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Remember the 1977 hoop movie “One on One” when actor Robbie Benson, playing the unforgettable Henry Steele, wasn’t getting along with his coach on the college hoops team? The coach wanted to take away Henry’s scholarship because he wasn’t pleased with how he was playing.
But Henry remained stubborn and had a great game. Naturally, the crusty coach started being nice to him and reassured him he would retain his scholarship – because the kid could help him win more games thus elevating the coach’s job security.
But Henry sat across the desk in the coach’s office and told the older cuss to get lost and left the team and started dribbling the ball at a local outdoor court with his girlfriend, a teaching tutor he had been socializing with rather seriously throughout the season.
Henry Steele told his coach he didn’t need the hassle of playing on his team anymore, using some rather graphic words of disrespect, and walked out.
A potentially similar situation is playing out right now with the Long Beach State basketball team. Last week University administrators told the coach of the team for 17 years, Dan Monson, that they would not rehire him for another year. They said he could coach the rest of the season but immediately after that, he needed to hand in his security badge not thinking the team would do anything good the rest of the season.
But Monson, in a sense channeling Henry Steele in a coaching role, led his team to the Big West Conference Tournament Championship last weekend clinching an automatic bid to March Madness.
I would love to see Long Beach go on a six-game tear and win the national title. Then the administrators would reconsider their decision and ask coach to stick around, and he would tell them, “nah, not interested, good luck winning a national title without me.” Long Beach State alums would protest up and down university hallways to keep him as their champion coach.
The Henry Steele story always pleases us. Bosses, coaches, and people in authority push subordinates around, humiliate them, tell them they’re not good enough, threaten to take things away from them and make them feel bad about themselves.
The subordinates rise up, show them they can’t be kept down, then tell the bosses they don’t want to be around them anymore because they’re schmucks.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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