My Dad

"In every person's life there needs to be a caring, nurturing, encouraging friend."

The earliest memory I have of my father is one of me as a young boy holding his hand by his two last fingers as we walked together. His hands seemed so large that his fingers were all I could actually grip. He always took me with him to ball games even at my young age. I will never forget that.

As I grew older I remember dad and I listening to high school basketball games together on an old transistor radio. I would make a list of player's names on a piece of paper and keep track of how many points each would score as the game went on. Too small to stay awake for the whole game, I always fell asleep before the game ended. When I would wake up in the morning I would find the score sheet lying next to me. The score sheet would be filled out with the final score on it completed by my father before he carried me to bed.

My father was a bread delivery man. I remember the times when my father would stop by the house in the early morning on those cold days when I was home from school over Christmas break. I used to ride on the floor of that bread truck as he delivered the bread to the stores. I don't know if those old trucks even had heaters but it didn't matter. The smell and warmth from the bread that had just come from the bakery ovens would make my mouth water and keep me warm both at the same time.

In high school I became very interested in athletics. My father would attend all my games. My junior year something special happened.

It was in algebra class during the spring of the year. Football season was long over. We had done well last season - qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in school history. I wanted us to do even better next year, my senior year. Then the idea hit me. I didn't wait till after school. During my lunch break, I drove over to a print shop and ordered business cards with a simple, direct prophesy -

"BOONVILLE PIRATES -- 1974 STATE CHAMPIONS!"

When the cards were printed, my teammates and I distributed them all over town.

Teachers pinned them to classroom bulletin boards. Merchants taped them in store windows. Pretty soon those cards were everywhere. We worked hard at getting the cards all over town. There was no escaping them, and that's what we wanted. We wanted our goal to be right in front of us, for all to see, impossible to overlook, no matter where we went. Although we faced skepticism, it only served to strengthen our conviction to make our dream a reality. Our school had never won a state title in any sport - we were determined to change that history.

By the time football practice started in late August we were focused. There was a sense of urgency that made us a close team. From day one we gave more in practice, paid more attention to detail as we executed assignments sharply. With our goal imprinted in our minds and hearts -- "BOONVILLE PIRATES -- 1974 STATE CHAMPIONS!", we marched through the season undefeated and stepped into the playoffs with a sense of destiny.

The first playoff game matched us against a powerhouse team that was riding a 28-game winning streak. We knew we were in for a fight, but as the intensity of the game increased, so did our determination. We won, pulling away in the second half. That win brought us to the brink of our goal, a match-up with the defending state champions for the title.