Traveling with the Coach

By Peggy English

Traveling with the Coach is a book about fifty years of my life being a football coach's wife and of all the things I have had a chance to do while traveling with the coach.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781662486616

Book preview

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Traveling with the Coach

Peggy English

Copyright © 2022 Peggy English

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-8660-9 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-8661-6 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Wallace English

Introduction

Europe

Erice

Palermo, Sicily

England

Deggendorf, Germany

Munich, Germany

Amiens, France

Spain

Rome, Italy

Belgrade, Serbia

Hungary

Colleges and Pro Teams

University of Kentucky

The University of Arkansas

Virginia Tech

The University of Nebraska

Detroit Lions

Brigham Young University

The University of Pittsburgh

Miami Dolphins

Tulane University

Honolulu, Hawaii

Cornersville

Conclusion

To my five sons who traveled the road with us.

Japan Bowl

Wallace English

Summary of experience

Over his career, Wallace have coached four all-American quarterbacks: Dan Marino, University of Pittsburgh; Jim McMahon, Brigham Young University; Marc Wilson, Brigham Young University; and Don Strode, Virginia Tech. Overall, nine college quarterbacks that he had personally coached have been drafted into the National Football League. Four teams where he had served as offensive coordinator led the NCAA Division I-A in passing.

Coaching profile

University of Hawaii, Offensive Coordinator, 1997–

Birmingham Bulls, European Professional League, Head Coach

Ohio Glory, World League of American Football, Offensive Coordinator

Deggendorf Blackhawks, European Professional League, Head Coach

Palermo Cardinals, European Professional League, Head Coach

Tulane University, Head Coach

Miami Dolphins, Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback Coach

University of Pittsburgh, Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback Coach

Brigham Young University, Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback Coach

Detroit Lions, Running Backs Coach

University of Nebraska, Offensive Assistant and Quarterback Coach

World Football League, Eastern United States Personnel Coordinator

Virginia Technical University, Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback Coach

University of Arkansas, Offensive Assistant and Offensive Line

New Orleans Saints, Personnel Scout and Farm Club Coordinator, Richmond Roadrunners

University of Kentucky, Quarterback Coach

Mt. Carmel High School, Houston, Texas, Head Coach

Bishop Davis High School, Louisville, Kentucky, Head Coach

Playing experience

University of Louisville, Quarterback

Louisville United League, Quarterback

Fort Knox Post Team, All-Army League Quarterback

Introduction

Who would have thought a little leather, elliptical ball would take me around the world. My husband is a football coach, nine colleges and three pro teams and seven European teams. His ability to teach boys how to throw and catch this pigskin has taken us to seventeen cities in the United States, including Hawaii, and also moved us to seven different countries in Eastern and Western Europe.

We have traveled to Japan to play in the Japan Bowl, played in a Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Gator Bowl, Liberty Bowl, just to name a few.

All these stories that I have compiled and put in this book are true. They all occurred while traveling with the coach.

If I have counted right, we have moved fifty four times; I need to check the Guinness Book of Records. Each of these moves have brought us laughs, trauma, excitement, and sometimes hysteria. We are like the mail, neither sleet, nor snow, nor rain or lost dog; it keeps us from moving as you will learn in this book.

We have managed to have five sons along the way, got them raised in many different cities and different schools. Each of the first four boys were left behind for their senior year of high school because they were valuable to the high school football team and did not want to move. All five have received major college football scholarships, three played pro football, one in the US and two in Europe.

One is a lawyer, one a doctor, and three are developers is a lawyer. All this is from football. The funny thing is that all five of them volunteer in their spare time to coach football, one is the head coach, two of his brothers also volunteer at the same school, one is the offensive coordinator, the other is the defensive coordinator. One coaches football for little league and his church league, and the last one coaches his law school intramural team.

As you can see, football has been good to us, and it's not over yet.

When we started coaching in 1959, one week after we were married. Coaching then was not about money. Wally wanted to be a coach. My dad wanted him to go to law school, but he wanted to coach. Our first job paid $3,000.00 a year as an assistant. The next year, he got a head job in high school. It paid $3,300.00 a year for teaching and $400 for coaching. Three years later, he got another head coach job in Texas. We made $7,000.00. We thought we had all the money in the world. When we went to Kentucky, we took a pay cut to get into college. Wally never took a job for money. It was a better position and a better team. The most we ever made was $70,000 as the head coach at Tulane. Wally had several assistant coaches—Bill Belicheck, Joe Pendry, Bob Davey, and Mike Sherman. They all went on to be head coaches making a lot of money. He coached a quarterback that made it to the pros. They all made good money.

Things I have accomplished because of Traveling with the Coach: wrote a book Real Women Know Football.

I would sit with the men after games and listen to the conversation, a lady said to me, I want to learn football so I can talk about it also. So I started teaching women about football; thus, it turned into a book I was able to go on The View, Good Morning America, many radio shows, many cities doing their Good Morning shows, and a lot of book signings. I had my own TV show Real Women Know Football. I started a football jewelry company (pictured in the brochure), did a National Champion pin for LSU, Ohio State, and Alabama.

While living in Hawaii, I started a TV Series (The Heart Behind the Muscles Legends and Romance in Football), having famous sports couples tell their stories.

I started the first espresso coffee shop in Louisville, Kentucky, because after coaching in Italy, when we came home, there was not a good coffee shop like in Italy. It was about a year before Starbucks. I got to live in seven different countries for free.

All this because of Traveling with the Coach.

We have lived in fifty different houses. We seemed to move as each of our boys reached their senior year in high school. Jon stayed behind at Brother Rice High School in Detroit; Steve had to move to Pittsburgh from Provo at BYU in Utah. Dan stayed behind at Miami at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, and Tom stayed behind in New Orleans at Jesuit High School. They were all starting quarterbacks for their schools. Our youngest son, Andrew, was in three different high schools, and he was always the starting quarterback. All five of our sons received major college quarterback scholarships.

Early years

We were married on July 25, 1959. Wally only wanted boys. It's a good thing that is what we were blessed with. Our first son was born in 1960. On the day of my husband's first game as head coach against St. Joseph Prep (Bardstown, Kentucky), he came on the team bus and came up to check on me. The bus was full of the team, and they kept shouting, Hurry up, Coach!

Our second son was born while Wally was playing in a game as quarterback in the Continental League. When he got home and found the babysitter there, he was furious, thinking that I was out playing bridge. The sitter said, No, she is at the hospital having a baby.

I was induced with our third son because Wally had taken a job in Houston. As soon as our son was born, Wally then left for Texas.

Our fourth son was born during a big weekend of recruiting (in Kentucky?). I had lots of labor pains during Mass, then I went home to find recruits at our house. I decided to wait until they were gone before leaving for the hospital. Once I got to the hospital, the baby was born in about an hour. To play a joke on Wally, the nurses wrapped our new baby boy in a pink blanket, trying to fool Wally into thinking it was a girl!

Our fifth and final son's birthday was picked by Don Shula. Wally took a job with the Miami Dolphins. Coach Shula said he could come home for one day, March 26. So Andrew was born on that day.

John Sandusky's wife died during the season. The only coach on the staff to get off for the funeral was John Sandusky. All other staff members worked as usual. That is the way: football is the game, and practice comes first. Wally worked seven days a week, sometimes from six in the morning until two in the morning the next day. Once, Wally was not home at four in the morning. I called the security guard at the college. They found him asleep at his desk with the camera still rolling.

Mount Carmel

Wally left as soon as Danny was born to take a high school job in Houston, Texas. This job paid $7,000. I could not believe it. That was all the money in the world. Jon (four), Steve (three), Danny (one month), and I left on the boys' first airplane ride. I had Jon hold onto one side of my skirt and Steve hold onto the other side; I carried Dan in a basket.

Wally had not found a house yet. The one he liked had a six-foot fence around the backyard. The boys could not get out. Mount Carmel paid for an apartment for us to rent until we found a house. It was on the second floor with a very small rail around it and a walk-up to the apartment. I could not let the boys out because below was a large swimming pool. I found a house very quickly. The house needed work before we moved in. Wally got the football team