My Erk Russell memory

In case you haven't heard, former UGA and Georgia Southern football coach Erk Russell passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was a heck of a football coach. He coached the "Junkyard Dawg" defense at UGA from 1964-1981 and then resurrected the football program at Georgia Southern. While at Georgia Southern, he won three Division 1-AA championships.

Erk was a colorful character, to say the least. As you can see on that Wikipedia page, he had a penchant for headbutting his players and would frequently have to coach his games with a bloodied, bald noggin.

I had the privilege of hearing Erk speak once. I was at Boys State back in 1986. As usual, it was held on the campus of Georgia Southern, and Erk was the guest speaker on one of our last nights there. Usually, I don't remember what most guest speakers say, but he had a couple of funny lines that I remember to this day. Here's what he said (in quotes, but basically paraphrased):

• "I don't normally go to Halloween costume parties, but my wife talked me into going to one last year. Do you have any idea what my costume was? I went as Ban Roll-On."
• "One day my wife said to me, 'Erk, sometimes I think you love football more than you love me.' I responded, 'Yes, dear, but I still love you more than I love track.'"

He was a funny and entertaining man and, from what I hear, a master motivator on the football field. He certainly made a name for himself in the state of Georgia and he was loved by many. Most people would be thrilled to live half the life and have half the impact he did.

As I read somewhere last week -- if God needed a defensive coordinator, he's got a great one now.