|
|
Post by sportnlyf on Jul 12, 2010 16:38:07 GMT -8
Kudos to all who were involved in the memorial tribute to Coach Don Coryell. The family memories provided by his son, son-in-law and granddaughter were genuinely touching and heartwarming.
The memories shared by Joe Gibbs, Jim Hanifan, John Madden, Dan Fouts and Fred Dryer were insightful and often hilarious.
Madden and Fouts made the point that they along with Gibbs were seated together and all enshrined at Canton while the man who was responsible for getting them there was not. Fouts promised that Coach Coryell will be going into the HOF.
One of my favorite moments occurred before the event began when Coryell's family former players and coaching colleagues turned to the back of the arena and provided a standing ovation (joined by the audience) as our Aztec football team filed in quietly to take the last two rows of floor seating, where they remained standing - a memorable Aztec moment.
Miles McPherson did a nice job as the officiant for the service.
In one of the video clips taken recently, Coach proclaimed, "Go Aztecs! I love the Aztecs!"
I hope and expect we will see that great clip many times in the future.
For any fan of the Aztecs or Coach Coryell it was truly a proud and memorable event and something we can all be very proud of.
Go Aztecs!
|
|
|
|
Post by Old School on Jul 12, 2010 17:21:00 GMT -8
Agreed, nicely done.
We lost a great one.
Oldie Out
|
|
|
|
Post by Village Aztec on Jul 12, 2010 19:44:34 GMT -8
We sure have fallen, that this was not standing room only.
|
|
|
|
Post by FULL_MONTY on Jul 12, 2010 20:09:18 GMT -8
We sure have fallen, that this was not standing room only. Was it supposed to be standing room only? |
|
|
|
Post by Spud on Jul 12, 2010 20:23:48 GMT -8
We sure have fallen, that this was not standing room only. If it was yesterday, it would have been... |
|
|
|
Post by smoketree on Jul 12, 2010 20:25:26 GMT -8
What are they estimating for today??? My guess is about 3000?  I thought there would be a few more..It is all relative though.....Anyone know how many were there for Wooden's memorial at Pauley??? Two great coaches and very similar values. |
|
|
|
Post by FULL_MONTY on Jul 12, 2010 20:50:27 GMT -8
|
|
|
|
Post by AztecWilliam on Jul 12, 2010 21:02:33 GMT -8
Three thousand? That's not bad. No doubt there are hundreds of thousands who will remember Don Coryell the man and the coach.
(3,000? That's a few more than will show up when I die.)
AzWm
|
|
|
|
Post by Pssst13 on Jul 12, 2010 21:15:06 GMT -8
My Favorite story was Fred Dryer's first ever meeting with Don... and Madden's Wide Feet!
|
|
|
|
Post by smoketree on Jul 12, 2010 21:19:13 GMT -8
It was funny, however, I felt way too long and almost insulting. It made Coach sound like he was a total menace to society, sorry....IMO. a friend told me that a few insiders were afraid that Dryer would be a little bit of a loose cannon up there.
|
|
|
|
Post by monty on Jul 12, 2010 21:22:30 GMT -8
We're going to bitch about a coach that coached here almost two generations ago getting 3k?
Hell, the Faux holocomb years we were getting 3600 on a regular basis
|
|
|
|
Post by FULL_MONTY on Jul 12, 2010 21:25:13 GMT -8
It was funny, however, I felt way too long and almost insulting. It made Coach sound like he was a total menace to society, sorry....IMO. a friend told me that a few insiders were afraid that Dryer would be a little bit of a loose cannon up there. Loose Cannon = Fred Dryer. He is as advertised and expecting and or hoping for anything less is a recipe for disaster. But this is what also endears Fred to some of the more influential boosters. Great guy to have have a cocktail with.... |
|
|
|
Post by Village Aztec on Jul 13, 2010 4:24:02 GMT -8
I guess most of you guys are very young. We drew crowds of 40,000 as a D2 school play no buddy's when we had 14k students.
We can't draw 25,000 playing ranked teams with 32k students.
Now is there a math major who can put this into terms we all could understand?
Let me put it this way. We out drew the Chargers some times. We drew 10,000 paying fans for the Red Black game.
|
|
|
|
Post by Bob Forsythe on Jul 13, 2010 15:12:46 GMT -8
I guess most of you guys are very young. We drew crowds of 40,000 as a D2 school play no buddy's when we had 14k students. We can't draw 25,000 playing ranked teams with 32k students. Now is there a math major who can put this into terms we all could understand? Let me put it this way. We out drew the Chargers some times. We drew 10,000 paying fans for the Red Black game. If by "sometimes" you mean individual games, I agree. But it's a myth that we ever averaged more fans in a season than the Chargers, although I think we came close one year. And it was rare in the PCAA or independent years (which were mostly made up of playing PCAA teams) that we drew 40K. We were generally in the range of 32K-35K but some games we were below 30. We got big crowds when we played big name teams or teams that were ranked when we also were ranked, such as the Zonie game in '75. =Bob |
|
|
|
Post by sportnlyf on Jul 13, 2010 21:57:33 GMT -8
Bob, there was one year, an up year for the Aztecs and a down one for the Chargers in which
we did average more fans per game.
|
|
|
|
Post by Gringo Bandito on Jul 13, 2010 22:26:25 GMT -8
I agree, very touching event.
I was just a little disappointed with the religion forced down everyone's throat by Miles McPherson and Joe Gibbs. I think it took away from the celebration of Coach's life. Especially when they tried to convert the entire audience to born again Christians at the end of the ceremony. If Coach was such a deveout Christian then I'm sure the family would have been able to find a church with the capacity to hold that kind of ceremony in a religous format. The fact that the ceremony was held in the same spot where Coach Coryell began his rise in the coaching world showed that this was more of a secular/semi religous wake with the intention to celebrate his life and career but without the intention to offend anyone with different religous views.
I am one of those people who don't identify with a specific religion and was a little disappointed that it came to that. However I know that they had good intentions, albiet a little nieve, so I didn't let it get to me. Overall I came away with a very positive reception and felt very lucky to have been able to take time out of my day to attend such an historic wake.
|
|
I thought there would be a few more..It is all relative though.....Anyone know how many were there for Wooden's memorial at Pauley??? Two great coaches and very similar values.