Fridays with Mac: "Loud and Proud"

Bill McCartney and your scribe were chuckling while viewing a wonderful trip down memory lane. As the Hall of Fame football coach sat in a comfy living room chair, I was kneeling nearby, holding my phone and showing a video from 1988.

It was my first season as the “Buff Guy” for KCNC-TV, the “Home of the Buffs” at the time. The five-minute video bringing laughter and joy was of a far-younger, and raw, journalist previewing CU’s prospects for the upcoming season. My how time flies. The video showed a 30-year-old “sports guy” and a 48-year-old head coach. Younger fellas for sure. We looked at one another more than three decades later. Weathered, but still feisty.

“This is bringing back wonderful memories,” offered the 82-year-old fighting the good fight against a nasty foe, Alzheimer’s. The big question mark heading into the ’88 season was, who would be the starting quarterback? Junior Sal Aunese, sophomore Marc Walters and heralded freshman Darian Hagan were in the mix. Also, the Buffs had lost their entire starting defensive secondary from the season before. Who would emerge there was another intriguing question.

During the video, I talked about the Buffs non conference schedule. It was highlighted by a road trip to Iowa City, Iowa. A tough tussle against a talented and nationally-ranked University of Iowa Hawkeyes squad under coach Hayden Fry. McCartney bellowed, “Stop the video!”

We began to talk about that game. CU won 24-21 with an Aunese-led fourth-quarter comeback. It was the Buffs first road victory over a ranked team in nine years. A signature triumph giving the college football world notice things were changing at the foot of the Flatirons. It was McCartney’s seventh season in Boulder and, outside of beating Nebraska at home in 1986, the program’s biggest win. “What a demonstration of grit and determination.” Amen buddy.

I began to share with the only coach to ever lead the Buffs to a national title my recollection of that game. First, holy smokes was it hot in Iowa. Mid-September temperatures rose to the low 90’s, the humidity wasn’t far behind and, on Kinnick Stadium’s artificial turf (since replaced with real grass), the heat index was north of 100 degrees. I fired back at the coach, “I’ll never forget walking into your locker room after the game. I was expecting jubilation but found a subdued team, utterly exhausted but victorious.” 

It was my first road trip traveling with the team. There was something else to share, “Hey, Billy Mac from Hackensack, remember the visiting locker room at Iowa was, and still is, painted pick?” A big smile spread across McCartney’s face, “Pink did not pacify the Golden Buffaloes!” Ain’t nobody quicker with quips than Coach Mac.

We went back to watching the remaining few minutes of the video. Toward the end, my narration mentions Oklahoma and Nebraska were once again favorites to dominate Big 8 regular season play. However, the Buffs were closing the gap. Then, this from the 1988 McCartney, “We’re recruiting with them, we’re starting to look like them in the weight room; when you put the clock on us, we’re starting to run like them. Those two programs make you better and we’re not gonna be satisfied until we catch them. I don’t know when that’s going to happen, but we’re going to catch them.”

I stopped the video and looked the coach straight in the eye. “You had a vision for Colorado football, believed in it and made it happen.” The Buffs would lose that year to the Huskers and Sooners but had chances to win each game. Starting the next season, 1989, and until through McCartney’s unexpected resignation after the 1994 season, the Colorado Buffaloes caught and, often, surpassed the conference powerhouses.

The smile was gone from McCartney’s face. Almost three decades removed from a stellar career roaming the sidelines and exhorting others to excellence, he was back in full-blown coaching mode: “If your mind can see it and you believe it. YOU CAN ACHIEVE IT!”

The dude stated it loud and proud. We should too. Dare to dream.