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Forum
I was privileged to be present at the dedication of the James W. Garrett Sports Complex on June 1. Jim Garrett posed this question in his remarks: "What will they say 30 years from now when people ask 'Who was Jim Garrett?'" Showing his humility and pointing to his name over the entrance, he said he hopes the answer will give proper credit first and foremost to "the football players and coaches who played for and worked with me."
I would answer this question by saying that Coach Garrett was a leader and a teacher and is well-deserving of the honor. He was passionate and enthusiastic about teaching football and how to win - and from him we learned the lessons of life. Coming to Susquehanna in September 1960 at the age of 30 for his first head coaching job, Coach Garrett took a young and inexperienced team and made us believe in ourselves. I was a senior co-captain on that team, and he managed to bring out the best qualities in everyone, leading us to a successful season during which only 17 points were scored against us in eight games: a school record that still stands. He won 70% of his games from 1960-65, the best winning percentage in the 100+ years of football played at Susquehanna. And he is a member of the Susquehanna Athletic Hall of Fame.
Coach Garrett is about winning - but not just on the field. He taught us how to be winners in life: how to win and succeed in our relationships with family and friends and in our careers. When you are honest with yourself, you tend to be honest with others, and that is how Coach Garrett operated. He treated everyone the same on the field. He didn't show favoritism. You had to earn his respect - along with that of your teammates - by the way you performed. He motivated you to work hard, and if you did, you would most often achieve your goals.
Many of us credit Jim Garrett for instilling these core values in us on the football field. In the end, as we now realize, he turned out to be a great "life coach." This is why he is so loved and respected by players and coaches who were with him at Susquehanna in the early 1960s. We still affectionately refer to him as "Coach." And ultimately, this is why the new sports complex has been named for him.
Richard Derrick Class of 1961 I was surprised and disappointed when browsing my wife's current issue of Susquehanna Today to learn of the decision to name the new sports complex in honor of former football coach Jim Garrett. Most of us tend to look back appreciatively upon our undergraduate years --- often nostalgically. In my experience, recollections of athletes are especially prone to sentimental revisionism. And so, perhaps, it should not surprise me that Board Chair, Nick Lopardo has championed naming the new sports complex after Garrett and elected to sweep under the carpet evidence that raises tall doubts about the wisdom of that decision by suggesting that critics are remembering only the notorious Parent's Day incident in 1965 and overlooking the larger impact of Coach Garrett's career at the University.
I remember Coach Garrett as a bright, articulate and dynamic individual who ardently urged students to give their best to their studies as well as the playing field. By his energy and intensity of purpose he was no doubt a positive influence. But I also remember how there was a lack of even temperament in his zeal that raised concerns long before October of '65. I recall Dean Reuning's dismay over the sign at the entrance to the practice field beneath which players daily passed, an equation for victory with three ingredients: Pride, Guts, Desire. Embarrassed that the sign was easily observed by anyone in the vicinity, he threatened to remove it himself. An overreaction? Perhaps, but rather than mindlessly visceral by-words, why not ones of deeper meaning and character: Dedication. Courage, Teamwork. No doubt Garrett preferred the passion of his words to ones of greater import. Emotional intensity was a key ingredient for winning. But like many another zealot, he had trouble stepping back from the thick of matters at hand and allowing himself a reasoned view. His assault on his Quarterback's helmet that Parents' Day was not a unique occurrence. It was a fair representation of the man.
The uniquely personal and powerful relationship that exists between players and coaches has been universally recognized for a long time. Over the years there have doubtless been many coaches at Susquehanna who have demonstrated in their coaching and teaching the highest ideals of the University. Many served the University loyally in times when salaries were low and facilities inadequate. Through good seasons and bad they more often than not made a profoundly positive influence on those students whose lives they touched. To name the new facility for someone who did not demonstrate the kind of excellence that the university strives to instill in its graduates is a slap in the face of all those coaches who have dutifully and unspectacularly done so.
It is fine thing that Mr. Lopardo's love for the University and the value of its athletic programs has moved him to make a large gift of naming magnitude. But why spotlight one whose actions and character were not representative of the best that the University stands for? I suggest that instead he reconsider and dedicate the building to all of the coaches who have positively influenced so many students at the University -- and that would include Jim Garrett. Why not call it Coaches Memorial Sports Complex?
Joseph L. Carter Joseph L. Carter is a former faculty member at Susquehanna University and the husband of Judith Beery'66 Carter.
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