Dale Brown, right, with former UK coach Joe Hall at a UK-LSU game in Rupp Arena. (Vicky Graff Photo)
With the struggles Kentucky has had this year and unrest among many fans toward coach John Calipari, it made me think about something former LSU coach Dale Brown wrote about four years ago and shared with me about when is the right time for a coach, or anyone, to walk away from a successful career.
I am not saying I think Calipari is going to leave Kentucky or needs to be fired. Just that with a 5-10 record and obvious flaws with this team, some soul searching is going to be needed and it made me think back to what Brown — a man I consider a friend and have for 40 years — once wrote.
You may agree with Dale Brown. You may not. Either way just take the time to read what he wrote several years ago.
Here is Brown’s article:
Knowing when to quit is a rarity. Every life has a cycle, and too many coaches stay longer than they should and they actually reduce the value of their wonderful accomplishments.
Let me give you some paramount examples of this:
1. Eleven coaches that won an NCAA Championship were fired from the school they led to the national championship or at another institution.
2. Twenty-one coaches that one time in their careers were selected as National Coach of the Year were fired.
Famous journalist and author John Feinstein so profoundly described the coaching profession when he said, “Coaching can be a joyless job, especially at the top. No matter what you do, no matter how much you win, there will always be more demanded.”
My friend, the late Bill Libby, in his book, “The Coaches,” said, “He is called Coach. It is a difficult job, and there is no clear way to succeed in it. Those who have succeeded and those who have failed represent all kinds – young and old, inexperienced and experienced, hard and soft, tough and gentle, good-natured and foul-tempered, proud and profane, articulate and inarticulate, dedicated and casual.
“Most are dedicated, some more than others, and just wanting to win is not enough in any event. Even winning is not enough. Losers always get fired, but winners get fired too. I have seen some broken and bitter by the job and others die from it.”
The word coach was first used back in the 1500s in England. A coach was a horse drawn carriage used to transport a person from where he or she is to where he or she wants to be, needs to be, or ought to be going.
All these years later, that is exactly what coaching should be about but this is most difficult to follow because of the pressure to win. Measuring the success of a coach shouldn’t have anything to do with league titles, state championships, national rankings or national titles.
It should have everything to do with directing a program ethically and making good use of the power coaches have to reach and teach young people about issues and ideas that will carry them not only through a season … but through a lifetime.
