We can’t do without them

Gene Steinmeyer

Last week, I went to a Hall of Fame ceremony at Doane College. A friend of mine, Tom Hood, was inducted into the Doane College Hall of Fame. Tom spent 24 years as the football team’s defensive coordinator.

I’m not sure, but I doubt any NAIA team can hire a defensive coordinator without the coach teaching a lot of hours. Tom’s workload included Anatomy and Kinesiology among other courses in Exercise Physiology.

If Tom would have quit coaching but kept teaching, I doubt his salary would have been hurt. He coached the Tiger defense for 24 years because he loved football. Being a graduate, he coached that long because he loved Doane College.

I coached at Doane College for 15 years. I also taught pre-college Algebra to the math-challenged. It wasn’t a full teaching load, but it was close. In the spring of my 15th year, I got a call from Gerry Johnson. She was the mother of Steve Tappmeyer’s assistant coach, Chris Johnson, or CJ, as he was called at Northwest.

She told me the women’s coach at Northwest was retiring and suggested I get my resume ready. One thing led to another and just after Memorial Day of 1999, I received a job offer. It was a very tempting offer.

I made a list of things Northwest could offer that weren’t available at Doane College. I would have 10 full scholarships. Doane never offered more than full tuition and never more than one per year. All the scorer’s table help was hired and paid, as was a security force for each home game.

There would be cheerleaders and a dance squad at each home game. They even had paid coaches. At Northwest, I would never have to do laundry, except on holidays when my equipment manager was off campus. A full-time sports information director and computerized statistics were at every single game.

I would have a full-time assistant and a paid graduate assistant. No more fighting sleep driving a van. I would have buses with a video player. I could catch up on my chick flicks. There were two full-time trainers and a bunch of graduate assistants to keep my players healthy. I wouldn’t have to tape ankles on the road anymore. There was even our own radio network. How could I turn down the job?

It was much harder than you might think. When Dr. Jim Redd called me with the job offer, I asked for 24 hours to decide. That night, Michele, my wife, and I didn’t get much sleep. Michele was seven months pregnant and also employed by Doane College. She loved her job.

Of course, I did choose to come to Maryville. I had a great 13 years coaching at Northwest. My son, Sam, has never known anything but being a Spoofhound. I now bleed green in every sport and have learned to really dislike Missouri Western. Not their people, of course, only the rivalry.

I experienced many great things at Northwest and met many great people. Some people were very similar to Tom Hood. During my last two years, Chuck Fox was a volunteer assistant.

Chuck never asked for a penny, just for the experience of coaching from a college bench. That’s very rare. I can’t count the number of students I interviewed to be my manager. If they ever asked the one wrong question, “How much will I be paid?” they would be ushered out of my office.

During my first year at Northwest, I received a call from a long-time Kansas City girls’ coach. He said he was retiring and wanted to volunteer to help assist me at Northwest. I later learned he would volunteer for the reasonable price of $10,000 and was expected to help his wife find a teaching job in Maryville. He was offended when I turned down his volunteer request.

That was the thing about Doane College that always kept me close to Doane College. My scorer’s table crew was never paid, but I knew that Dale Herman and Bob Karnes would be at the game 30 minutes early so I wouldn’t have to worry.

When Denny Nelson lost his boys’ coaching job at Crete High School, he joined my staff without the promise of any financial reward. He was with me until the day I left.

Wes Lamberson had been a policeman in Lincoln for 20 years before he decided to go back to college so he could teach school. He became a student coach for me. His police work came in handy driving the van from game to game safely at an unreasonably high speed. Wes was also the father of Northwest Hall of Fame quarterback, Josh Lamberson.

Chris Johnson’s mother had informed me about the Northwest job. She worked in the same office area as I did. CJ’s father was a big part of Doane College, too. Dave Johnson had to go on disability from the railroad about the time he turned 50. A bad heart forced the early departure. He became a fixture at Doane College. He was always considered part of Doane football, but Dave never missed a single event at Doane College. Gerry and Dave had season tickets for Northwest basketball, even after their son left.

Dave was a great father and and proud grandfather. His health was like a roller coaster, but he was able to enjoy his kids, grandkids and Doane College athletics. They buried Dave this week. His heart hung on until he was 75 years old. It was people like Dave Johnson that made Doane College hard to leave.