The man on the left is G. H. W. Bush.
Posted on 10/21/2013 3:35:20 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
He had a real name but nobody knew it. He was known universally as "Bum" Phillips and he was one of the best loved football coaches never to win a championship. Never, in fact, to play in one. His teams came close. They were one game from the Super Bowl in successive years. After the second loss, Phillips told fans of the Houston Oilers, “One year ago we knocked on the door. This year we beat on the door. Next year we’re gonna kick the sumbitch in.”
Didn't happen. And he knew what to expect having observed, famously, that “There’s two kinds of coaches: them that’s been fired, and them that’s gonna be fired.”
He had a hat full of them. And the cowboy hat was his trademark, which he wore except when the team was playing at home, in the Astrodome because, as he explained, "Mama told me never to wear my hat indoors."
He kept it in perspective, which would make him an utter outlier among current day football coaches. And he purely had a way with words. On the matter of just how good was another coach (Bear Bryant or Don Shula, depending on who is telling the story), Phillips said:
“He can take his’n and beat your’n. Or he can take your’n and beat his’n.”
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
The man on the left is G. H. W. Bush.
Full obituary here:
I’ll never forget one year (’79 I believe), right before a playoff game with the Steelers, a reporter asked Bum how his Oilers were prepping for the game.. Bum answered in that deep, Texas drawl, “We’re gonna break diplomatic relations with them boys..’cause that’s what y’all do ‘afore y’all go to war.”
It was priceless and quintessential Bum!
Despite his fierce battles with the Steelers he would later pay us the compliment that “the whole organization ain’t nutnin’ but class”.
RIP, Bum.
Unfortunately the Oilers were the second best team in ‘78 and ‘79 behind the Steelers, and they played in the same division and conference.
Bum was a hero in Houston and in my subdivision. He was my neighbor, although I didn’t know him personally. My daughter went to school with his daughter.
Apparently Bud Adams passed away today.
http://www.khou.com/sports/Titans-owner-Bud-Adams-passes-away-in-Houston-228637641.html
Sort of like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams!
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