Troy on Troy - USC Vs. Notre Dame, The Game is On!

The Game is On!

Part I

In my day to day job, I produce and run corporate events. As part of that job, I handle guest speakers, from their arrival all the way through their sound check, just making sure that everything is as comfortable as possible to help ensure their best possible performance.

In May of 2008, the keynote speaker for one of my customers was Lou Holtz. Lou-freakin’- Holtz, the former Head Coach of Notre Dame. I did not like this guy. Nothing personal, it was just my duty as a Trojan Football Alumni member to dislike Notre Dame, it had become part of my DNA and I was good at it. I swallowed my pride and made sure that our staff had everything he wanted in his room. You would be amazed at some of the request. His desires were basic: a small box of plain saltine crackers, 2 warm caffeine free diet cokes and a current USA Today and Wall Street Journal. I did a little research and found out what his favorite pipe tobacco was and had that laid out on the table in his room prior to his arrival.

He showed up right on time. I met him at the entrance and introduced myself, then took him to his room. Now for whatever reason, as soon as most people become public speakers, they turn into Prima Donna jackasses. He was totally opposite of that. What a true gentleman. Prior to the speech, I gave him about 10 questions that my customer had wanted to ask him during the Q&A portion of his presentation. I gave them to him on 3x5 cards and he and I sat down and went thru his afternoon confirming times and locations.

As part of his fee, he agreed to sign 200 footballs as gifts for some of the key attendees. I had the hotel lay the footballs out on a series of boardroom tables that had been draped with rumpled table cloths so the balls wouldn’t roll all over the place. I escorted him into the room, locked the door so we wouldn’t be interrupted and as it turns out, we were in there for about an hour and a half, just he and I, talking life. About 15 minutes into the conversation, we are talking about the USC vs. ND rivalry and he notices my Rose Bowl ring. Now this next part is hard to describe. If you’ve ever heard him talk on TV, Lou is somewhat hard to understand. In person, it is worse. TV must have some kind of filters or something because between his admitted lisp and the speed in which he talks, I caught about 80% of what was being said.

He looks at me from his 130 pound 5’5” frame and screeches, “Whtz dat wring forr?” I said, “It’s a Rose Bowl ring from 1985.” He commanded, “Let mee ceee it!” So I took it off and handed it to him. He takes it in his hands, puts it on and looks at it through coke bottle glasses and says, “What poszision did juu play?” I said, “I was the Punter.” (Only Punters capitalize the word Punter.) He looks at me and then real slow, he lowered his head and looks at the ring again. Finally he looks me right in the eye and caws, “Dey give wrings to puntrzz at USC?” Hilarious, I start laughing and he smiles knowing he had just nailed me on a joke he has used a hundred times.

Well as you can imagine, this guy nails his speech. He has everyone on the edge of their seats talking about doing the right thing, doing your very best all the time, overcoming obstacles. He told everyone “Look at me. If I can become the Head Coach at Notre Dame, you all can become whatever you want.” The night ended with about 8 of us having dinner in a private room and just sharing stories. He asked as many questions of us as we did of him. Finally, he had to head to the airport; he had a 10:00 am tee time the following morning at Augusta where he is a member. I walked him to the front door and shook his hand. I told him that I was really hoping that he was going to be a jackass because of the whole SC / ND rivalry, but that in fact I really enjoyed our day together. He told me I still had a chance to dislike my rival coaches, he said, “Dat Terry Donahue is a real son odda bitchzz!” (Terry Donahue was Head Coach at UCLA for many years) He broke out laughing again at his own joke and hopped into the Town car like the little leprechaun he is and off he went.

After he was gone, I went back into his hotel room and made sure he hadn’t left anything behind. The room was spotless, he had even made his bed and folded up the used towels and put them on the counter in his bathroom. On his desk were the ten 3x5 cards that I had given him for his Q&A. He had hand written his answers on the cards. I now have those cards with the football I had him sign for me. He wrote:

“Dear Troy,

It is easy to see why USC is so good. I wish I had coached you at Notre Dame. Play like a champion today and live like a champion everyday.
Lou Holtz, Head coach of Notre Dame 86 to 96”

That ball is proudly displayed on my trophy case next to my Rose Bowl team autographed ball and my USC Heisman Trophy winners ball.

What a great guy and a total class act. I sure hope Donahue is a jackass, I guy can only dream.

Fight On!

Troy