Untitled - Fast and Furious Football

PHILOSOPHY, MOTIVATION. AND MANAGEMEI.IT T83
expect these men to wdte exactly as the
one caution: The public relations image can
be grossly exaggerat€d; for the coach who
is spending much of bis time associating
with diferent groups is making a mistake.
T'he alumni, ihe boosterc, and your own
close friends never win games; but a welltrained
and minutely coached group of
young men will win.
In educational circles very often the word
"win" is given an eril connotation, because
it is often implied that winning meang
breaking some rules, but this is certainly
not tlae. On the contlary winning means
the bdnging together, in a common efTort,
of all the phFical and mental resowces of
the football squad and its coaches, which
in no way warants an apology.
Ifa football coach is successful, he will usua\
move up by changing poBitioff some
five or six times during his career. At each
of these moves his interview with the selection
committee is a very important step
in h success. The job int€rview is rarely
discussed, but it will suffice to say that the
coach should go into this interview as well
prepared as h€ can possiblybe, having anticipated
every exigency that will probably
afise, for hiB future depends on his selling
himBelf at this crucial moment.
12. Coaching is not a prof€ssion that offels
great security a coach almost always grveB
up active coaching before he is ready to retire.
Thi6 phenomcnon iE equally true in
high school and college and must be tak€n
into consideration in the coachh life prcpa-
Coach-Player Relationahip
We feel that th€ single most importart consideration
is that the football player must get an educarion
and Lhar nolhing .hort ofa degree i3 considered
a complete education. The help and encouragement
that the coacb can give the player
is extremely important, particularly during th€
first year that the play€r is on campus.
So man5 youngsters at lhis lime will be oeither
proper\ guided nor motivated, and since the
coach has the closest contact with these playerc,
he is in an ideal position to render real help. The
coach who is intelligent enough to coach and t€ach
in a university must be intelligent enough to sit
down with a student and tutor and help the student
over his rough spots. Any college coach who
is not capable or willing to do this should not be
on a college staff.
In our program we believe the only way that
we can repay a player for his efforts is to make
sule that w€ do everything within our college
rule8 that we can to help this man get an education.
Only in this way can we make sure the college
athlete is not being cheated. This is the basis
ofthe coach-player relationship at Ohio State
UniversitJi
At Ohio State we arc aware of the enormous
educational value of football. It has never be€n
our intention to overemphasize football, but perhaps
at some time we hav€ done so. However, the
longer a coach stays in college football, the greater
weight he gives to the educational value of the
spofl. As he studies lormer football players in
thei varied carcers, he realizes that a larye part
of the useful education that they take from the
campus is directly or indircctly tied in with footbaI.
To play footbau is to respect rules, for the game
offootball could not exist without rules. Rules may
nor be absolutes, bui lhey are abqolute necessities
for group achievement. The football player
must not only have great respect for rules, he
muBt also have an equal respect for the necessity
of a r'ule change when a rule is outmoded or fails
to tulfiI it6 int€nded purose. Th€ absolute should
be orderly change. This implies the demo$atic
process, a process that has rccently b€en flouted
on many campuses, but a pmcess that in comparison
to all other methods of change, stands
out as thebest.Ifthis soundslike indoct nation,
that is exactly what it is meant to be.
A good football squad iB controlled better by
attitudes than by rules. Attitude includes many
things: Fimt, the desire to improve individually,
to warrant membe$hip on a team; s€cond, the
desirc to win as hanslated into team conduct; and
third, the development of s high respect for the
ghts and privileges of othem on the squad. On
our squad therc are two rules.
Fimt, there is no place on the football squad
for hat€rs, either white or black. Second, each
player has a right to approach any coach off the
field without fear of recrimination, if the player
feels he has a legltimate complaint. we leel that
this is a necessary safety valve.
Standards for football players must, of necessity,
vary from those of other students. His