Fridays with Mac: "Seek and Find"

I was prepared for the expected demand that’s become commonplace when bursting into the home of Bill McCartney, “Wrong Arm (I’m left-handed) what’s the news!” The Hall of Fame football coach enjoys hearing the latest sports, and other, scoop from an ol’ journalist who spent many a year at CBSDenver delivering such content to Centennial State citizens.

This Friday with Mac, the big news? “Billy Mac from Hackensack, guess what’s coming to Colorado? WHATABURGER!” It had recently been announced the Texas-based hamburger chain was returning to Colorado with a location in Colorado Springs. The only coach to ever lead the Colorado Golden Buffaloes to a national title didn’t hesitate a nanosecond and fired back, sarcastically, “That’s the biggest news you have?”

I quickly responded, “Well, you call yourself ‘Burger Billy’ all the time. Thought you might be interested. We could road trip sometime!” Your scribe threw more fuel on the fire. “Before arriving in Denver in 1988 with instructions to ‘Get in the hip pocket of you and the CU football program’ I worked for KGBT-TV in Harlingen, Texas. From 86-88, I ate at Whataburger all the time.” Harlingen sits in the Rio Grande Valley, near the international border with Mexico. Anybody who has visited South Padre Island probably flew into Valley International Airport, located in Harlingen. I was the weekend sportscaster. This wide-eyed rookie also moonlighted as the basketball and baseball play-by-play voice for, then, Pan American University. It’s now called University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. Compensation was meager but included a Whataburger Gold Card. Free food. The university is located in Edinburg, about a 30-minute drive west of Harlingen.

Another nearby town in the tropical Valley is Mission, Texas. It’s where former CU standout quarterback Koy Detmer was a prep star for the Mission Eagles. Their games are played in “Tom Landry Stadium” named for the legendary Dallas Cowboys head coach who also grew up in Mission. McCartney’s eyes sparkled. “I remember that stadium and recruiting Koy.” Buff fans remember Detmer as the skinny and tough signal-caller who was named All Big 12 for a stellar 1996 season under McCartney’s successor, Rick Neuheisel. The ’96 Buffs went 10-2 and beat the University of Washington in the Holiday Bowl. The team’s two losses were a touchdown setback to Michigan in Boulder and a five-point loss to arch-rival Nebraska in Lincoln. Detmer, now a high school football coach in Texas, threw for more than 3,000 yards and 22 touchdowns. Drafted in the seventh-round Detmer played several NFL seasons as a backup quarterback/place-kick holder for the Philadelphia Eagles. Coach Mac cracked, “I think when I was down there recruiting Koy I had a Whataburger!” The dude likes his burgers.

Suddenly all kinds of memories from two years in the Valley came flooding back. One to this day haunts me. “Coach, during my stay in the Valley, I did a story of a family of eight that lived in a cardboard shack. No running water or electricity. All the shack had was two king-sized beds, a couch and a table. Each parent slept with three kids in their respective beds.” Admittedly, for a Midwestern gringo it was shocking to see such poverty within our country. I’ll never forget it. To this day, it provides inspiration to help increase opportunities in education for underserved kids through our pilot project at Arvada High teaching kids the business side of sports and winning side of life. 

One of the most intuitive humans I’ve ever been around was absorbing this information. After pondering it a bit, the 81-year-old suggested something stirring within thy soul for quite some time. “You need to go back down there and find those children. See what their lives look like today.” Way back then, six little kids. None spoke English. Neither did their parents. My photographer was bilingual. All had lots of love but little hope. Perhaps today the oldest might be in their early 40’s?

Always the exhorter, Coach Mac was calling out what my soul has been whispering for some time. Seek and find. Quarterbacks. Kids. Burgers. #fridayswithmac