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For a man charged with being a spokesperson I truly had no words of my own yesterday. I just needed to time to find them. Bear with me as there are many. (Long thread)
RIPCoachChaney - well that does not do enough. Really no mere words can some up the giant of a man that John Chaney was. And I was fortunate enough to be close to him for a number of years.
So many stories have run through my mind. ones surrounding my job. Telling reporters coming in for interviews about his life over the last couple of years at Temple. “Did you bring a few tapes (for their tape recorders - not needed now) as you will be here a long while.”
Of the things he did but never publicized Meeting with the Alabama women’s basketball wheelchair team (photo above) for nearly an hour after a tough loss - while the players waited in the bus. He loved doing it. Signing autographs and making people feel special.
In his next to last season. After a NIT loss at Virginia Tech, quite possibly the last game he would coach, he thanked the Virginia State Trooper assigned to keep him safe. He grabbed me before we went on the bus and had me get his contact info so we could send him a hat & shirt.
...As we had runout. The next day at 9 am he called me asking if I had sent it out yet. - Always thinking of others first.
I can’t forget the one time that Al Shrier called me the day we were to play Arizona State to say someone wanted to meet Coach to say hello. A former Temple employee and his son who has Downs Syndrome. I told Al to have him call me...
...Talked with now my close friends Bob and Shane Stern and said to meet us in our hotel lobby before we left for the game. That coach would definitely say hello.
Not only did Coach stop and talk to them, but signed Shane’s hat. Then made every player stop and sign it to making Shane feel so special. Never will forget how many smiles he put on peoples faces.
Last one. Our St Bonaventure trips. The place where fans would throw cookies at him during games. Well his pregame ritual was to sit in the stands with his thermos of chicken soup...
...Fans came early and lined up to get his autograph. He knew this and continued to do it. It simply was a sight to see as he enjoyed it so much.
I could go on and on. These are the memories that will keep him alive for myself and so many who were fortunate to be close to him.
The last 15 years I would joke with him on my calls to set up interviews - and just my calls to him in general - that I was his pro Bono PR person. The calls were the highlight of my day/week/month.
Rarely did a month go by that we didn’t talk. And the calls would go on for at least a half an hour. The last few years my son Connor would listen in and Coach would talk to him and make him feel special. Connor has taken this very hard as so many of us have.
In closing, I am thinking of the pain his family must be going through. If I am feeling so much agony, theirs must be a hundredfold in comparison.
Personally, I will miss this man we all call Coach. I will miss those calls. I will miss his raspy voice. I will miss his rants - especially on politics. But mostly I will miss his laugh and his smile. I see it and hear it now as I write this. And am smiling through tears.
