A Coach of Life

A Coach of Life

Wayne Renwick ’73 & Jimmy Spence ’81 Remember Coach Cally Gault ’48

“When I was 17 years old, I thought my parents were really dense; by the time I turned 21, I was amazed at how much mom and dad had learned those past four years” is a paraphrase of a quotation often attributed to Mark Twain.

Thinking about Coach Gault is like that saying: sometimes you just didn’t understand what he said or why he did what he did until four or, in some cases, 40-plus years later. There have been many fond remembrances of Coach Gault’s Yogi Berra-like sayings, all of which are true. But he was also a fierce competitor who realized college athletics was about more than winning and losing.

Wayne Renwick was an outstanding PC quarterback, team captain, and coach for Coach Gault in the 1970s. He has a unique perspective of Coach Gault. He remembers: “My first opportunity to meet Coach was during recruiting. He had found out about me from his former PC roommate, who was coaching at Clemson. This coach also informed him that my brother had recently lost his life in Vietnam. I share this because our first interaction centered on how our family was coping with the loss, not football. It was easy to see that he was truly concerned about the loss, and the importance of family was foremost in his life. When it came time to sign my scholarship, he wanted personally to come to meet my parents to offer his condolences and welcome us to the PC family -- truly a great expression of his kindness.

Fortunately, through his mentoring, I became a starter and team captain my senior year. During this time, I grew to understand his commitment to being a team player. Following my first starting effort against Furman, a game which we won, he called me into his office and stated that several news outlets wanted to interview me. He guided me through a few potential questions and asked for my responses. He made sure that the responses would include my teammates and their efforts in the win, not just what I had done. That made another big impression on me. He sat in on each interview and, after the first one, he congratulated me on how the questions were answered; I had passed another one ofhis life-coaching efforts.

As team captain my senior year, I learned another thing about Coach: He hated having to discipline his players. He stated to each team on many occasions: “When presented with a situation, think how you would respond if your mother was with you.” He stated that the team captain was to be a help with discipline, acting as a buffer to handle a problem and present to him the things he needed to handle.

We were fortunate that we had very few problems that had to go to him. If we did, he wanted to know the circumstances and what efforts had been made to correct it. If he was satisfied that it was time for him to get involved, he did, but he took it very personally that the individual had failed to follow his lead -- another life-coaching event.

Three years following graduation, Coach offered me an opportunity to come back to PC to coach with him. What a dream come true! It was mid-summer, and I had let my hair grow longer and had a mustache. He had never seen me like this and stated: “You are hired, but your hair growth is fired!” Another life-coaching point: Always look the part of a coach.

Football was changing offensively from the mostly power game that Coach knew so well, to the veer option game with which he was not familiar. It amazed me that he would turn the offense over to two young coaches to transition the offense into a new era at PC, an offense with which he was not familiar. Coach had been so successful with the power game and play-action passing that it could have been a difficult change, but it was not. Several times, he was questioned about why he would change, to which he stated: “I hire good coaches that I have confidence in and step out of their way to let them coach. If I need to step in, I do, but good coaches just need a little direction now and then just as players do! Hire the right people, and enjoy the ride.” That brings in the good Coaches: Tiller, Jackson and Strock along with Coach Gault that I was fortunate to be associated with during my playing time.

One final learning point from Coach happened soon after being back at PC. Around 9 p.m. in the offseason, I received a phone call from a player’s mom with startling news that the player’s father, her husband, had just had a fatal heart attack. I had recruited this young man, and she asked if I could find him, let him know about his father, and get him home. I promised that I would. Fortunately, the player was in his room studying. I knocked on the door, and he answered. He knew something was wrong for me to be there at that time of night. It was one of the toughest things I have ever had to do. He told me that he did not have a car to get home. I did not know if the NAIA rules would allow me to drive him home. I knew Coach was out of town that night, so I had to act and would discuss it with him the next day. We made the trip home, and I was able to spend some time with the family. I felt like I had done the correct thing--getting him home.

The next day, I let Coach know the details and asked if I had done the wrong thing. He stated very firmly that I had done the correct thing. He did not believe any rules had been broken but, if so, that would not matter, we could handle it. He stated that taking care of the player was a promise he made to all parents: He would be their father away from home, and he always had the players best interest in his heart. TRULY A COACH OF LIFE!! God Bless Him!!!

Like Coach Renwick, we learned how Coach Gault made the game about us and not about him. He always asked how classes, family, girlfriends, etc., were doing. He taught us that we were part of something bigger than ourselves that required sacrifice and hard work. That a football team wasn’t centered around you, it’s about your teammates to your right and left. That life lesson led to a deeper, better understanding of how to be the husband, father, worker, friend, stranger, adversary that we were created to be. So as we close one PC era and begin another, we hope we continue to remember what Coach Gault taught us and that we remember who we are.

Respectively to all, Wayne Renwick ’73 & Jimmy Spence ’81