The Man That Ran Over Your Face With A Truck!

Coaching for 27 years, I have amassed a plethora of memories from ball park adventures. These memories encompass everything from wins and losses on the field to experiences that occurred off the field. I can say with certainty that some of my most memorable moments took place traveling on the “yellow dog.”

The first leg of my journey as a coach was at Edmond Santa Fe High School in Edmond, Oklahoma. Over the course of 8 years the journeys taken on the “yellow dog” were nothing short of epic. These are some of my fondest memories and still cause me to laugh out loud when I think about some them.

One of the challenges facing any coach on a road trip is ensuring that at the end of the trip the bus is clean. Year to year it is hard to find many players that will volunteer to stay and clean the bus. So, what is a coach to do? Many times coaches try to devise ways to appoint a player or players to stay and make sure the bus is cleaned.

Our head coach while I was at Santa Fe was Lonny Cobble. He instituted a game called the “Who Game” on return trips back to the school to determine the lucky soul that would stay and clean the bus. The cleaning opportunity was open to players and coaches alike. The premise of the game was trying to get someone to say the word “who” and if said the response to that player or coach would be “the man that ran over your face with a truck” and at that point it was on that player or coach. It was now the challenge to get someone else to say “who” to pass the responsibility. The game started as soon as we were on the bus to return and ended as soon as the bus turned into the school off 15th street and the bus cleaner would now be official.

I cannot tell you how many times players and coaches would swear they would not speak on the return trip only to succumb to some random question and ask “who”. There were so many different strategies employed. There were conversations directed at specific people trying to entice them to say the word while others would speak hoping eavesdroppers would take the bait and utter the word. Some players would let there be silence for a while only to spring a surprise attack of vague questions with hopes to catch someone off guard. Many times the torch would be passed two, three, four times on one trip.

On one occasion, a player was boasting about not getting caught just mere yards away from the turn into the school only to fall victim to a random question of “did you hear what they said?” That player was sweeping the bus only a few minutes later.

I fell victim to the game on a particular occasion. If I recall, we were playing in a tournament in Mustang, Oklahoma during the day. I really do not remember if we had won or lost but I know that something was eating at me about the game and I was not in a particularly good mood after the game. Players were starting to board the bus and I was standing at the bottom of the stair well. As I was standing there I could hear conversations and low and behold I could not resist and voiced the word “who.” I said it without even thinking and next thing I know Barrett Whitney, one of our players, is lurching forward from two seats back pointing his finger in my face screaming “the man that ran over your face with a truck!” I’m sure many would categorize my response as classic as it provoked an immediate acknowledgement that involved finger gestures and some words that were comprised of four letters. Probably not one of my finest moments. I believe I told him in so many words that I was declaring the game not in session at that moment and not so politely to sit back down and be quiet. I’m pretty sure I cleaned the bus that day. We all had a good laugh about it later.

There was just something about my time at Santa Fe and those bus rides that were so special. I tried to carry the game on with my next coaching stint at a different school but it just never took hold. My mother-in-law always says “you can’t bake a memory” and while those bus rides reside in my memory and bring a smile to my face they will never be duplicated.

If you feel inclined to share a story about the “yellow dog”, please feel free to share in the comments. We all need a good laugh every now and then.