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Daughter's book a 'bridge' to the next generation
Researching legendary football coach gave Carolyn Ellison a chance to 'know my dad as a friend.'
More: Going deeper tha X's and O's | "Let's go for it on every play!" | Ellison wasn't just a coach, he changed players lives
Friday, October 26, 2007
Before the youngest daughter of revered football coach Glenn "Tiger" Ellison wrote a book about her father, she knew little about football or being an author.
That has changed now with the publication of "Coach the Kid, Build the Boy, Mold the Man," Carolyn Ellison's book about Tiger's famous run-and-shoot football tactics. Carolyn Ellison, however, gained something even more important than football or writing savvy.
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"I got to know my dad as a friend," she said.
The process started when members of what Ellison called "an old jock club" in Middletown approached the Pennsylvania resident about telling her father's story.
"I jumped in more out of curiosity ... I asked 'How would Tiger tell this story?' " she said.
So Ellison extensively researched Tiger's speeches and quotes, using them liberally throughout the book.
During one practice, Tiger told a team at Lincoln Field, "This is a fine town, a red-blooded, all-American town full of hardworking, determined people. We are their football team. We will give those fine people every ounce of energy we have to give, in practice and on game night because they deserve nothing less."
Ellison said her father had such a "booming baritone" voice that she used bold text to approximate it in her book.
And she said she found that her father had such a lasting impact on his charges that people still talk reverently about him today.
Part of Tiger's influence came from the fact that in his day, Middletown was prominently an industrial city.
"We had an industrial strength back then. Most people worked in the factories, and their work ethic matched his," Ellison said.
In the book, Ellison recounts an incident when Tiger, who was also an English teacher, talked to Pete Snow, one of his players who was having trouble in the classroom.
"When you mess up, it's a scar on your team and your community, and a huge disappointment to those kids who think of you as their hero. So I want you to dig deep, Pete, and start learning your English assignments as well as you learn your football assignments," Tiger told Snow.
Ellison hopes that readers of her book, particularly students and teachers, will take Tiger's work ethic to heart.
"For me personally, I think the educational process has lost something in teaching (students) self-responsibility ... I hope to build a bridge to the next generation," she said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836
or
erobinette@coxohio.com.