Finishing Weird

You don't have to be around me for very long before I mention one of my heroes: Coach Carter.

I had the privilege of playing for him when he was the head coach at Arlington High. He's a legend in my mind. As part of the "greatest generation," he landed on Normandy Beach on D-Day. After WW2, he became a teacher and a coach. He began his career at Wichita Falls during the time when Wichita Falls was a football powerhouse like Odessa Permian, Southlake Carrol, and Euless Trinity have been in more recent years.

Football was so dominant at Wichita Falls that they didn't have a a basketball coach. Each year the coaching staff drew straws to determine who would coach the basketball team that year. One year, Coach Carter drew the straw, but confessed he knew nothing about basketball. Fortunately, the legendary Henry Iba was holding a clinic the weekend before the season began, so Coach Carter went to Oklahoma to hear him. During the Q&A session, someone asked Iba what the keys to his success were. He responded that there were two things his teams did. First, they didn't let anyone drive the lane. Coach Carter's hand shot up with a question, "What's the lane?" Everyone laughed, but Iba realized the question was sincere and patiently answered the question. Then he proceeded to his second key which was "We do a whole lot of checking on defense." Again Coach Carter raised his hand, "What's checking?"

The following Monday the basketball team assembled for their first practice. Coach Carter told them, "We may not do much else this year, but we're going to do two things! First, we're not going to let anyone drive the lane. And second, we're going to do a whole lot of checking on defense." That year his basketball team lost the state championship by two points.

I asked Coach Carter if he ever thought about coaching at the college level. "Only once," he replied. "Darrell called. He wanted me to coach the secondary at Texas. I actually thought about it for two days."

Coach Carter "retired" in 1981 and moved to Marlowe, Oklahoma. Once he settled there, he began volunteering as a football and track coach. He is now 89 years old and still coaching.

In 2002, the Marlowe track complex was named the "Bill Carter Track-and-Field Complex."

Friday September 3, 2010 was designated Bill Carter Day in the state of Oklahoma.

He still competes in the Senior Olympics and sets world records for his age group each year. And all of this he has done since he "retired" !

Last year an Oklahoma TV station did a story on Coach Carter.


In his book, Halftime, Bob Buford observes that we tend to spend the first half of our lives trying to be successful. Then, in the second half we start focusing on being significant. I would add that even that is weird.

Most of the people I know, simply check out when their kids leave the nest. They defer to younger people to do the work and the volunteering, often times claiming they had paid their dues and its someone else's turn.

That's normal. But, we are called to be weird! To live weird, and to finish weird - because normal doesn't work.

Coach Carter is weird! At a time when others have not just moved to the sidelines, but have retired to the bleachers as observers, he is still in the game!

I want to be like Coach Carter, finishing strong, finishing weird.

Because normal isn't working.