Dr Zhivago
From 8-1-14
Lately, my wife has been accusing me of being a "Dr. Zhivago"! He was a physician--& a writer who had written negative articles about the Bolshevik & the Russian revolution. The Russians were planning to kill him, and his lover made him flee for his life! After riding hours on a freight train, he hopped off in about 4 ft. of snow, found an abandoned house with long icicles hanging off the roof, and with no heat or electricity, one night he got up, lit a candle, found a pen & paper, and with trembling hands, said "I've just got to write!"
When I get up in the middle of the night with a story to write, my wife calls to me & says, "Dr. Zhivago, you've just got to write!" When I look back at our 19 years' career football record of 130 wins, 69 losses, & 16 ties, 4 Region Championships & one State Championship, I realize how fortunate I was to have outstanding assistant coaches. Many stories came from these men who were so valuable to our success.
I remember the night our GWA team was coming back from a big win in deep south Georgia. Billy Crowell was so excited about leaving early the next morning to go to Athens for the UGA-Tennessee football game. Our bus broke down and we didn't get back to school until around 5:00 AM. Coach Crowell said, as he got off the bus, "Coach Bradley, I love ya', but I'll never get on a school bus with you again!"---& he didn't!
Two young assistants who started their coaching career with me have done extremely well, but in other sports. Coach Bob Westbrook, after almost 30 years of coaching, is nearing his 600th varsity basketball win. Coach Danny Camp, who started his coaching career with me at Piedmont Academy, has proven in his 16 years as head baseball coach, that he is one of the best! A very special assistant, Dick Lingner, tells a story that I never tire of hearing. He worked as a fireman in Miami, but was studying a book about flying, and was spending all his money on flying lessons. When the other firemen saw Dick coming, they would spread their arms and say, "Here comes 'Zoomie'!" One very old fireman, whose "elevator didn't quite get to the top", would sit in a rocking chair on top of the fire station & say to Dick, "Don't you pay any attention to those guys--you keep on reading your book!" When the day finally came that Dick was fully qualified to fly, and announced he was resigning to accept a pilot's position with a major airline, all the other firemen wanted to borrow his book! Dick was a valuable part of our GWA State Football Championship in the '79-'80 school year! (Dick sure looked funny when the players shaved his head, along with the other coaches, and his airlines Captain's hat fell down over his ears! He says it still thrills him when one of the former players calls him "Coach"! Jack Harrison was an "offensive genius", & loved coaching football more than his law practice. He was the father of Glynn Harrison, the great UGA runner they called "Gliding Glynn". His sons, Stan & Ken, were both outstanding football players & made the All-state team. Ken was also All-
State in basketball in 1985, as he helped lead his team to the State Basketball Championship. Jack often talked to me about his love for his family, and how proud he was to have been given the opportunity to share his life with his family. He always said, "You can't get where you're going unless you remember where you came from, who you are, and what you are, and WHAT you ARE is the only thing you own-- never lose it--& NEVER--EVER surrender!" --- story to be continued tomorrow when we tell about our longest-serving football assistant, "Coach" Jay Milligan, who is "one of a kind"!
