What kind of leader will you choose to be?
Dewey Sullivan coached football at my high school for 42 years. I played for him, two of my sons played for him, and my first varsity coaching job was on his staff.
Athletic teams are under intense pressure to win. This can sometimes create attitudes in leaders that lead them to make bad decisions.
The Dayton vs. Amity rivalry game was intense. Separated by about 14 miles of country road, the two schools have decades of history between them. In this particular year Dayton (Dewey’s team) was the visitor on Friday night at Amity High School. The game easily drew 1500 spectators.
Surprisingly, Dewey’s team fell behind early and it looked like Amity would run away with the game. We were down by three touchdowns.
Somewhere in the middle of the first half something happened. Over our radios we could hear the Amity signals. And, they could not hear us.
Dewey got on the radio and said,
“Amity… this is Dayton, we can hear everything you’re saying.”
No response.
Some might argue “all is fair in love and war” – and football. But to Dewey, that kind of advantage was not right.
Although down by three touchdowns, Dewey said to his coaching staff:
“Put away the radios boys.”
The Dayton staff then coached the game the old fashioned way, from the sideline and without the aid of spotters or other livestream intelligence.
What then happened was amazing. Little by little Dayton edged their way back into the game and to Amity’s great disappointment, Dayton won pulling away late in the fourth quarter.
In small towns on Saturday mornings after a football game the place is alive with the buzz of what happened the night before. While the win was remarkable and something of a masterpiece to watch, the game itself wasn’t the thing people talked about. Rather, it was a coach’s decision to do what was right vs. win at all costs.
Dewey taught an unforgettable lesson on integrity to an entire community, and he created a culture that spanned generations on that Friday night with five simple words: “Put away the radios boys.”