A college football treat in Iraq
Rob Shahan is a friend of mine. He used to work in sports radio around here but now is working with a private contractor in Baghdad. Gets to come home every four months for 10 days, but in between, it’s a lot of long days in Iraq. But some of those long hours were brightened a couple of days ago by a goodwill visit. I thought I would share his email with you:
“Today in Baghdad, we had a goodwill tour of college football coaches. Mack Brown of Texas, Jim Tressel of The Ohio State University, Houston Nutt of Ole Miss, Rick Neuheisel of UCLA, Jim Grobe of Wake Forest, Troy Calhoun from the Air Force Academy and former coach Tommy Tuberville came in.
“A friend of mine from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma (Mike Hapgood) was hand-selected to escort the coaches from the USA to Iraq. I got to spend about an hour with my buddy. It was great seeing the coaches but the true highlight for me was seeing an old friend from home.
“Here are some of my thoughts as I met each coach:
“Mack Brown: Just as charismatic as ever, he wanted to call in to James Hale’s show from Iraq but couldn’t for security reasons. My buddy asked if I wanted a pic with Mack, I replied: ‘Are you kidding me? Heck no!, haha…’
“Tommy Tuberville: very cordial and friendly. I think he got the raw deal at Auburn.
“Houston Nutt: He and I talked about Midwest City, he and his wife are Okie State alums.
“Jim Grobe: Very nice, kept asking us what he can do for us!
“Troy Calhoun: Awesome person, we talked about his experiences when he worked at Tinker AFB.
“Rick Neuheisel: best tan of them all, haha…nice guy with a super personality, all the female troops naturally gravitated toward him and his young assistant. We talked surfing and playing the guitar.
“Jim Tressel: very polite and friendly, has that professor type appearance on TVand also in person. Very knowledgeable about most subjects but doesn’t come across as smarter than you. He recognized my AdvoCare shirt (health and wellness products) and said: ‘Drew Brees and AdvoCare!’ He and I are both fans of the AdvoCare line.
“All coaches gave us some swag, mainly hats and tee shirts. All of them signed autographs and took pictures with the troops. The coaches didn’t have to be here in Iraq today, they could have been on a beach or on a golf course. But they all appreciate the sacrifices and hard work our soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen do on a daily basis.
“The work here is hard, the hours long, the days off non-existent. But it is all in the name of freedom, the freedom of America and the freedom of others.
“Here is a link to Mack’s blog (http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.c…052909aaa.html) and one of my favorite quotes from it: ‘Baghdad will be really interesting tomorrow. The terrain in Iraq is pure desert, with some breeze, and very thin sand that really burns your eyes. The sun is so hot and so bright the glare makes it hard to be outside without sunglasses. Seventy-five percent of this base has been out in the fight off base, and the average salary is about $25,000. We are so lucky to have great Americans who leave their homes and their families and fight in order to let us have the freedom we have. They are the true American Heroes. I wish our team could have been on this trip with us. Boy would they like their deal better. Pray for our military folks.’”
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Another reason why I have so much respect for Mack Brown! Yes, I’m as much of a Texas hater as anyone; I’ve been to every OU-TX game since 1978 and I’ve seen how obnoxious Texas fans are. However, Mack is a class act and I take nothing away from him for lobbying for his team to go to the Big 12 Championship last year either. Great article Berry!