WEBVTT - Don't Be Good – Be Great 0:00:15.276 --> 0:00:24.836 Pushkin early nineteen sixty five, Harold Silvester was a sixteen 0:00:24.956 --> 0:00:29.836 year old basketball star in a segregated New Orleans school system. 0:00:29.876 --> 0:00:33.636 He played for Saint Augustine High School. They were the 0:00:33.676 --> 0:00:37.036 best high school basketball team in Louisiana, at least the 0:00:37.076 --> 0:00:40.276 best in the league for black kids. They never faced 0:00:40.316 --> 0:00:42.196 the white kids, so no one can actually say who 0:00:42.276 --> 0:00:45.236 was the best. But the priests who ran Saint Ogg 0:00:45.356 --> 0:00:48.676 were pushing for integration. They wanted to challenge the state's 0:00:48.676 --> 0:00:53.636 best white team, Jesuit High also in New Orleans. And finally, 0:00:54.316 --> 0:00:58.516 our principal advice principle, we're able to negotiate this game. 0:00:59.196 --> 0:01:02.836 That's Harold talking about one of the most intense basketball 0:01:02.916 --> 0:01:06.476 games ever played. You know, we played on a Friday. 0:01:07.036 --> 0:01:11.516 Malcolm X was assassinated that Monday, you know, and we're 0:01:11.556 --> 0:01:16.076 playing and what our skunsilers the first integrated athletic contest 0:01:16.356 --> 0:01:19.436 in the history of the state of Louisia. Yeah, so 0:01:19.476 --> 0:01:23.636 I had that kind of cloud, you know over it. 0:01:24.356 --> 0:01:27.236 Some of the white parents protested, and two of the 0:01:27.316 --> 0:01:31.116 Jesuit starters refused to play. The priests decided that they 0:01:31.116 --> 0:01:33.916 needed to play the game in an empty gym nobody 0:01:33.996 --> 0:01:37.756 was invited except parents and faculty, you know, So that 0:01:38.476 --> 0:01:42.076 was a kind of sparse crowd. It was the sort 0:01:42.116 --> 0:01:45.196 of game that they make movies about, and they did 0:01:45.756 --> 0:01:51.316 much later. It was called passing Glory. So we'll scrolling 0:01:51.396 --> 0:01:54.156 you people out there and fall fall, the fall, and 0:01:54.196 --> 0:01:57.956 you gotta put it in you playing these guys. Then 0:01:57.996 --> 0:02:01.356 how come you're playing I'm like they made out of porcela. 0:02:01.996 --> 0:02:04.076 You scared to bump up against the Mics team. Let 0:02:04.156 --> 0:02:07.356 me tell you something, they don't rob off. Harold Sylvester 0:02:07.596 --> 0:02:09.836 was one of the biggest players on his team and 0:02:09.996 --> 0:02:14.636 the best. He usually did the intimidating, but the white 0:02:14.676 --> 0:02:17.796 guy who was guarding him was a different beast. Billy 0:02:17.836 --> 0:02:21.836 Fitzgerald was his name. Harold knew him by reputation. I 0:02:21.956 --> 0:02:25.476 certainly knew who he was, Yeah, because he was you know, 0:02:25.676 --> 0:02:27.316 he had a couple of other cats, you know, were 0:02:27.876 --> 0:02:30.516 the big guys. Man. It didn't matter that there was 0:02:30.556 --> 0:02:34.236 no crowd. Billy Fitzgerald played like the whole world was watching, 0:02:35.036 --> 0:02:37.916 with a fearlessness Harold had never seen. He was among 0:02:38.236 --> 0:02:42.036 the toughest players I've ever played. Kids. You know, you 0:02:42.116 --> 0:02:45.116 know that once his mind is on something, he's on 0:02:45.236 --> 0:02:48.996 the lenny. When you say he was tough, like, what 0:02:49.036 --> 0:02:51.196 do you mean? Like? Was he physical? What was it 0:02:51.316 --> 0:02:54.236 like to be against him? Anyway you can think it tough? 0:02:54.796 --> 0:02:58.836 Was Bill Fitzgerald? His demeanor, the look on his face 0:02:59.156 --> 0:03:05.076 always felt like he was going to bite your head off. No, no, 0:03:05.076 --> 0:03:08.796 no question. You know, if the competition with Billy, you 0:03:08.796 --> 0:03:11.156 know you in for sight of your life. I don't 0:03:11.156 --> 0:03:18.076 know how to better characterize the same. Two black priests 0:03:18.076 --> 0:03:20.396 who set up the basketball game against the white kids 0:03:20.396 --> 0:03:23.636 had a plan for Harold Sylvester to integrate big time 0:03:23.716 --> 0:03:27.676 Southern college basketball. Tulane University had never had a black 0:03:27.676 --> 0:03:31.396 basketball player. There was still a wall between black athletes 0:03:31.436 --> 0:03:34.956 and white southern college sports. The priests wanted Harold to 0:03:34.956 --> 0:03:37.476 help knock it down. But when he got to the 0:03:37.476 --> 0:03:41.116 other side, he found something more intimidating than the color barrier. 0:03:41.916 --> 0:03:45.716 He found Billy Fitzgerald, the intense white guy from the 0:03:45.796 --> 0:03:48.756 Jesuit High school, had gone on to play for Tulane. 0:03:49.676 --> 0:03:53.916 Now they were teammates, and being Billy Fitzgerald's teammate was 0:03:53.956 --> 0:03:57.316 almost worse than playing against him, because now he was 0:03:57.356 --> 0:04:00.836 wearing you out every day. There were two anything that 0:04:00.916 --> 0:04:07.796 books to make sure that you were playing you're very best. Yeah. 0:04:07.836 --> 0:04:12.036 He always assisted that you you're all you know. And 0:04:12.076 --> 0:04:14.596 I think those of us to put alongside of him 0:04:14.796 --> 0:04:19.076 as well as against him, you always respected that. If 0:04:19.156 --> 0:04:21.756 Dylan was a wild he gave it everything you heared. 0:04:23.076 --> 0:04:27.236 So he had the capacity to scare his teammates. You did. 0:04:30.236 --> 0:04:32.796 I've got a special interest in Billy Fitzgerald, as you 0:04:32.876 --> 0:04:36.476 might be guessing, But Harold Silvester is his own story too. 0:04:36.996 --> 0:04:39.436 After Tulane, he left New Orleans and made a career 0:04:39.436 --> 0:04:42.356 as an actor. You've seen him in something an officer 0:04:42.356 --> 0:04:46.236 and a gentleman maybe or married with children. In nineteen 0:04:46.316 --> 0:04:49.076 ninety nine, he wrote the script for Passing Glory, the 0:04:49.196 --> 0:04:53.036 movie about that basketball game played without a crowd. The 0:04:53.116 --> 0:04:56.636 movie took certain liberties, like just about every film set 0:04:56.636 --> 0:04:59.436 in New Orleans, the actors all sound like they're from Mississippi, 0:04:59.876 --> 0:05:02.116 and there seemed to him to be no way to 0:05:02.196 --> 0:05:05.396 capture the intensity of the character based on Billy Fitzgerald. 0:05:06.276 --> 0:05:09.516 So Harold and Ventnor for him a scary racist dad. 0:05:09.796 --> 0:05:12.516 You get off that floss on someone for him to fight? 0:05:13.156 --> 0:05:15.956 Are you coming? Or do I have to drag you off. 0:05:18.556 --> 0:05:22.396 But I check go through life, you know, without talking 0:05:22.436 --> 0:05:25.196 about the tough people that I've known, you know, and 0:05:25.276 --> 0:05:28.836 he is amongst the toughest. And so so when I 0:05:29.156 --> 0:05:33.476 leave that to plug into that tough reservoir, I go 0:05:33.516 --> 0:05:36.876 to Bill Fitzgerald. You know, he's not a forgettable guy. 0:05:37.716 --> 0:05:41.996 Not a forgettable guy. Harold assumed that Billy Fitzgerald would 0:05:41.996 --> 0:05:45.196 go on to become a professional athlete. If I told 0:05:45.236 --> 0:05:46.876 you he was going to end up being a high 0:05:46.876 --> 0:05:50.756 school coach, would that have surprised you? It would have, 0:05:51.316 --> 0:05:54.916 But you could imagine it. I can imagine, and I 0:05:54.956 --> 0:05:57.836 can imagine if I knew how tough he was, then 0:05:58.636 --> 0:06:01.116 I would have gone somewhere else, to school, that is, 0:06:01.156 --> 0:06:03.956 to any school where Billy Fitzgerald was not the coach. 0:06:04.756 --> 0:06:12.876 Harold knew enough to be scared. I did not. I'm 0:06:12.876 --> 0:06:16.956 Michael Lewis, and this is against the Rules. A show 0:06:16.996 --> 0:06:21.396 about various authority figures in American life. This season is 0:06:21.436 --> 0:06:25.316 about the rise of coaches. This episode is about the 0:06:25.316 --> 0:06:28.396 power of a coach to change a life, in this 0:06:28.436 --> 0:07:08.356 case mine the winner of nineteen seventy three. Billy Fitzgerald 0:07:08.356 --> 0:07:11.676 takes us by some prize we know nothing about him 0:07:11.716 --> 0:07:14.236 except that he plays baseball for an Oakland A's minor 0:07:14.316 --> 0:07:17.956 league team. Yes, baseball, but for some reason, he's spending 0:07:17.996 --> 0:07:21.476 the offseason coaching eighth grade boys basketball at our school. 0:07:22.436 --> 0:07:25.756 Our practices are easy, sort of like recess. The eighth 0:07:25.756 --> 0:07:32.596 graders practices are not. Coach Fitzgerald is this six foot 0:07:32.636 --> 0:07:34.916 four inch man with the face of a street fighter. 0:07:35.756 --> 0:07:38.756 He hollers at the eighth graders for three straight hours, 0:07:39.236 --> 0:07:42.916 then runs them till they drop. As they lay gasping 0:07:42.956 --> 0:07:45.756 around his feet, he pulls a book from his back 0:07:45.796 --> 0:07:50.036 pocket and reads them quotes from Bobby Knight, the scary 0:07:50.076 --> 0:07:53.356 basketball coach of the Indiana Hoosiers. Let you hear, Let 0:07:53.436 --> 0:07:57.516 you hear. Bobby Knight just threw his chair were across 0:07:57.556 --> 0:08:00.876 a three throw line. There's a good chance Bobby Knights, 0:08:00.876 --> 0:08:05.916 but a jackets this basketball game. Seventh graders all know 0:08:05.996 --> 0:08:08.916 who Bobby Knight is, but this new coach seems bigger 0:08:08.956 --> 0:08:13.156 and scarier. After a few days, one of my teammates says, 0:08:13.596 --> 0:08:15.876 oh God, please don't ever let me get to the 0:08:15.916 --> 0:08:20.356 eighth grade. But eighth grade is inevitable. So is Billy Fitzgerald. 0:08:20.796 --> 0:08:23.156 He and his wife have a son and decide that 0:08:23.196 --> 0:08:25.636 minor league baseball is no place to raise a child. 0:08:26.596 --> 0:08:29.076 We don't know any of that. We don't know about 0:08:29.076 --> 0:08:30.916 the wife, we don't know about the kid. All we 0:08:30.996 --> 0:08:33.436 know is that this terrifying man is no longer the 0:08:33.476 --> 0:08:37.076 eighth grade coach, but the head baseball and basketball coach 0:08:37.116 --> 0:08:41.156 at our high school. The Isidore Newman School. Newman's one 0:08:41.196 --> 0:08:44.396 of those small, wealthy private schools that every American city 0:08:44.436 --> 0:08:48.196 has at least two of, one of them called Country Day. 0:08:48.956 --> 0:08:52.036 Our school is not the most obvious place to create 0:08:52.076 --> 0:08:55.716 a training camp for Spartan Warriors, but that's what this 0:08:55.756 --> 0:09:01.276 new coach sets out to do. I'm not going to 0:09:01.316 --> 0:09:03.756 tell you everything that happened over the next five years, 0:09:04.196 --> 0:09:06.316 in part because I've already written a little book about 0:09:06.316 --> 0:09:09.516 it called Coach. But I want to tell you two 0:09:09.556 --> 0:09:17.036 stories incidents, really, just to give you a flavor. First incident. 0:09:18.156 --> 0:09:21.596 It's two years later, and Billy Fitzgerald has just become 0:09:21.676 --> 0:09:25.596 my coach. I'm now fourteen years old and a total mess. 0:09:25.996 --> 0:09:29.596 To say that I'm troubled isn't quite right. Inert is 0:09:29.636 --> 0:09:32.756 more like it. My teachers can't understand why I have 0:09:32.996 --> 0:09:36.116 zero interests in what they're saying. My own mother one 0:09:36.156 --> 0:09:38.796 day breaks down and more or less admits that I'm 0:09:38.836 --> 0:09:42.836 ruining her life. And my mom's great. It's not her fault. 0:09:43.516 --> 0:09:46.516 I just don't much care about anything except performing the 0:09:46.516 --> 0:09:50.196 occasional acts of vandalism. The only human being on the 0:09:50.276 --> 0:09:52.956 planet that I don't feel I can safely ignore is 0:09:52.996 --> 0:09:59.756 my baseball coach. I'd quit playing baseball a few years earlier, 0:09:59.756 --> 0:10:01.876 but Fitz found me at school one day and asked 0:10:01.876 --> 0:10:04.516 me to come out for his summer team. I'm one 0:10:04.516 --> 0:10:06.796 of the younger players, and he's new to me. He's 0:10:06.836 --> 0:10:09.796 indeed tough, He's indeed scary when he wants to be. 0:10:10.756 --> 0:10:13.196 He suspends kids who break the rules, no matter how 0:10:13.196 --> 0:10:16.076 good they are. He never lays a hand on a player, 0:10:16.396 --> 0:10:19.356 but he breaks all kinds of things, especially after games 0:10:19.356 --> 0:10:22.556 that don't go well. No object in the locker room 0:10:22.636 --> 0:10:25.596 is safe. He destroys an ancient wall clock with a 0:10:25.676 --> 0:10:28.556 catcher's mitt and a big orange water jug with a 0:10:28.636 --> 0:10:31.796 single swing of an aluminum bat. He takes us out 0:10:31.796 --> 0:10:34.276 onto a hard field at ten o'clock at night after 0:10:34.316 --> 0:10:37.796 a game. There we slide until our uniforms are red 0:10:37.796 --> 0:10:41.076 and brown with dirt and blood. Then he declares that 0:10:41.116 --> 0:10:44.236 they aren't to be washed until we meet his expectations. 0:10:45.156 --> 0:10:48.556 Ten games later. Our uniforms are so filthy that people 0:10:48.556 --> 0:10:51.556 will come to our games just to see them. We 0:10:51.596 --> 0:10:54.436 look less like a team than a cult of insane 0:10:54.516 --> 0:11:00.196 rich kids who refuse to bathe. But now, once, and 0:11:00.276 --> 0:11:03.316 I really mean not once, do I have the feeling 0:11:03.396 --> 0:11:06.276 that this was about anything but me and my teammates. 0:11:07.556 --> 0:11:11.196 Coach Fitz never talks about himself. He never tells us 0:11:11.196 --> 0:11:13.036 how close he got to playing in the big leagues 0:11:13.076 --> 0:11:16.476 for the Oakland A's, for example, other people talk about it. 0:11:16.916 --> 0:11:20.516 His young players spend lots of time swapping stories about him, 0:11:21.036 --> 0:11:25.476 crazy stories which everyone repeats his gospel. Then, in high school, 0:11:25.476 --> 0:11:28.236 Fits refused to ride the team bus after they lost 0:11:28.516 --> 0:11:31.076 and instead walked many miles across the city of New 0:11:31.156 --> 0:11:34.876 Orleans in his catcher's gear. That rusty stab who went 0:11:34.916 --> 0:11:37.356 on to have a famous big league career, made the 0:11:37.436 --> 0:11:40.396 mistake of taunting Fits, and Fitz ran out onto the 0:11:40.436 --> 0:11:44.196 field and beat the crap out of him. Then there 0:11:44.236 --> 0:11:46.956 was the most incredible story, the one we love the best, 0:11:47.316 --> 0:11:50.876 that during a college basketball game, Fitz had not only 0:11:51.036 --> 0:11:56.716 singlehandedly kicked Pete Marevich's ass, but also beating up Marevich's dad, 0:11:56.876 --> 0:12:01.036 the LSU coach, in the same brawl. To this day, 0:12:01.156 --> 0:12:05.156 Pete Marevich holds the college hoops scoring record. Getting into 0:12:05.156 --> 0:12:08.556 a fight with him, well, it felt then like getting 0:12:08.596 --> 0:12:12.476 into a with Lebron James would now. It made Fits 0:12:12.556 --> 0:12:17.316 a legend in our minds. The incident that summer night 0:12:17.316 --> 0:12:19.716 that I want to tell you about. It's made possible 0:12:19.756 --> 0:12:23.236 by all these other stories. Our baseball teams actually very good, 0:12:23.516 --> 0:12:25.556 but we're playing the only team in the league that 0:12:25.636 --> 0:12:28.516 might be better. I'm the new young pitcher, and I 0:12:28.556 --> 0:12:32.396 really don't belong in the game. Our older, better pitcher 0:12:32.476 --> 0:12:35.996 has it all under control, but his fate would have it. 0:12:36.036 --> 0:12:39.116 Fits is forced to pull our older pitcher in the 0:12:39.236 --> 0:12:42.956 last inning with one out and us up two to one, 0:12:43.436 --> 0:12:46.756 and them with runners on first and third and lots 0:12:46.756 --> 0:12:49.636 of grown ups in the stands screaming and yelling and 0:12:49.756 --> 0:12:56.116 going bat shit crazy. I'm not an imposing sight. I've 0:12:56.156 --> 0:12:58.916 not so much hit puberty as delta a glancing blow. 0:12:59.916 --> 0:13:02.436 I look like a scoop of vanilla ice cream, maybe 0:13:02.436 --> 0:13:06.396 with pickup sticks jutting out of the sides. The other 0:13:06.476 --> 0:13:10.356 team has facial hair and muscles. They're actually laughing and 0:13:10.516 --> 0:13:13.076 dancing with glee. As I walk out to the mound, 0:13:14.116 --> 0:13:17.836 Fitz just stands there, looking like he wants to punch someone. 0:13:19.036 --> 0:13:24.436 The situation's terrifying, but strangely, I'm not terrified because Coach 0:13:24.516 --> 0:13:27.996 Fits is on my side, and he's by far the 0:13:28.036 --> 0:13:32.836 most terrifying thing in the entire city. And he looks 0:13:32.876 --> 0:13:36.076 at me and says, there is no one I'd rather 0:13:36.156 --> 0:13:40.836 have in this situation, which is total bullshit, but such 0:13:40.916 --> 0:13:43.156 is the force of the man that I believe him 0:13:43.276 --> 0:13:46.236 every word. Then he hands me the ball and says, 0:13:46.676 --> 0:13:49.756 stick it up their ass. Before he leaves me out 0:13:49.796 --> 0:13:52.516 there alone, he nods towards the kid with a little 0:13:52.596 --> 0:13:55.676 mustache on third base and says, pick his ass off. 0:13:58.196 --> 0:14:00.356 I didn't have the words for how I felt just then, 0:14:00.676 --> 0:14:04.236 but I did later. I'm about to show the world 0:14:04.476 --> 0:14:08.596 and myself what I can do. The strength of this 0:14:08.676 --> 0:14:12.356 coach was inside me like a superpower. I picked the 0:14:12.436 --> 0:14:14.836 kid's ass off third base, then stuck the ball up 0:14:14.836 --> 0:14:18.556 the ass of some other kid, and we won. But 0:14:18.756 --> 0:14:22.036 that's not the full magic of this moment. The magic 0:14:22.316 --> 0:14:25.396 is what Billy Fitzgerald uses it to do. After the game, 0:14:26.396 --> 0:14:28.476 he gives a little speech to the team about the 0:14:28.556 --> 0:14:31.036 nature of courage and how if you want to know 0:14:31.076 --> 0:14:33.836 what it looks like, you just need to watch me pitch. 0:14:34.756 --> 0:14:38.476 I'm hearing myself being described in an entirely original way 0:14:39.636 --> 0:14:44.236 and wanting to believe it that incident is more the 0:14:44.276 --> 0:14:47.396 beginning of a longer story than the end, because what 0:14:47.476 --> 0:14:50.156 that coach did in that moment is to hand me 0:14:50.236 --> 0:14:53.476 the start of a new identity by giving me a 0:14:53.476 --> 0:14:56.956 new narrative. I was no longer this pointless human being, 0:14:57.036 --> 0:15:02.636 this nightmare of inertia. I was brave, a hero, almost, 0:15:03.436 --> 0:15:07.676 and I ran with it. Four years later, when the 0:15:07.796 --> 0:15:12.036 letter arrives saying that I'd gotten into Princeton, I run 0:15:12.116 --> 0:15:15.356 to the school to find Coach Fitzgerald to let him 0:15:15.396 --> 0:15:20.036 know not to say look what I did, to say, 0:15:21.036 --> 0:15:23.196 look what you made it possible for me to do. 0:15:38.516 --> 0:15:41.516 At any point in the decade after my high school graduation, 0:15:42.156 --> 0:15:44.476 you could drop in to see Billy Fitzgerald at the 0:15:44.476 --> 0:15:47.156 Newman School and feel that you were basically in the 0:15:47.196 --> 0:15:49.636 same world that I grew up in. You know, if 0:15:49.636 --> 0:15:52.116 we were in practice, you know he would he got 0:15:52.116 --> 0:15:53.276 to a point where he didn't have to tell me 0:15:53.276 --> 0:15:54.436 to go run a line, Gerald, I would just go 0:15:54.476 --> 0:15:56.036 and run it myself, because I knew that was the 0:15:56.036 --> 0:15:59.156 next thing out of his mouth. Philip Skelding played basketball 0:15:59.196 --> 0:16:02.196 for coach Fitzgerald in nineteen ninety. Okay, I'll just go run, 0:16:02.316 --> 0:16:04.276 you know, and beat him to it. Save his breath, 0:16:04.756 --> 0:16:06.156 you know, which is kind of like that whole like 0:16:06.196 --> 0:16:10.756 internalizing his voice thing. A few years later, Philip would 0:16:10.756 --> 0:16:13.236 win a Rhodes scholarship then go on to become a doctor. 0:16:13.796 --> 0:16:15.956 But he's talking about when he was sixteen years old, 0:16:16.436 --> 0:16:19.756 just another kid trying to meet this coach's great expectations. 0:16:21.876 --> 0:16:24.556 One night, his team lost in the championship game of 0:16:24.596 --> 0:16:27.116 a tournament. It was a game they all knew they 0:16:27.116 --> 0:16:29.716 should have won. So this bus ride was just a miserable, 0:16:29.796 --> 0:16:32.716 quiet experience, I'm sure, with all of us just pouting 0:16:32.756 --> 0:16:36.716 in listening to our walkman's and trying not to laugh 0:16:36.716 --> 0:16:38.676 too loud if anybody said anything, because that would have 0:16:38.716 --> 0:16:41.756 just sent him off the handle. But we got back 0:16:41.756 --> 0:16:43.516 to locker room, and we would get into the locker 0:16:43.596 --> 0:16:45.716 room like always and sit around and wait for a 0:16:45.716 --> 0:16:51.556 while while he collected his thoughts. It was like sitting 0:16:51.596 --> 0:16:55.916 at the base of Vesuvius watching the smoke, waiting, and 0:16:56.076 --> 0:16:58.596 he came in and we had gotten a trophy for 0:16:58.636 --> 0:17:02.476 winning a second place, which was a pretty big trophy. Anyhow, 0:17:02.916 --> 0:17:05.996 maybe two feet tie off the table there and they're 0:17:06.156 --> 0:17:08.116 just sitting on the table, and he came in and 0:17:09.316 --> 0:17:11.756 paint around a little bit like he was typically going 0:17:11.796 --> 0:17:15.676 to do when jingled the coins in his pocket, and 0:17:15.916 --> 0:17:18.796 pause every now and again and just make eye contact 0:17:18.836 --> 0:17:22.236 with one of us and then probably like you know, 0:17:22.356 --> 0:17:25.676 do like a halfway side xho and keep the pacing going. 0:17:25.676 --> 0:17:27.036 And he did that for a minute or two to 0:17:27.036 --> 0:17:29.876 build a suspense, and then he just said, y'all know 0:17:29.876 --> 0:17:32.476 what I think a second place and he picked up 0:17:32.476 --> 0:17:35.956 the trophy. You felt the heat before you saw the fire. 0:17:36.716 --> 0:17:39.876 Everyone in that room felt it. I bet everyone in 0:17:39.876 --> 0:17:46.636 that room still feels it. I remember it like yesterday. 0:17:46.876 --> 0:17:50.116 There was a humongous trophy. It was really nice. That's 0:17:50.236 --> 0:17:54.116 Randy Livingston. He was on that team too. He'd go 0:17:54.196 --> 0:17:56.756 on to become Gatorade National Player of the Year, the 0:17:56.796 --> 0:18:00.396 best basketball player in the entire country. He'd played for 0:18:00.396 --> 0:18:04.276 eleven years in the NBA, but Fitz never treated him differently. 0:18:05.516 --> 0:18:08.316 He treated him as just another identity to be created. 0:18:09.156 --> 0:18:14.316 He literally smashed that trophy into pieces and just said, 0:18:14.436 --> 0:18:16.956 we're not playing for second place, and I will never 0:18:16.996 --> 0:18:19.436 forget the head. You know, back in the day that 0:18:19.556 --> 0:18:21.276 had the man on the top of the trophy and 0:18:21.316 --> 0:18:23.436 he's in a shooting or he's in a standing position. 0:18:24.076 --> 0:18:26.356 The head of that trophy miss one of the players 0:18:26.516 --> 0:18:29.396 head by inches and it would have wiped him out. 0:18:29.476 --> 0:18:35.156 That's how forceful he smashed that trophy. The little man 0:18:35.276 --> 0:18:37.996 on top of the big trophy went flying through the air. 0:18:38.636 --> 0:18:41.636 Different kids reacted differently to the eruption. That was a 0:18:41.716 --> 0:18:44.156 memorable one because I think there were some kids who 0:18:44.156 --> 0:18:46.516 maybe left a team over that. In fact, but I 0:18:46.516 --> 0:18:49.276 thought it was great. I didn't want to be second 0:18:49.316 --> 0:18:53.156 place either. Several kids actually told their parents about the 0:18:53.156 --> 0:18:58.676 trophy that Fits had demolished. Something had changed. These moments 0:18:58.796 --> 0:19:01.636 were no longer just things that happened between a coach 0:19:01.676 --> 0:19:05.636 and his players. A third party had entered the conversation. 0:19:05.916 --> 0:19:11.076 It must be some level of just just discomfort with 0:19:11.276 --> 0:19:13.716 that much intensity, because it is really intense. I mean 0:19:13.716 --> 0:19:15.956 he was a really intense guy then, but I know 0:19:15.996 --> 0:19:17.996 there are some kids who left the team or whatever 0:19:18.076 --> 0:19:20.356 had issues or the parents, you know, speaking for their kids. 0:19:20.396 --> 0:19:22.076 So I'm not letting you play for that guy. He's 0:19:22.076 --> 0:19:25.236 a maniac. But for me and many of others, I 0:19:25.236 --> 0:19:27.556 think it more kind of stealed our resolve. I mean 0:19:27.596 --> 0:19:29.796 to say, yeah, this is this is something we can do. 0:19:30.716 --> 0:19:33.556 We can do better than this, we can do better 0:19:33.596 --> 0:19:37.196 than this. That was how I had felt. But now 0:19:37.236 --> 0:19:40.436 some kids didn't feel that way, and they must have 0:19:40.476 --> 0:19:43.676 sensed that the coach was vulnerable. Because if you took 0:19:43.716 --> 0:19:46.356 his most dramatic moments and you replayed them in your 0:19:46.356 --> 0:19:49.076 family kitchen, they felt different than they had in the 0:19:49.116 --> 0:19:51.916 locker room. Taking anything out of context can make it 0:19:51.996 --> 0:19:53.876 different in terms of how people interpret it. And I 0:19:53.916 --> 0:19:57.476 think we had essentially signed up for it, and we 0:19:57.476 --> 0:20:00.236 had all, you know, voted with our feet and said like, 0:20:00.236 --> 0:20:03.836 we're okay with this. We want to you know, work 0:20:03.876 --> 0:20:08.196 together as a team and see what we can accomplish. 0:20:08.796 --> 0:20:10.196 Would did you do? What did you do with the 0:20:10.236 --> 0:20:13.196 pieces of the trophy? So yeah, the little man who 0:20:13.556 --> 0:20:15.556 is at the top of any basketball trophy, that's just 0:20:15.596 --> 0:20:17.436 sitting there with a ball getting ready to shoot, he 0:20:17.516 --> 0:20:20.316 went flying intact, but he separated from the trophy and 0:20:20.436 --> 0:20:22.796 went flying off and landed in the lap of the 0:20:22.836 --> 0:20:25.356 guy next to me, and we stuck him up on 0:20:25.356 --> 0:20:28.236 the ducting of the air conditioning that we could all 0:20:28.236 --> 0:20:30.436 reach as tall guys, and we just tapped him on 0:20:30.476 --> 0:20:32.076 the way out the door every time for the rest 0:20:32.116 --> 0:20:34.916 of the season, a sort of a reminder, let's just 0:20:34.956 --> 0:20:38.916 play our best game, touching the little man on the 0:20:38.956 --> 0:20:42.276 way out the door. They played better and better. They 0:20:42.396 --> 0:20:46.796 end up winning the Louisiana State championship, which shocked even them. 0:20:46.916 --> 0:20:49.196 Then they do it again the next year and the 0:20:49.276 --> 0:20:54.556 year after that. Their higher standard becomes second nature, but 0:20:54.756 --> 0:20:57.556 only for the players who stayed and let the coach 0:20:57.596 --> 0:21:01.596 work his magic. The players who left, well, they missed out, 0:21:02.316 --> 0:21:05.076 but they gave you a hint where the world was heading. 0:21:08.156 --> 0:21:12.236 More than a decade passes, it's now two thousand and three. 0:21:12.956 --> 0:21:16.436 I get two phone calls about Billy Fitzgerald, one right 0:21:16.476 --> 0:21:22.236 after the other, David Pointer calling from Michael David. The 0:21:22.356 --> 0:21:25.836 first comes from a former Newman basketball player named David Pointer. 0:21:26.276 --> 0:21:28.476 How are you? He set out to raise the money 0:21:28.516 --> 0:21:32.476 to remodel the school Jim and name it for coach Fitzgerald. 0:21:33.076 --> 0:21:36.596 Because it's fitz David finds the fundraising easy. You know, 0:21:36.716 --> 0:21:39.796 fitz didn't sit down and put on a blackboard the 0:21:39.956 --> 0:21:43.316 values that he thought he needed to impart upon us. 0:21:44.236 --> 0:21:46.836 And maybe ten years later we finally figured out what 0:21:46.916 --> 0:21:51.876 those values were. Former players said things to David. He 0:21:51.916 --> 0:21:56.036 taught me life. Parents said things to David like he 0:21:56.116 --> 0:21:59.396 did all the hard work all in. Couldn't agree with 0:21:59.436 --> 0:22:02.756 you more. Can't believe the school is letting you do it, 0:22:03.276 --> 0:22:05.676 Which brings me to the second phone call from a 0:22:05.676 --> 0:22:08.756 former teammate of mine. He said he'd heard that the 0:22:08.756 --> 0:22:12.036 Newman School was on the verge of firing Billy Fitzgerald. 0:22:12.916 --> 0:22:16.996 Some parents had complained to the headmaster. The headmaster was sympathetic. 0:22:17.876 --> 0:22:20.596 How did Newman get itself into the position where it 0:22:20.716 --> 0:22:25.956 listened to those parents? Oh, fundraising. I don't think it's 0:22:26.036 --> 0:22:29.076 Newman in particular to you. No, I think it's money 0:22:29.756 --> 0:22:32.796 gets money. It was the money, but it was more 0:22:32.876 --> 0:22:36.356 than the money. It was about what people think coaches 0:22:36.396 --> 0:22:41.956 are for. I flew back to New Orleans to try 0:22:41.956 --> 0:22:45.276 to make sense of the situation. Eight parents of current 0:22:45.316 --> 0:22:48.676 players had formed a coalition. A few of them were 0:22:48.756 --> 0:22:50.756 rich people who might give the school a lot of money. 0:22:51.356 --> 0:22:54.036 They'd gone to the headmaster to complain, but not about 0:22:54.036 --> 0:22:56.756 anything Coach Fits had done. That was one of the 0:22:56.836 --> 0:23:00.396 strange things about the situation, because it turned out coach 0:23:00.436 --> 0:23:03.996 Fits it sort of mellowed. His days of breaking trophies 0:23:03.996 --> 0:23:07.476 were now over. His crime seemed to be that he 0:23:07.476 --> 0:23:11.636 held kids accountable, suspended them when they violated training rules, 0:23:11.636 --> 0:23:14.076 for example, or pointed out that they put on ten 0:23:14.116 --> 0:23:17.516 pounds of fat when they promised to lose fifteen. The 0:23:17.636 --> 0:23:20.236 other odd thing was that one of his teams had 0:23:20.236 --> 0:23:24.756 just won the Louisiana State baseball championship. In sports, it's 0:23:24.796 --> 0:23:28.716 almost a natural law. Winning teams are happy and losing 0:23:28.756 --> 0:23:32.596 teams are not. After the fact, everyone says the team 0:23:32.636 --> 0:23:35.356 won because of its great chemistry. But which usually happened 0:23:35.396 --> 0:23:37.676 is that winning has just made everybody like each other more. 0:23:38.596 --> 0:23:40.516 But here was a team that had just won it 0:23:40.596 --> 0:23:49.596 all and it was falling apart. It was Marti Gras 0:23:49.596 --> 0:23:52.356 time at the time. I remember her. You know, there 0:23:52.476 --> 0:23:54.796 was drinking going on. There were young kids that were 0:23:54.956 --> 0:23:57.156 doing things they shouldn't have been doing, just like anywhere. 0:23:57.756 --> 0:24:00.956 Jeremy Blish was a junior on Newman's winning baseball team 0:24:00.996 --> 0:24:04.396 that year. It was a Lord of the Flies situation 0:24:04.436 --> 0:24:07.396 and he was Ralph Piggy and a few of the 0:24:07.436 --> 0:24:09.756 other younger players were on his side, but scared to 0:24:09.756 --> 0:24:14.396 say it because the older players, the seniors, were in revolt. 0:24:14.596 --> 0:24:16.556 You know, as high schoolers, we signed training rules that 0:24:16.636 --> 0:24:21.436 said we wouldn't drink like that's that's asinine to begin with, right, 0:24:21.556 --> 0:24:24.996 So anyway, so we signed training rules to not drink 0:24:25.076 --> 0:24:27.836 alcohol at sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen years old. You mean 0:24:27.836 --> 0:24:31.036 it's asinine because you shouldn't have to sign a document exactly, 0:24:31.116 --> 0:24:34.436 like who should be drinking like that in public? Who 0:24:34.476 --> 0:24:37.236 should be drinking like that? Whatever? That's not you know, right, 0:24:37.276 --> 0:24:39.196 it's not my kids or whatever. But my point is is, 0:24:39.236 --> 0:24:46.596 like fits did held people accountable for for rules broken? 0:24:46.676 --> 0:24:49.956 And yeah, was there some vulgarity involved? Of course? Was 0:24:49.996 --> 0:24:58.076