BTW, I also won two $25 dollar gift vouchers for Brauns Bar and Grill in the drawing-- another guy at our table won the signed Buffalo print. I would have traded him, but he didn't take me up on the offer....:smile2:
Notes were simple, but I will try to fill in where I can. He talked about two things, leadership and then the CSU game. First, he said 'Everything rises and falls on leadership. Leadership many characteristics to be effective and some of them are trust, character, and integrity. The 6 definitions of integrity are 1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility
2 : an unimpaired condition : soundness
3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : completeness
Actually, he mentioned 6, but that is where I started writing, and did not get them all; online dictionaries are only giving me 3 or so.
He talked about a story I have heard before, where there was a mountain where lots of people would climb it, so this man built a lodge halfway up the mountain where people could stop and rest. He found that about half of the people would decide to stay in front of the fire and eat and drink and be merry while the other half would have a leader who would motivate others to keep climbing. After a few hours the ones who stayed behind with become quiet and eventually remorseful as they knew that others that had not taken the easy fun path were getting close to achieving their goals for the day. Mac then said that the Latin definition of 'mediocre' literally means 'halfway up the mountain'.'
He then talked about the power of the spoken word, about speaking your goals and dreams and pursuing them. He said that what you believe in your heart is more powerful than what is in your mind by the power of four to one.
He read a letter that he had written to his players in 1993 or so during the offseason, where he asked them to think about the team, and if they were able to accept every player on the team, or if they were forming cliques and were isolating certain players in their hearts. It talked about becoming a team and everyone having a role, and everyone being a family and working together toward common goals.
He talked about a quote (don't know from who) where he talked about in a war, some General had made the statement about 'to succeed in war you have to take all work and distractions and bend everything toward the completion of a specific goal'. He talked about football being like that (and I feel all our major goals in life should be like that--we all can achieve more together if we all have a definiteness of purpose), bending all work and planning toward a specific goal. talked about his conversations with Hawk and that Hawk did not come here to win conference Championships, that he came here with MNC's as a goal, and one of the reasons that he choose Colorado was the fact that we had achieved it before, so he would not have to change our mindset to believe that we could do it again. Basically, it is harder to make someone who has never achieved a big goal to believe they can, than to convince some who did it before that they can achieve it again.
Then he talked about the CSU series, about how when it got started again in the early 80's how we were bad, and CSU was really bad. Asked anyone who cared if CSu won the MWC, (nobody raised their hand), after there were alot of chuckles when he said 'See? None of us care!, he went on to say that they needed to give a door prize for anyone who could name the last three MWC Champions. No takers on that either. He talked about how Coach Crowder kept coming around when the series started up to make sure Mac knew how important this game was for bragging rights in the state of Colorado, and he showed up the night before the first game. Must of been at CSU, or maybe we get hotels even for home games, because Mac said all the--no had to be road game, since he said the 60 person traveling squad was with him--anyway, all the guys were stuffed in a room with him and instead of watching a movie, he asked all of them some questions. He asked them to tell him one by one what he could expect of them the next day. he said this one player (he named him but I did not get it written down) stood up-- Mac said he was a good player, we all know that, but he was the kind of good player that also foamed at the mouth and chased cars occasionally-- and he got down in his three point stance and said 'Coach, I will play as hard as I can every play until the last whistle blows. I will know my assignments and I will execute them perfectly!'
Mac then said that all the players went one by one, and the bar had been set high, and players that would usually not way a word were all fired up and making strong statements (power of the spoken word). he said that that was the lst time CU has ever entered that game with the psychological advantage. He said that we killed them that game, not just in the score, but there were bodies lying everywhere.
He talked about Sperry, that he is one of very few CSU players that CU offered that choose CSU, that CU has more talent, but that once again, talent means less than the belief that you have in your heart, and CSU players have more belief in beating big brother, and since they have that in their heart, even though we more physically gifted, that is why they can keep it close.
It was great, I have left alot out I am sure, but when he was done, everyone jumped up and gave him thunderous applause. I heard people left and right going 'Wow!! What a speaker'. I think many had never heard him speak and what makes him such a great Coach and man. He also had said that this was the first time he had spoken at the Denver Buff Club for maybe 15 years.
Earlier when he was talking about trust he used the coaching changes of three coaches in 10 years or so, and how when you recruit a player, and tell him that 'We need you, We can't do it without you. you are a big part of our plans to succeed' and then leave the next year, then the leftover players are left in limbo with no trust that the new coach needs them or wants them.
Anyway, that is a synopsis. Obviously I cannot put the passion and fire into typing that he did in the spoken talk, but man, was it ever great.
