that's low, that's a low estimate there. If you got that many creatures in the middle of a campus, even if it's not in the middle of Atlanta, Georgia, they're going to be several crises a day, there's going to be an academic crisis, that's going to be a behavior crisis. You're going to get a phone call from the local cops and say, This guy smarted off to a policeman and he was jaywalking. And then he acted like he was gonna hit the policeman. But you know, all you're talking about linebackers, you're talking about tough guys that grew up in Los Angeles, or Chicago, or whatever you bring them in, and then you got some more that are from the mountains, and then never been around a team that had more than 14 guys on it. So you're bringing this amazing melting pot together. And it's a, it's an almost perfect picture of the United States of America. And one of the great privileges in life is to teach these guys how to love each other, when they've been taught by our sixth society to hate each other's guts.[PB5] And so, all of that begins, and I'm not sure I'm answering your question. But there's one person responsible. And, and so that's where it starts is dealing with all of those things and keeping a level head. And but if I've completely got off the subject, then bring me back.
Paul Barnett 17:36
No, coach, wonderful lesson. And it comes through again, later on. I want to talk to you a lot about your experience with different elements of society and different backgrounds and demographics. But I still want to trace your career along a little bit if we can. And this next question is one that really fascinates me because it's about the time you leave Georgia Tech, and you go to the University of Alabama, and in 1988 you in the sun bowl against army. But what's so fascinating about that game, is you suspend your quarterback Jeff Dunn, right before the game for breaking team rules, and you still go on and win. And I imagine people must ask you about it all the time. But what I want to ask you is when people ask you, when I say coach curry, I'm setting up team rules. What advice if you got for me? What do you tell them?
Bill Curry 18:42
Ironically, I've had that question very seldom. I think people don't want to ask me because, look, cuz there were a couple of there were actually three incidents at bowl games where I sent somebody home. One time I sent several, including our best players, how, from what was a very big game for Georgia Tech. And I wasn't happy about any of those. And I didn't think any of those made me into any kind of hero. And I didn't think that for an instant. I hated doing it. But I had told the guys exactly what the rules were. And so we could not deviate. [PB6] But very few people asked me about setting up rules. I did have one very prominent coach, it's a good friend of mine called me and said, I want to have breakfast with you to convention. So I said, Oh, great. I mean, he's a wonderful guy. I just love him. So we sit down and he says, Don't ever do that, again, take their money, but don't suspend them from the game. But you're going to get because you're going to get beat and then you're going to get fired. So do you understand what I'm saying to you? I mean, he was heated about it. So what I'm trying to tell you is not many people asked me my opinion about making the rules.
Paul Barnett 19:59
was a brave thing to do. And I think I reckon it could have been the making of your coaching coaching career almost. I've read your book, I'm not totally familiar with your story having grown up in Australia, but it's such a strong message, the quarterback, same as everyone else, break the rules you don't play. And you still went on on one. I just find it fascinating.
Bill Curry 20:23
Well, it is fascinating. And it is. It's a fundamental part of leadership. If you're going to have a rule, you better enforce it. Because if you don't, you just you'll lose the team. instantly[PB7] . I'll tell you a question that a lot of people ask me about the coaching career, what was the highlight what was the hot point of your whole career, but I include in my playing career, and it was this moment, we were at the all American bowl in Birmingham. And it was the biggest deal for Georgia Tech and many years. Because at that time, it was really hard to get in any bowl. And we were going to play Michigan State and George Perlis was a great coach. And they had Alonzo White, who was all time rushing leader for the big 10 conference. And it was just, and we had some really good players, and I'm not going to call their names, but I said, four of our best players home, including our star quarterback in our all American wide receiver who was our who made all our big plays, sent him home. Because I had told the guys look what I'm gonna do stuff that I don't normally do. But while we're here in Atlanta, preparing, we're gonna have no curfew, you can you guys can have parties, I better not gonna put captains in charge, you can have fun. And enjoy this time because you've earned it. But once we get on the bus, and we head to Birmingham, we only have one thing on our mind. And that's the one the game period. If you break any rule at all, you're going to come home. Does anybody have a question about that? So when when we had the incident that that the guys did break the rule. And I did send them home. I had such powerful leaders, we had such powerful leaders on our defense. And it got back to us that some of the folks from the other other party I mean, like the families of the other coaches, one of the wives said something to one of our wives like, you know, this could have been a very good game. And our wife said, What do you mean by that? She said, Well, I mean, now that your coach and all your good players home, it's not even going to be interesting to watch. It's going to be such a blowout. Well, somehow that got back to me. And it got back to our team. And and I saw these two great leaders and players, Ted, Ruth and pat swilling, who were dominant players, one African American, and one Caucasian. And I saw I'm talking to her in practice, we were at Legion field. And they were the kind of guys if they had thought I was wrong, they would have probably confronted me in front of the team, coach, we think you're wrong. And I thought, wow, this, this is likely to be interesting. So sure enough, Ruth came up to me right into practice and said, We need to have a team meeting. I said, Okay, I'll meet you in the locker room. You guys go ahead. Had your meeting? He said, No, we want you to stay. We want you to here to be here. Wow, okay. All right. I'm here to a meeting, roof said, you know, I'm not a real sentimental guy coach, and he certainly not. He said, some of us been talking. We know why you did what you did. We love you, we're gonna win the game. That's the team meeting. And that was the highlight of my coaching career. Not the fact that we won the game had we lost the game, it would have been the same because for them to get the message, and to carry that throughout the rest of their lives. So that they could then have a family and run an organization and do whatever it is that they needed to do and understand it. You got to have that structure. You got to have an understanding that we're all willing to make certain sacrifices and we're all going to do it or we're not going to make this work for them to understand that when they're 19 2021 years old. Wow. I just, I was just so proud of him for that. And I'll never forget it.
Paul Barnett 25:08
Catch carry your book, The 10 men you meet in the huddle is fantastic. Great. There's a great chapter in there on your high school coach, Bill Badgett. And you say that he was the first to tell you that football is just life marked off in 100 yards. When you get hit in those yards, you either get up where you lie there, and you wallow in self pity. And what I wanted to ask you was, is it possible? And if it is, how do you get someone? And how do you teach someone to get up and keep going?
Bill Curry 25:46
Well, for you, you go. First of all, there's a little luck involved. Like in my case, I had two goals in life. I wanted to marry Carol and Newton and I wanted to pitch for the Yankees in that order. And because of persistence, and because of my natural charm, I was successful in number one, Mary, Carolyn Newton. Also I asked her, I asked her years later, I said, What happened, you wouldn't even talk to me, you wouldn't walk down the hall with me. And then all of a sudden, you were interested when we were seniors, and she said, You grew a foot, you were five, two, when you started trying to get a date with me. And I was five, three, now is taller than you. You grew a foot. That was what happened. That's Oh, so it was an accident of nature. But and then the only thing that kept me from pitching for the Yankees, there was only one thing and it was talent. So I wanted desperately to do that. But coach Badgett was so demanding. And it was so hard to be out there playing for him, that I decided to do what a lot of little fat boys decide to do. I decided to quit. I'm going to take this ridiculous equipment, these pads, I'm going to go back up to that stupid locker room that smells like ammonia, and illness. And I'm going to turn them in, and I'm going to go back up to the pitcher's mound where I belong. And then I thought a little more. I got a problem. You see, because my father lived at our house. And if I quit, I couldn't go home. And he just said, Look, I didn't make you go out for football. I didn't even ask you to go out, but you went out on your own. And you're not going to let your teammates down. First great lesson, you're going to stay out there, you're going to finish this. And you may not ever like it. Sorry, it's not something you and I don't have control over which you're not gonna quit. You're not gonna quit anything. And that shaped most of the rest of my life[PB8] . And that's what follows is supposed to do anyhow. That's the only reason that I survived Badgett because and I never played the way I should have for Coach Badgett. And I've always regretted that. But he every single day, he found a way to get the message to us, football just life marked off in 100 yards men in 10 yard increments. You're going to get knocked down, you got a decision to make every time you get knocked down, you can lie down and wallow in self pity, or you can get your butt up and go on to the next play and learn to be a man. He said, what's what we're out here in all this slop and it's March and it's cold and the winds blowing. And when we come back in August, it's gonna be 105 degrees Fahrenheit. And it's never going to be comfortable. And you're going to hate every minute of that. But one day, you're gonna look back and say thank God, I did that because that's where I became a man[PB9] . And that's exactly what happened. I also had some great teammates that challenged me and made me decide to go hard.
Paul Barnett 29:24
I want to talk to you about those teammates in a minute, actually, but I want to talk to you a little bit about love. I've got this great quote from your coach Carrie, you say? One thing all child psychologists agree on in child rearing, teaching or coaching is that a person who is loved learns to love with so many players 105 you talked about a minute ago and all the assistant coaches that are connected to a football team. How can you maintain this type of compassion without depleting yourself?
Bill Curry 29:56
Well, I don't think I did. I don't think I've maintained the level That I should have. And I got some warnings. I had one player. God bless him. Whoa, Mike Martin, great guy. I had the players in once a year, just just to visit. And I patted myself on the back for that I should have had him in five times a year. That's what I regretted that, I just should have found a way. But anyhow, once a year, I would sit the guys down, and we would talk, I just want to know how you do and what what. And Michael is such a pleasant and a fine young man and a good engineering student and a good linebacker and all that. I look forward to him saying a lot of wonderful things about our program. And so he sits down and we talked for a while, and I said, Well, Mike, let's be serious here now. And I want you to tell me the truth. What do you think about what we're doing? He said, You want a truth? That's your first signal. This is not gonna be fun. I said, of course, I want the truth. That's all I could expect from you. He said, Well, you talk about family a lot, and how you love us and all that. But you walk into breakfast, and I'm sitting over there with three or four guys at a table. You get your food, you walk all the way the other side of the dining hall, you sit down by yourself. You eat your food, and you walk out, you know, ever sit with us. And so what are we supposed to think when you talk about family? That's, that's the antithesis of family. I didn't even realize I was doing that. Stupid. I was changed everything for me[PB10] . I just said there. I've seen him several times through the years since then, each time I've said Do you hear Yeah, I remember cosy, I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm sure you appreciate it. But I'll never forget that if I live to be 1000. At going back to if you say you're going to do something, you better do it. You better not say one thing and do another ever. And so the child doesn't interpret love by saying, gee, I love you here. Let me hug you. he interprets love or she interprets love by who you are. And what do you do what you say you're gonna do? I thought I was doing great with our son. Not Found out years later, when I skipped dollars, literally games. That was devastating to him. When I did that, because I was at football practice raising everybody else's kids. Well, I had, I could have changed the practice schedule, I could have done a lot of things. So biggest mistake of my life was not being at our son's events. Now he's got five boys, and he's at every single one of their things. And the lesson is clear.
Paul Barnett 32:56
We're talking about lessons. Your book, which is more of a philosophy book, actually then a sporting memoir. I'm not finished yet, but I'm finding it fascinating. And just your insights. And I think your honesty which comes across in the way that you're very self reflective. But the story that really touches me, and I think he's so pertinent to where we are in the world. And the minute is about when you get to the Packers. And you've never been in the huddle with an African American person. And you share that wonderful story about Willie Davis, and helped you how he helped you understand how to talk about race. When you talk to people today about the importance of diversity in all its different shapes. I mean, you talked about female coaches in the opening as well. So when you talk about diversity to people, what is it you say to them today? What's your message?
Bill Curry 33:58
messages is not my message. It's the it's the underlying mythology of the United States of America, which we have never really seriously tried to implement, that all men are created equal. And that each is endowed with inalienable rights, which are as follows and the Declaration of Independence. We said that and we don't do it. And it's embarrassing. The great thing about the huddle I watched our our daughter granddaughter play on a softball team last year, and we've watched her play softball for years. She had a group I'm not exactly sure how many girls are were in this particular group, they were in the same class. And there was Asian American, African American, couple of white kids and they love each other, they gonna love each other the rest of their lives. Now, where else does that? Is that happening at the Sunday school? Oh, no. Oh, no, not at our church. No way. Is that happening at the synagogue? Is that happening at the mosque? Is that? Is it? is it happening at the marketplace? is it happening in business, some time in business? When somebody understands how to create a huddle? I think it does happen. I think my dad pulled it off and some of his business ventures but I don't have him anymore to talk to. So I wish I did. But here's the thing, you cannot step in a successful huddle in our sport, and be a racist, or be a hater. You can't step in there and say, I don't like I hate Australians. I'm not doing business with anybody from the Prague. I don't like the way they drink beer over there. I hate their guts. You can't be one of the good old boys that hates everybody. That's not just like you. We just went through an episode in Atlanta where a bunch of people were killed. murdered by but a kid 21 years old, who went and bought himself a gun, did not have to have a waiting period did not have to get his ID checked. What are we doing in our country, we're living a lie. But when you step in that huddle, you better be ready to accept everybody. Here's the great thing, if I'm the coach, I get a chance to take some guy from South Central LA, where we've recruited him, maybe six, four to eight, he runs for six. He's smart. He comes all the way to the other side of the country. For some reason we don't understand we're just glad to have him. And I put him in the locker room next to a mountain boy from the hills of North Georgia, who like his coach has ever been in a huddle with an African American person. And seeing many African American people. Let's say we're working at the filling station, or down to feed mill. And he comes to me, he says, I'm not dressing this dead guy. And I can say, Oh, yes, you are. You can't do that coach, oh, I can do anything I want to. And you can go home if you want to. I would like you to stay. It matters to me. But you're gonna dress where I tell you to dress, you're going to go to class where I tell you to go to class. Because you and I made a deal. You signed that contract and you get grant money. So you dress where I tell you to dress. And what happens. He goes out on the field. And it's just what Badgett did with us, you sweat and you bleed. And in football, you can't even put your jersey on by yourself. You got to have your teammates to pull your jersey over your shoulder pads. You have to have your teammates to get dressed. So what happens? You got to get your teammate to help you get undressed to get your jersey often what happens you find out the sweat smells the same on everybody. And I get busted in my mouth. And now I've got I've got blood and snot and everything d'oeuvres everywhere. And we realize that bloods the same color got all of us. And those two guys that thought they hated each other. They learn to love each other[PB11] . I've had them come to me and say, I actually like this guy now coach, I say yeah, I thought that might happen. And then then the real miracle happens. This doesn't always happen. But it when it does, it is so beautiful. I'm walking out of the stadium right next to the team bus. And there's some mamas out there. And they got different pigmentation. They're from different parts of the world. And they are hugging because their two sons are on the same team. And then I hear things like Thanksgiving dinner, one of them invites the other one home. For the first time ever. There's somebody different at the Thanksgiving table is really hard to hate a 17 year old that's bragging on your cooking. It really is. So labs get changed. And then I'm not saying that it happens every day and that, that we're responsible for changing the world. But the world has been changed for a whole bunch of people because of our sport. demand that
Paul Barnett 40:01
coach carry, reading about you and learning about you. There's a theme that comes across to me. And that's this whole idea of making decisions and thinking about the future first, whether it's suspending a player to set a standard, whether it's not letting players get their way, because they have biases and beliefs that are outdated. And there was one story that really brought this home for me. And it's a story you shared about attending Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On how some of your family tried to stop you from going. And they did that by reminding you had an obligation to your daughter, so you should stay away. But your reply was just priceless. And you said, I'm going to their funeral, because I am thinking about my child. And this whole idea of making decisions that will potentially echo into the future seems a common theme. And I wanted to ask you just what advice thoughts or anything you have on decision making? And maybe even the question is, how do you talk to your own children about decision making, and the criteria they should be using, when they make these life changing decisions in the moment?
Bill Curry 41:21
For whatever it's worth, and I give her mom most of the credit for this, but she's a very perceptive person, she's 53 years old. And as I mentioned, she has two daughters of her own, and a wonderful husband and a wonderful marriage. And she is relentless on the matter of race. Now, is that a coincidence? Is that I don't know. She, she just sent me a podcast that I highly recommend. And it's a conversation between Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, it goes on for a couple of hours, it is powerful. On this very subject those two, imagine those two guys had great links. And why did Bruce write certain songs when he did and, and what happened when he stood up and began to sing, he got booed, because he stood up and began to sing a song about this very subject. So our daughter, the very daughter that we were thinking of when we went to Dr. King's funeral, March has taken up the mantle and and has walked in demonstrations with her daughters and her husband, and end us. And we haven't been to all of them. And there's some that I missed. And I'm deeply regret it because this because I didn't know about them. And that's my fault. But I don't think it's a total accident that she ended up being so sensitive to this issue. And cause she teaches so she's she's has a chance to teach a mix of human beings that where she gets a chance to be an influence in the direction of diversity and caring about other people, regardless of their background.
Paul Barnett 43:21
Coach, Gary, you've had a ripple effect on so many people. And we talked earlier about the 1000s of people you've coached and the fact that you're getting WhatsApp messages and messages from people every day. And perhaps my last question would be, did you reflect on your life as a coach or teacher, mentor? What's the legacy that you hope that you have left?
Bill Curry 43:53
I hope my guys we get together and maybe have a few beers with you. There's some of the concertedly consume a few beers. I learned that the hard way. I want them to always want to be together. I want them to love each other. And I can't make that happen. Some of my most notable failures is where we just could not get that bond with our guys. I take responsibility for that. But I hope somebody in the midst of the conversation will look at the other guy and say, You know what? I thought you were ridiculous. I didn't like you. Coach curry made me dress next. Do you know what I love you now? And it's because I had to hang out with you even though I didn't want to. And Coach curry made me do it. I would like for compensation to happen. And if it happens more than a few times, then that sort of thing that is a ripple effect that goes through generations and families and cultures.[PB12]
45:14
I would like
Paul Barnett 45:16
to carry out the idea of a ripple effect across generations and cultures is a wonderful way to end. I want to thank you for your time today. It's been an absolute privilege, spending some time talking to you and learning more about your story and I look forward to sharing it with a with a much wider audience.
Bill Curry 45:33
Well, the privilege is mine, Paul, you've you've got such a gift for him, evoking everything that's down inside me and and I've enjoyed this very, very much