Obsession 2 Coach Part III Birth of an Obsession December 24, 1974 Looking back on December 24, 1974, the single most important event in my professional career occurred that day. Yeah, I know I was only 15, but that evening changed my life forever… The Trousdale Family: Mom, Dad, Older Brother Jay and I packed into our Oldsmobile and headed to Chula Vista where my Grandmother lived. It was a family tradition to spend the evening with Grams, so it started out like any other Christmas Eve. Being a typical 15 year old boy, I was more concerned with girls and basketball than I was with spending an evening with family. In short…I WAS BORED TO DEATH! One of our Christmas traditions was that each of us got to open up one gift on Christmas Eve from Grams. To my dismay, my ONE gift had both my brother’s and my name on it. I was pissed to say the least. “What the hell is going on,” I thought! “Damn! I’m not going to share my gift with my damn brother!” Being the spoiled brat that I was, I sulked in the corner and IGNORED everybody the rest of the evening. After the usual boring chit chat, dinner and dessert (My Grams made the best Scandinavian Fattigman Cookies) it was time to open my HALF OF A GIFT. Next Dilemma…Who was going to get to open it? I waited and as usual my damn older brother got the call. Pissed again, I crawled deeper into my spoiled little hole. As Jay opened the gift and I saw what he was unwrapping, I had this overwhelming feeling of excitement come over me. I saw tickets. I saw Two Tickets. No wait, “Holy Sh%t”, I SAW FOUR TICKETS! My jaw dropped as my brother pulled out two sets of Final Four Tickets. JACKPOT!!!
My Grams had given us tickets to the 1975 Final Four in San Diego at the San Diego Sports Arena, March 29 & 31, 1975.
I was embarrassed beyond belief that I had pouted the entire evening, but at this point, all I could think about…all that mattered was that I had tickets to the Final Four. I didn’t know it then, but going to the Final Four was going to be a life changing event for me …FOREVER
FINAL FOUR PROGRAM