One of America’s greatest cheerleaders, a man who defines American excellence as a uniquely American characteristic, Coach Lou Holtz, has endorsed Donald Trump for president:
https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/videos/10156996377515725/
A Personal Note – There are a handful of people who have had such an incredible impact upon my own personal perspectives on life’s challenges as Coach Holtz.
About ten years ago, during a dinner with Lou Holtz he told me the story of his arrival at Notre Dame. Coach Holtz arrived to find his team filled with untapped talent, yet torn with internal conflict, turmoil, inter-player animosity and backbiting. The story he told me that evening is a metaphor for current political events.
Holtz took measure of the team and called them to the locker room. He passed out paper and pencils and asked each player to write down their grievances and explain why their teammates were holding back the potential inherent in their own skill.
A few hours later he returned to the locker room and led the team to the far side of the practice field. There the players saw a shovel and hole he had been digging while they were writing.
Coach held out a large empty coffee can; and before asking each player to place their scribe inside the container he asked them to commit to each-other and to God, that what they had written could be removed from their mind forever.
Holtz asked each player to make a promise; a pledge to themselves, to each other and most importantly to God, from that moment forward those grievances would be permanently gone.
Coach Holtz counseled everyone, without judgment, they were under no-compulsion to put their list into that can. No-one would think worse of them for retaining their grievance.
Coach promised to fulfill the contract of those who were attending school on scholarship. Regardless of their decision, every man before him was guaranteed a college degree from Notre Dame University.
However, those who chose not to drop their grievances would not, and could not, be on the team.
Even if it meant Holtz fielded a team of barely enough players, he was not going to lead a fractured army; his program could only succeed as a united effort.
Coach stood, and in order to give the young men time to think, he bowed his head in prayer. After several minutes Holtz then held out the can.
One-by-one the players folded their notes and placed them in the can; each fully understanding the severity of the counsel they had just witnessed.
Each player in his own way defining himself in that moment and choosing to give themselves to a greater possibility. The sum is greater than the collective assembly of the individual parts.
Holtz then took the can, sealed it, placed it in the ground and asked each of the players to use the shovel to bury their collective grievances. Linking hands they formed a circle around the now covered hole. They stood in the darkening twilight in that furthest corner of the field – and they prayed together.
The final words from Coach Holtz echoed with severity amid the stillness. He asked them to look at each other, perhaps look at each other for the first time, and then to look at the field behind them.
Coach reminded them that in this moment, right then, they were looking at the birth place of champions. He looked toward the direction of the stadium where thousands gather to cheer the Fighting Irish, and he reminded them that is was not over there where champions were born – it was right here on the practice field, when no-one is cheering and no-one is watching.
Coach told them each how proud he was to be a part of “their team of champions” – and he pledged with full measure of intensity that he would never disregard them, nor would he ever fail them. He then sent them back to the dorms….. the rest, as they say, is history.
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