Coach. Then congressman. Then governor. But start with coach.
I have warm memories of my teachers and employers.
Good teachers taught me how to read. Good employers taught me how to make a living. They mixed instruction with encouragement and inspiration. My mentors weren't called "coaches," but that's what they did. They coached. They created deep and persistent memories.
Jack Mullen was an outstanding athlete throughout his school years. He remembers coaches in the multiple sports he played in our sports-crazy school district. He saw something familiar and good in the manner of Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president.
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| Mullen, coaches, and basketball teammates |
Guest Post by Jack Mullen
When I first saw Tim Walz on my television screen I thought, damn, I know this guy. I immediately started racking my brain. Perhaps it was a teacher I had somewhere back in Medford. Oregon. That seemed right. Tim Walz, was a teacher-coach. The Medford public school system had dozens of teacher-coaches from grade school to high school.
Which teacher-coach had the biggest impact on my life? Hard call as Medford teacher-coaches came from various backgrounds. Some were WWII vets; others standout college athletes; and some even professional minor league baseball players. All of them shaped my life, but it was my first coach at Roosevelt Elementary School, a Native American, Clifford McLean, or "Chief," as we called him, whose coaching and teaching has stayed with me the most.
How Chief McLean landed at Roosevelt still baffles me. Clifford McLean was an All-Pacific Coast guard for the University of Oregon basketball team in 1932. He played on the Medford semi-pro baseball team and hit a triple off of Satchel Paige when Satch’s barnstorming baseball team played Medford’s Cheney Studs -- a team consisting primarily of employees of the local Cheney lumber mill -- in the sold-out Cheney Stud stadium just south of Medford.
Chief taught us skills I find lacking in today’s professional athletes. For instance, he taught us to bunt in baseball, not just up the first and third base lines, but strategically when to bunt for a base hit, or when to bunt for a sacrifice. Most of all, he taught us how to give yourself up on a “sacrifice squeeze play.” With a runner barreling down from third base to score you had to bunt anyway to allow the runner to score. I remember Chief giving the “sacrifice squeeze” sign to Rick Hassmann in our championship game against Wilson Grade School. It worked to perfection.
Chief taught us the basics of the pick-and-roll in basketball. In track and field, he was a decent coach, except he did not manage to teach us 11-year-olds how to maximize our inner Jim Thorpe in the high jump. One such 11-year-old was Dick Fosbury, who, along with Chief, couldn’t decide whether to jump “Scissors Style” or use the “Western Roll.” Fosbury managed to develop his own style in high school by jumping over the bar backwards. Fosbury looked like a fish flopping in the river; hence a Medford Mail-Tribune sportswriter called it the Fosbury Flop. Dick went on to win a gold medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and showed future high jumpers how to flop to success. Dick Fosbury credited Chief McLean for teaching us kids to find joy in all sports.
Chief McLean became "Mr. McLean" in the classroom. I remember his description of why his grandfather never had a cavity; Native Americans cleaned their teeth by using chew-sticks and chewing on fresh herbs to clean their teeth and gums. Chew-sticks were twigs that had two uses: One end was frayed by a rock and used for brushing, while the other end was sharpened and used as a tooth pick. I remember the classroom yarns of teacher Mr. McLean as fondly as I do of coach “Chief” McLean tipping his hat and rubbing his left pant leg to signal the batter to bunt.
Look at Tim Walz and maybe, like me, you see your favorite teacher, or you see a farm boy from Nebraska, or your favorite uncle, or a 24-year National Guard veteran serving his community. You see someone trustworthy. You see someone who triggers good memories of knowledgeable, caring people. Tim Walz has that coach vibe. It seems natural and unforced on him. It is a political asset for him. Coach Walz. Wise choice there, Kamala.
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8 comments:
It’s true. In Tim Walz, we see someone knowledgeable, caring and trustworthy. What a contrast to his Republican counterpart, a draft-dodger’s bootlicker who makes gratuitous attacks on his opponent’s 24 years of honorable military service.
You forgot the board of education. It was a board he used to spank, that had holes in it that when contact was made a very impressive bang occurred. I wouldn’t normally extol spanking, but when chief did it, a level of prestige occurred for the recipient. I also am thankful for being one of 2 5th graders to play on the baseball team. It remains one of my proud achievements in life. Yes being a coach is a very respectable job in most of America. Also, have to give a nod to Fred Spiegalburg. [sorry for the spelling]
A beautiful homage. Clifford Glen McLean was Sioux, born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota on November 18, 1912. The family moved to Portland when he was a small child. I suspect he attended the Chemawa Indian School in Salem - his sister Winnefred, 2 years his senior, was sent there. Chief McLean died in Ashland in 2004 and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery.
My “Chief” was also of that generation. Dan Murphy, electrical teacher at Nashoba Tech High School in Massachusetts. No-nonsense, practical, genuinely caring and kind. I didn’t find out until many years later that he had been a radio-man on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He never mentioned it- which was typical for that generation. His only agenda seemed to want to help his students flourish. Great essay Mr. Mullen.
“We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war”, said Walz.
Coach Walz “misspoke” on the “I carried in war” front, the Harris campaign has just acknowledged.
At least he didn't claim to be a Combat Correspondent, like his word processor Jockey opponent.
LD: As I’m sure you know, Walz was talking about the need for gun control, not claiming to have combat experience. To inflate that into “stolen valor,” a serious charge, is just one small example of the GOP’s complete lack of integrity. I’m surprised they don’t just accuse him of killing someone, as they did with Clinton.
Hilary Clinton killed Vince Foster. John Kerry's silver star and purple hearts are bogus even though he was shot and he was gallant in action. Dick Cheney had other priorities.My Viet Nam was not getting the crabs, clap, chlamydia, or syphilis. I like people who didn't get captured. Wes Cooley was a Korean War vet. Chief McLean was born 19 years after the Wounded Knee massacre; American soldiers got medals for that massacre. My father never talked about World War Two, but he didn't care for Ronald Reagan, who didn't fight in that war; but George H.W. Bush was okay with my father, partly because George H.W. Bush did fight. Don't get me started on Frank Sinatra, Bill Clinton, and the other draft dodgers. I burned my draft card. I thought Jane Fonda had a point (I don't any more). I have a relative who almost got blown to Kingdom Come in Afghanistan. Peter Sage's father lived through the conquest of Germany in 1945; he was there and some of his compatriots didn't make it home because the Germans killed them. Fred Spiegelberg told his son, "I've been on bonus time since 1944."
Thank you for your service, Coach Walz. Please don't say you carried a firearm in war if you weren't in a war; that keeps things simpler.
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