This year marks 30 years since I played in my last football
game. The milestone is cause for reflection. I have a lot of good memories from
that time period … and a lot of aching joints too. Despite the lingering
physical pain, overall it was a positive experience and I do think it helped me
develop some of the tools necessary to be successful later in life, such as: self-discipline,
goal setting, teamwork, resiliency, etc.
But instead of revisiting stories of my
not-really-all-that-interesting football career, I want to take this
opportunity to talk about a person from my football days who had a big
influence on my life. This person is my former head coach, Mike Bailey.
**
Michael Quentin Bailey was born in 1944 in the West Texas town of Pampa. He was a celebrated football star at Rule High School and went on to play college ball at North Texas State University and West Texas State. At 6’ 3” and 205 lbs, he played tight end at North Texas, and both end and halfback at West Texas. 
Photo:
Class photo of college sophomore Mike Bailey, 1965.[1]
Little did Bailey know at the time, but at West Texas he was
lining up in the backfield next to football history. His teammates included Eugene Morris, a future-star
running back with the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins, and Hank Washington, who many say should have been the first African-American
quarterback in the NFL. Despite being one of the top QB’s in the nation at the
time (ranked in the Top 10 for all NCAA passing stats, including 4th in total
yards, and 5th in completions), Washington was bypassed by every NFL team in the 1967 draft.
Image:
Pre-game listing of offensive and defensive starters for the October 1, 1966,
game between Arizona State University and West Texas State. WTS won 21-20. In
addition to the notable players listed above, this game also included ASU’s
Curley Culp, a future NFL star and Hall of Famer.
Bailey wasn’t drafted in 1967 either. He was, however, invited to training camp with the Philadelphia Eagles. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the cut.[2] Determined to give pro football one more try, he attended the Washington Redskins camp in 1968. Otto Graham, the legendary quarterback who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame just three years earlier, was the Redskins head coach at the time. Graham released Bailey and six other hopefuls in late July.[3]
But when one door closes, another one opens. And in the fall
of 1968, the 24-year old ex-football player joined the coaching staff at
Plainview High School. After four years there he was invited to be an assistant
coach with Bill Davis at Hurst Bell High School. Then in 1977 he landed his first
head coaching job at Terrell High School. He was 33 years old.
Including his time as an assistant, Bailey coached football
for 26 years. During his 17-years at the helm for Terrell High School and Plano
East Senior High, he coached in 185 games, and finished with a 116-64-5 record (a
.641 winning percentage). See table below
for his career head coaching record.
During those 17 years, he coached an estimated 1,000 players
(varsity and JV combined). I am proud to say that I was one of them. I played
on his teams at Plano East in 1986 and 1987.
Photo:
Coach Mike Bailey focused on the game, 1987 season.[4]
In my memory Bailey was a blend of legendary football coach Tom
Landry and Clint Eastwood’s character Dirty Harry. He had a great football
mind, and quite an intimidating presence. He could develop a great game plan, and
he was not someone you wanted to upset.
More often than not he had a stern look on his face. Ask
anyone who knew him, he was serious about winning. Yet at the same time he wasn’t
afraid to show that he could have fun too. Occasionally a big West Texas grin
would beam from his face.
As is the case with any demanding coach, there were some
players who didn’t like him. And I suspect that he was OK with that, because the
only thing he wanted was for his players to respect him, the other coaches, their
teammates and themselves. He was focused on helping them develop and grow as
students and athletes, and teaching them how to work together as a team to be
as successful as possible. He also
wanted to win a state championship.
He was friendly to me, but I wouldn’t say that we were
friends. And that’s OK too, because teenage boys don’t need to be friends with
40-year old men. Young men need positive role models they can respect. And on
the field that was Coach Bailey. For those of us who did respect him, we found
that if you worked hard and demonstrated that you weren’t a selfish teammate,
he respected you in return.
**
Bailey had some unique character traits. He was the type of
guy who would point at you with his long fingers when he was angry and trying to
explain something important. And the madder he got, the more fingers he pointed
with. I can recall several times when he was so angry that he was pointing at
me with all four fingers and the thumb – karate-chopping the air as he tried to
get his point across.
Anyone who played for Bailey will also remember that he was
deathly afraid of lightning. Whenever storm clouds rolled in and the sky
darkened, he’d blow his whistle and yell, “off the field, everyone inside!” or
something to that effect.
In fact, I recall there were days when some teammates didn’t
want to practice, so they would jokingly do “rain dances” with the hopes of
making clouds appear so we could end early.
We didn’t know the full story behind this deep-seeded fear. There were rumors that years ago one of his players had died after being struck by lightning. But that’s all we knew. He never talked about it.
As immature teenagers, I don’t think we could have fully appreciated the gravity of what that story really meant, or the emotional impact it might have had on Coach. No matter how many teen suicides our community experienced in the 1980’s, death was still such an abstract concept to most of us (as it should be for kids that age).
We didn’t know the full story behind this deep-seeded fear. There were rumors that years ago one of his players had died after being struck by lightning. But that’s all we knew. He never talked about it.
As immature teenagers, I don’t think we could have fully appreciated the gravity of what that story really meant, or the emotional impact it might have had on Coach. No matter how many teen suicides our community experienced in the 1980’s, death was still such an abstract concept to most of us (as it should be for kids that age).
When I got older and became a father, I thought more about
Bailey – especially after I became a volunteer coach for my kids’ teams. When
you’re a coach you feel a great responsibility for the safety and well-being of
your players … I can’t even fathom what it must feel like to have a player die at
one of your practices.
So, as a youth sports coach I followed Bailey’s lead and respected
Mother Nature. I too would remove my players from the field if there was any signs
of lightning.
As years passed, I also started to reflect on the unknown player
who died.
It seemed wrong to me that I only knew him as “the kid who got
struck by lightning.” He had a name. He had a family who loved him.
And now with a son and daughter of my own, I also thought
about his parents who lost a child.
Having lost a loved one early in my life (my mother died at
age 51, I was 28), I’ve come to believe that no death is tragic as long as we
can learn from it, and prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future. Parents
who lose a child young seem to embrace this same perspective.
With this wisdom in mind, I am now convinced that when Coach
Bailey was evacuating our practice field during bad weather, he was not only
looking out for our well-being, he was giving meaning and purpose to the tragic
death that had occurred years earlier in his life.
And just like in Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the young football player’s death
was the albatross that hung around Coach's neck for the remainder of his life.
The burden he carried was his penance. He was determined that this type of tragedy would never
occur again, and to prove that the young athlete’s death was not in vain. It was Bailey’s
act of redemption.
**
I could be wrong, but I suspect that many of Bailey’s former players
also think about him when there is a threat of lightning in the sky –
especially during a sporting event.
If so, I’d like to recommend that when we do remember him during
these stormy-weather situations that we also remember the young man who died
under his care.
So I did some research and discovered that his name is Bernard Derrick.
Bernard died on the Terrell football practice field on Wednesday,
September 7, 1977, at 5;45 pm.[5] He was
age 17, a month shy of his 18th birthday. He had recently competed
for, and earned the spot as, the starting quarterback for the Tigers’ varsity squad.
Dallas
Morning News reporter Carlton Stowers (now an award-winning author) wrote
about the tragic events of that day. Through interviews with friends and
family, he also gives us a sense of who Bernard was as a human being. Below is Stowers’
full article from Friday, September 9, 1977:
**
Lightning bolt brings tragedy to Terrell High
By CARLTON STOWERS
Staff Writer of the News
Staff Writer of the News
TERRELL, Texas – Darrell (Skeeter) Derrick, a member of the
Terrell High School junior varsity, did not play the game he had been looking
forward to playing Thursday. It was canceled.
Tracy Derrick and his eighth-grade teammates had received word
earlier in the day that their game had also been called off.
The cancellations were in memory of their older brother
Bernard Derrick, starting quarterback for the Terrell Tigers varsity, who was
killed during a practice session Wednesday afternoon when he was struck by
lightning during a violent electrical storm.
The sudden tragedy blanketed this quiet East Texas city in a
somber silence Thursday as word of the freak happening spread. Downtown coffee
shop talk of the upcoming Friday night game with De Soto gave way to the
question of why and how the 17-year-old black could be dead at the hand of
nature.
Students at the high school filed quietly to their classes as
the intermittent rain and gray sky outside assented the gloom.
A late afternoon announcement from principal Robert McCord
that the decision had been made to play the Friday night game against De Soto
as a regularly scheduled brought little in the way of an enthusiastic response.
In Barbara Willie's choir class there was no singing on this
particular Thursday afternoon. Instead the students were taking up a collection
for flowers to be sent to their ex-classmates’ home.
“Bernard was well liked,” said Miss Willie, “and he enjoyed
his fun. He was our sergeant-at-arms in choir and really got a kick out of his
job. The last time I saw him he was cutting up, acting like he was taking down
names of everyone in the class to turn in to the principal.”
Michael Martin, a stocky halfback for the Tigers and member of
the choir, spoke softly as he recalled the events which led to his friend's
death. Martin, in fact, nearly missed being struck himself and was taken to the
hospital.
“I was about five yards away from Bernard,” he said. “We were
practicing returning punts. There was this crack and we all went down. I went
down face first and when I got up and began looking around I could see
everybody on the team was on the ground. But Bernard was the only one lying
face up. I knew something bad was wrong.”
Martin said his right arm and shoulder were still somewhat
numb from his close call with the lightning bolt.
In McCord’s office, head coach Mike Bailey, in his first year
at the Terrell school, spoke quietly, his eyes focused on the floor painfully,
he recounted the events of the previous afternoon. It had been raining and
there had been some lightning off on the horizon. There had been no evidence of
lightning in the immediate area, however. And he had sent young Derrick and
Martin to the other end of the field to receive punts. When the lightning
struck players and coaches hit the ground.
“Everyone got up but Bernard,” the coach recalled. “I knew
something was wrong so I sent one of the assistants to call an ambulance and
the other coaches and I went to check on Bernard.” Attempts at mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation and heart massage failed to revive the fallen youngster.
Bailey accompanied Derrick to the hospital in the ambulance
and was on hand when the doctors informed Mrs. Vallie Derrick that her son was
dead.
“We had a team meeting this morning before school,” Bailey
said, “and we talked about the fact that things like this are not meant to be
understood by us. It's something that's over our heads. We have to accept it.”
He paused, then continued. “But, there's no way you can forget
it; no way it won't affect you. I feel a very personal loss and as a coach, I
feel a responsibility for what happened.”
“… there's no way you
can forget it; no way it won't affect you. I feel a very personal loss and as a coach, I feel a responsibility for what happened.”
– Mike Bailey |
The students were still finding it hard to believe that their
classmate and friend was dead.
“It just doesn't make sense,” said senior Adolphus Denson. “Just
yesterday we were sitting in the lunch room, shooting the bull, talking about
this big plan we had for after school was out. We were going to travel from one
end of the state to the other this summer; you know, just look things over. I
don't know if we would have ever done it, but it was fun to talk about.”
Even as the students at Terrell high were reflecting on their
experiences with Derrick, the dead youngsters’ mother was seated in a small
room at the Brooks and Thomas Mortuary, making the final arrangements for her
son's funeral. Wearied from lack of sleep, she spoke in a gentle, controlled
voice.
“You never know what's going to happen,” she said. “Life plays
some pretty bad tricks. I was taking a nap yesterday afternoon and woke up to
find it raining really hard. I knew it was about time for me to go to the
practice field and pick the boys up and figured it would take me a little
longer because of the rain.”
When she arrived, the nightmare had just begun to take form. “I
got out of the car and heard someone yelling something about Bernard,” she
recalled. An hour later she heard a doctor say her son, one of her six
children, was dead.[6]
Coach Bailey spent much of the night in the Derrick home with
family and friends. “There isn't much you can do or say,” he noted, “but I felt
like I should be there if there was something that I could do.” After a
decision made jointly by the school board, superintendent, principal and
Bailey, the Terrell Tigers will play De Soto Friday night.
Then the team will serve as honorary pallbearers Saturday when
the funeral for Derek is conducted at 11 AM at the Mount Hebron Baptist Church.
Burial will be in the Terrell’s East Bachelor Cemetery.
**
In a similar article featured in the Victoria Advocate, Bailey elaborated on his "above our
head" comment:[7]
"As a coach I feel responsible," Terrell's Mike Bailey said. "But whatever the Lord intends to be, will be for what happens is brought by the Lord."
The article also provided more details about the moments
before the deadly lightning strike:
Bernard's teammates said the
17-year-old senior had been complaining about practicing in the rain.
"He kept saying he wasn't going
to catch another kick because lightning was coming down. But they kept kicking
and then it happened," George Hartfield, Bernard's half-brother and a team
manager, said.
Rain had pelted the field for
more than an hour when Bernard was killed and Bailey said he was about to end
the practice session.
"Lightning was in the
distance," Bailey said, but we didn't think that much about it. When it
hit everyone got down fast. I looked around and I thought everybody got up
okay, but Bernard was lying there.
The violent thunderstorm awoke
Bernard's mother. She said she knew something was wrong.
"It was just a feeling a
mother knows," Vallie Derrick said.
The mother of six dashed to her
car and drove to the field.[8] She found her son dead on the ground.
Mrs. Derrick said her son was
"making a comeback from trouble" but chose not to elaborate. Bailey
also said the youth seemed intent to "make a go at turning his life
around.
"I guess the thing that
bothers me most is that the young man made a commitment to football and he
decided he was going to stay out of trouble," the Terrell coach said.
**
Photos:
Coach Mike Bailey and Bernard Derrick.[9]
**
In a 2013 interview, Bernard’s sister Tonya Derrick said that
the family lost more than a son and brother that day.[10]
“As the oldest, Bernard was like a father-figure to the other five children. He
was kind and loving, but he was also a disciplinarian,” she said.
With regards to “making a comeback,” Bernard had gotten into
trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. “He was committed to do better,” said
Tonya. “Bernard had a girlfriend at the
time and they were going to get married,” she added.
Bernard’s mother Vallie sank into depression after her son’s
death. Tonya recalls that their mother’s grief lasted so long that her brother
Skeeter got frustrated and tried to snap her out of it by yelling, “Mamma, you’ve
got five other kids to raise!”
Emotionally the family was never the same after the accident.
As a result, their day-to-day lives changed too. Whenever a lightning storm
occurred, mother Vallie made everyone unplug all the appliances inside the
home, and no one was allowed to go outdoors.
Sadly, on November 15, 1991, Vallie Derrick lost her life to lung
cancer. She was 51. Vallie is now buried next to her son at Mount Hebron
Cemetery.
On her headstone are the words to the hymn, “O Love, that wilt not let me go”.
The lyrics in the third verse of the hymn seem as though they were written to
comfort those touched by Bernard’s passing:
O Joy, that seekest me
through pain,
I cannot close my heart to
Thee;
I trace the rainbow
through the rain,
And feel the promise is not
vain
That morn shall tearless
be.
**
As for Coach
Bailey, I’m sure that not a day went by that he didn’t think about Bernard.
Photo: Mike Bailey (back row, center) with the Terrell High School
football coaching staff, 1979.[11]
Bailey served
as head coach at Terrell High for six years and eventually left the program in
1983.
Incidentally,
during Bailey’s last season at Terrell a young athlete named Eric Bishop joined
the team.[12]
He eventually went on to fill Bernard’s shoes as starting QB, and was the first
to throw for over 1,000 yards in the school’s history. After graduation, Bishop
received a scholarship and went on to study music. He eventually broke into the
entertainment industry and assumed the stage name of Jamie Foxx.[13]
Bailey
coached ten seasons at Plano East Senior High (1984-1993).
Dave Letourneau, assistant coach at Plano East for eight of those seasons, said Bailey was "probably one the most intelligent men I have ever met."
"He had his faults, but he had a great heart and always had your back," he added.
Letourneau confided that during a difficult time in his life, Bailey shared the story about the tragic event that occurred back in Terrell in 1977. "It helped keep things in perspective," he said.[14]
Bailey retired from coaching in 1994, and afterwards he explored a career in real estate. Dissatisfied with that path, he then pursued his secret passion for the open road. He became a truck driver.
Dave Letourneau, assistant coach at Plano East for eight of those seasons, said Bailey was "probably one the most intelligent men I have ever met."
"He had his faults, but he had a great heart and always had your back," he added.
Letourneau confided that during a difficult time in his life, Bailey shared the story about the tragic event that occurred back in Terrell in 1977. "It helped keep things in perspective," he said.[14]
Bailey retired from coaching in 1994, and afterwards he explored a career in real estate. Dissatisfied with that path, he then pursued his secret passion for the open road. He became a truck driver.
According to
his father Robert Bailey, “driving a truck made him the happiest he’d been in
a long time.” He added, “Mike told me that on his routes he saw some of the
most beautiful scenery across America.”[15]
Mike Bailey
passed away on Sunday, October 17, 1999, after a long battle with throat
cancer. He was 54 years old. On his headstone are all his different titles
throughout the stages of his life, which include: “Son, Pet (a nickname given
to him by his sisters), Dad, Coach, Happy.”[16]
**
Coach never
did win a Texas high school football state championship. But that’s OK. Long
before I learned the details of Bernard Derrick’s death, my experiences with Bailey
had already taught me this valuable lesson:
The true sign of a winner
isn't how many trophies you have
on your shelf, but how well you handle adversity.
on your shelf, but how well you handle adversity.
He never
spoke those words, but his actions did. And knowing what I know now about Coach
Bailey, this perspective seems even more poignant considering the heavy burden
that he carried throughout his life.
Mike Bailey may
not have ever won a state championship, but given the adversity he faced and the
dignified manner in which he faced it, I think you would be hard pressed to
find a bigger winner who coached high school football in the State of Texas.
And for
those who knew and loved Bernard Derrick, while his death was indeed tragic, it
wasn’t meaningless. My hope is that you find some comfort in knowing that thousands
of people around the world who never met Bernard, or even knew his name, are
connected to him through the actions of Coach Bailey.
The Dalai
Lama once said, “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” Rest assured that the
lessons learned on September 7, 1977, will not be lost.
On that
note, the National Lightning Safety Institute
developed a slogan for coaches, athletes, parents and fans to use if they are not
sure if they should leave the field during bad weather. Their rule is simple:
“If you can see it, flee
it; if you can hear it, clear it.”
A new
football season is upon us. Let’s honor the memories of Bernard Derrick and Coach
Mike Bailey by using good judgment in bad weather.
Use the catchy
slogan above, or you can use that other one that says to “Be Like Mike” – and honor
the memory of Bernard by moving your athletes to safety.
**
Figure 1. Mike
Bailey’s Head Coaching Record, 1977-1993
AGE
|
YEAR
|
TEAM
|
WINS
|
LOSS
|
TIE
|
TOTAL
|
WIN%
|
33
|
1977
|
Terrell Tigers
|
1
|
9
|
0
|
10
|
0.100
|
34
|
1978
|
Terrell Tigers
|
3
|
7
|
0
|
10
|
0.300
|
35
|
1979
|
Terrell Tigers
|
6
|
4
|
0
|
10
|
0.600
|
36
|
1980
|
Terrell Tigers
|
8
|
3
|
0
|
11
|
0.727
|
37
|
1981
|
Terrell Tigers
|
8
|
2
|
0
|
10
|
0.800
|
38
|
1982
|
Terrell Tigers
|
10
|
2
|
0
|
12
|
0.833
|
39
|
1983
|
Terrell Tigers
|
10
|
2
|
2
|
14
|
0.714
|
40
|
1984
|
Plano East Panthers
|
9
|
2
|
1
|
12
|
0.750
|
41
|
1985
|
Plano East Panthers
|
11
|
2
|
0
|
13
|
0.846
|
42
|
1986
|
Plano East Panthers
|
6
|
4
|
0
|
10
|
0.600
|
43
|
1987
|
Plano East Panthers
|
8
|
3
|
0
|
11
|
0.727
|
44
|
1988
|
Plano East Panthers
|
9
|
2
|
0
|
11
|
0.818
|
45
|
1989
|
Plano East Panthers
|
8
|
2
|
0
|
10
|
0.800
|
46
|
1990
|
Plano East Panthers
|
4
|
6
|
0
|
10
|
0.400
|
47
|
1991
|
Plano East Panthers
|
5
|
5
|
0
|
10
|
0.500
|
48
|
1992
|
Plano East Panthers
|
5
|
3
|
2
|
10
|
0.500
|
49
|
1993
|
Plano East Panthers
|
5
|
6
|
0
|
11
|
0.455
|
17 Seasons
|
116
|
64
|
5
|
185
|
0.641
|
Figure 2. 1987 Plano East Panthers Football Team
Photo:
1987 Plano East Senior High Panthers.[17]
For those
who have a connection to the 1987 Plano East football team and are interested,
you can click here to view an article archive (PDF) of all of our
games from that season. Enjoy, Bill Staples (#63)
About the author:
Bill Staples, Jr. has a passion for researching and telling the untold stories of the “international pastime”. His areas of expertise include Japanese American and Negro Leagues baseball history as a context for exploring the themes of civil rights, cross-cultural relations and globalization. He is a board member of the Nisei Baseball Research Project (NBRP) and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), and chairman of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Asian Baseball Committee. He is the author of Kenichi Zenimura, Japanese American Baseball Pioneer (McFarland, 2011), winner of the 2012 SABR Baseball Research Award. He holds an MBA from Arizona State University, a BA in advertising/journalism from the University of North Texas, and currently works as a marketing strategist, writer and editor in the health care industry. Bill lives in Chandler, Arizona, with his wife and two children and is an active community volunteer and youth coach.
Special thanks to Jorge Iber, a history professor at Texas Tech and fellow baseball historian who once told me, "You know, there are other sports besides baseball to write about." Thanks for the reminder Dr. Iber.
Special thanks to Jorge Iber, a history professor at Texas Tech and fellow baseball historian who once told me, "You know, there are other sports besides baseball to write about." Thanks for the reminder Dr. Iber.
Sources:
[1] Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks,
1880-2012, North Texas State University, 1966 issue.
[2] Phone interview with Bailey’s ex-wife, Linda LeFevre, September 2013.
[6] The original article incorrectly states “seven children.” It has been corrected for this blog post.
[7] Two Schoolboy Gridders Killed, The Victoria Advocate, Friday, September 9, 1977, pg 3c
[9] Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012, Terrell High School, 1976 and 1979 issues.
[12] Phone interview with Bailey’s ex-wife, Linda LeFevre, September 2013.
[13] Michael Granberry, "Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, a Terrell native, loves Texas…", Dallas Morning News, November 11, 2011.
[14] Email correspondence with Dave Letourneau, January 2014.
[16] Phone interview with Bailey’s sister, Pam Bailey Schonerstedt, September 2013.
[2] Phone interview with Bailey’s ex-wife, Linda LeFevre, September 2013.
[6] The original article incorrectly states “seven children.” It has been corrected for this blog post.
[7] Two Schoolboy Gridders Killed, The Victoria Advocate, Friday, September 9, 1977, pg 3c
[9] Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012, Terrell High School, 1976 and 1979 issues.
[12] Phone interview with Bailey’s ex-wife, Linda LeFevre, September 2013.
[13] Michael Granberry, "Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, a Terrell native, loves Texas…", Dallas Morning News, November 11, 2011.
[14] Email correspondence with Dave Letourneau, January 2014.
[16] Phone interview with Bailey’s sister, Pam Bailey Schonerstedt, September 2013.