Change does not occur in a FLASH
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With a nickname like “Flash Gordon” you might make the obvious assumption that Darrell “Flash” Gordon was a superhero busy saving the planet earth. While today Darrell Gordon is very much a superhero in the eyes of the many young men whose lives he touches on a daily basis, his beginnings were not as “flashy” as the town he hails from. Raised in Hillside, New Jersey, a community incorporated shortly after the appearance of Hailey’s Comet in 1910, Darrell’s path towards Notre Dame did not begin with a comet-like flash. Although he was a diligent student and high performing athlete in high school, his college bound path was somewhat diverted due to some typical teenage distractions. After a slight but firm nudge from the Notre Dame recruiters, Gordon promptly corrected his path, was a high school All-American in football, graduated in the top of his class and landed a scholarship to play football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. After a tremendously successful career at Notre Dame which culminated with the fairy tale ending of a national championship in 1988, the successes that Flash has had post football far outshine the spectacular plays that he delighted fans with during his tenure at Notre Dame. This is Flash Gordon’s story.
But when Notre Dame came, they didn’t even meet with me.
“I was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and when I was five years old we moved to Hillside, New Jersey. During the recruiting process hundreds of colleges were coming to visit my high school and they all had a great pitch as to why I should attend their institution. But when Notre Dame came, they didn’t even meet with me; they just went straight to the guidance office and looked at my academic records. Coach Paterno, the head coach from Penn State University came and talked to me at school, but not Notre Dame. They weren’t just recruiting athletes, but ‘student-athletes,’ and that interested me highly. At the end of my sophomore year / beginning of my junior year, Notre Dame started to lose interest in me. I guess I wasn’t performing up to their standards. I wasn’t taking high school seriously enough and they indicated that if I didn’t start focusing on academics they would no longer pursue me. At that point I really dug in and I ended up graduating near the top of my class. I was also a high school All-American in football.”
And just like that, the Notre Dame Value Stream had already found a place in Flash Gordon’s life.
“I made official visits to Boston College, Pitt, Notre Dame and Penn State; and then I narrowed it down to Penn State and Notre Dame. I really liked what Notre Dame was offering. The thing they said that really caught my eye was this, ‘we will guarantee your scholarship for four years. Whether you break your leg or it just doesn’t work out, we will still guarantee your scholarship for all four years.’ That was amazing. I wanted to make sure that wherever I went to school there was going to be some sort of security, and in addition to the scholarship guarantee Notre Dame had a really high graduation rate, which was very appealing to me. Some of the schools that I had either looked at or that had expressed interest in me had graduation rates as low as 40%. Notre Dame’s graduation rate was right around 99% at the time and that was a big deciding factor for me.”
“When I visited Notre Dame my host was Allen Pinkett. I made my trip to Notre Dame in the middle of January and it was extremely cold. Allen took me to visit different dorms and in the basement of the dorms they had these parties. When you’re visiting schools you need to see which institutions you can bond with both academically and athletically; but being able to have a good time without even leaving the dorm was pretty appealing to me as an 18-year-old kid. The funniest thing is that in between my visit to Notre Dame and actually arriving on campus in the fall they changed the University policy and no longer allowed basement parties in the dorms. Apparently someone had left a party and gotten into an accident and the campus had since become a dry campus. So much for having fun without leaving the dorm! (laughs) Allen Pinkett did a great job of being my host that weekend and convincing me that Notre Dame was where I wanted to be.”
Notre Dame’s objective was to create relationships.
“Coach Faust was really special to me and I still keep in touch with him to this day. When the various coaches came to visit you in high school, they would come to your school and you would get called over the loud speaker to go visit with them in the school library. ‘Darrell Gordon, please come to the library to see Coach Paterno.’ Coach Faust was the only head coach who didn’t visit me at school. I came home from school one day to find Coach Faust sitting in my living room with my mother having a spaghetti dinner. He also visited my dad at his job, too. Notre Dame’s objective was to create relationships. After that visit, all I heard from my parents was how great Notre Dame was and that I needed to go there. They became immediate fans of the University based on that personal touch they were given. Notre Dame felt that if you didn’t have a strong family it would cause problems later when the child was off at college and unsupervised. They want to recruit a child who comes from a solid family unit with a strong foundation and good morals.”
Flash Gordon and each one of his teammates who were recruited by head coach Gerry Faust to play football at Notre Dame followed him with complete trust and were inspired by his love and passion for the University. And then one day this little man named Lou Holtz came marching in as the new head coach of Notre Dame’s football team. Transitions such as this are never easy, but the Notre Dame Value Stream spoke through Coach Holtz 100% and helped make the transition period as painless as it possibly could have been.
“Coach Holtz made the transition extremely easy. He was an extremely focused coach. He knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish, how to play the game and what kind of athlete he needed to accomplish his style of play. During his time at Notre Dame he consistently recruited top classes. Then he would master mind the X’s and O’s on both offense and defense. He perfected that skill set. His greatest asset, though, was as a motivator. His ability to motivate players and to have them at the highest level of their game was off the charts. If you can’t motivate your players to play you’re missing out on a huge aspect of coaching. He made sure we had what we needed to succeed, both on and off the field. Excellent coaches, tutors for the classroom, and nutritional meal plans.”
“When Coach Holtz got to Notre Dame, he realized that many of the starters didn’t practice during the week until a day or two before the game. This was not how he ran things. On Monday we practiced in t-shirts and shorts. On Tuesday and Wednesday we came out in our entire uniforms. On Thursday we practiced in shoulder pads and shorts, and on Friday we did our walk through drills. Tuesdays and Wednesdays were the days you really executed your game plan for the next game. If you didn’t practice until Thursday or Friday you missed out on the execution and strategy for that week’s game. Prior to Holtz, if a first stringer was injured he would sit out until Thursday to rest. This meant that the second and third string were ready for game day but not the first string.”
“Holtz made himself very clear from the start. If you missed practice on Monday, you didn’t get to start on Saturday, even if you were a starter. If you missed two practices you didn’t get to dress on Saturday. Once everyone heard those expectations, immediate changes were made. Everyone was at practice, every day. Even if you were on crutches, you were dressed, on the field and ready to practice with the intent that if you could practice you would. Those were some of the psychological changes that Coach Holtz made. He knew exactly what he needed to do to transform the team. He knew how to take a team that was struggling and bring them to perfection. Very few coaches have that gift but it all starts with discipline and commitment.”
The Notre Dame Value Stream made sure you had the focus and direction needed to be prepared and successful in the classroom. Coach Holtz was also perfectly aligned with the Notre Dame Value Stream and made sure those same values were applied on the football field; even if his delivery was at times a little unconventional.
Gentlemen, I want to tell you one thing. Next time, save Jimmy Johnson for me!
“My favorite Notre Dame football memory is the pre-game warm up before the Miami game in 1988. We were warming up and preparing to play the number one team in the country, and we were ranked number two at the time. Miami came to South Bend and they already had an idea of what the Catholics vs. Convicts rivalry meant and they wanted to live up to that image. They were warming up on the far end of the field and we were warming up on the end of the field closest to the tunnel. Each team had a line of players on the 30-yard line so that the other team couldn’t see what formations they were practicing. When they were done warming up, instead of going around our line to go back to their locker room they decided to go right through our line. It was very disrespectful and we were high character kids but we could only take so much. Guys started pushing back and forth and a big brawl took place in the tunnel. Finally they separated us and sent us to our respective locker rooms. Guys were bleeding, hyperventilating; it was a mess. We felt like we disappointed the University and our teammates because we didn’t conduct ourselves appropriately.”
“We were sitting there waiting for Coach Holtz to come in and ring us a good one on how we tarnished Notre Dame and how this incident was a nationally televised game. Coach Holtz walks in and says, ‘Gentlemen, I want to tell you one thing. Next time, save Jimmy Johnson for me!’ That was exactly what we needed from Coach Holtz, the endorsement that no one can come in and disrespect our team or our University. After Coach Holtz’s speech there was such electricity in the locker room that ignited the team. Here we thought we were going to get scolded and then we were told ‘save daddy for me!’ That really gave us the confidence that we needed to beat the number one team in the country. His words didn’t tell us that fighting was okay but rather the importance of fighting for what you believe in. Even though a lot of us were not Catholic, he was showing us how to fight for our respective religions and the issues we believed in. He was teaching us to be better leaders not only on the team but also in our communities and in our country. That was a very profound moment for me, in what it did for me and how it changed my life.”
Even though a lot of us were not Catholic, he was showing us how to fight for our respective religions and the issues we believed in.
“That same fight that we had on the field against Miami was the same fighting spirit that I had when I wanted to become the CEO of my company and there were seven other people who also wanted to be CEO. You fight for what you believe in, for what you want, and you don’t give it away. There isn’t a class that teaches more practical knowledge on how to succeed in life than what we learned from Coach Holtz on the football field. What we learned that day was to fight for what we believed in. I share this with my own kids every day as they compete in the classroom, on the basketball court, or on the football field. You have to fight for what you want or someone else will take it.”
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| Flash Gordon and Lisa Kelly signed their new books in Louisville, Kentucky, at 4th Street Live. |
Want to read more of Flash’s story, and see what he’s up to today? (Need something to pass the time on this bye weekend?) You can find his complete story in my second book, The Men We Became: MORE Echoes From the End Zone. Also be sure to check out Flash’s new book, Change Does Not Occur in a FLASH.
Cheers & GO IRISH!
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