I have played for many coaches in my playing career.
Some were really good, some were not-so-good.
Some were masters of technique, some never even played the game.
Some were yellers (screamers, I should say), while others never raised their voice. Ultimately, some were forgettable, while others…. my teammates and
I will NEVER, EVER forget. All of us have had coaches like these
that were "characters", men who were unique and who uniquely
coached their players, loving them at the same time. We all KNEW
that our special "character" coach(s) cared about us and wanted the best
for us. They never had to say it, for they showed it to us everyday.
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One of our favorite "character" coaches while playing at Michigan State in the late 1980's was Buck Nystrom. Coach Nystrom was our offensive line coach; he had played at MSU in the 50's for legendary Spartan coach, Biggie Munn. He was BOTH an All-American and an Academic All-American; us players being reminded of this walking past his photo every day going out to practice. (He had this big scab on his nose in the picture, I wonder if he ever led with his face when he blocked?) He was "old-school" and everybody loved him, especially his offensive linemen; as much as he was "old school" as because he yelled and yelled and pushed and pushed and loved and loved. You WANTED to play for him.
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Stories abound about Coach Buck. There are stories like when he had the managers turn on the headlights of the coach's cars to shine onto the practice field at MSU for a third practice for the O-Linemen during two-a-day camp. Or the countless times when Coach Buck spit his false teeth out yelling at the O-line to block better in practice….and then retrieving them out of the dirt and putting them back in his mouth to yell again! And if you valued your life, you never sat in the front row of a clinic talk as a coach put on by Coach Buck. He was famous for pulling coaches on stage to help demonstrate and knocking them off the stage showing the proper blocking technique!
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For us players, however, probably Coach Buck's greatest legacy was the off-season conditioning program he personally conducted from January-March.
Called the 4th Quarter Program, it consisted of runs twice a week
for endurance and speed and twice a week agility work, with 6:00am
speed and agility Friday testing. In fact, one of the first things Coach
Nick Saban did upon arriving to Alabama-was to create his own version
based on Coach Buck's.( Saban coached at MSU with Buck from 1983-87)
While the other assistant coaches were on the road recruiting, Coach Buck
was sweating with us, making us better. We all realized how much
Coach Buck improved us, no matter what position we played.
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Without a doubt, Coach Nystrom made mistakes. He was human. We'd laugh how he'd insist on running Lorenzo White on toss sweep even though there were 4 defenders outside the offensive tackle. But in the end, it didn't matter. Coach "Buck" made us better. Coach "Buck" made us WANT to be better. Coach "Buck" was authentic, he was REAL. And even though, Coach "Buck" was all about football, it definitely being
#1 in his life, HE was BIGGER than football. He was LOVE, he was
PASSION, he was ENERGY. Without a doubt, he was bigger than football, h
eck, he was bigger than LIFE. And we idolized him because of that.
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I am 46 years old and am not too removed from the time
I played football at Michigan State. I have forgotten so
many things from those days, days that I cherished when
I lived them. But one thing I know I will always remember
is our offensive line coach, Carl "Buck" Nystrom.
I often wonder, for all of us coaches, if OUR players will
do the same, will they remember US? And if they do, what
will they remember us FOR? Will we bring back great
memories of times they wished they could live again or,
instead, memories they wish they could forget?
Indeed, we all are called to be "character" coaches, to
forge memories for our players that they will never forget.
My question to all of is, What is stopping you from being that character?
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