Coach Lewis Cook Jr and Author Galen White Podcast
Darin Hayes
In this episode you're gonna meet one of the most inspirational football legends of all time. A coach in a small high school in southern Louisiana and his author Galen White is here to talk about coach of a lifetime about coach Lewis Cook. We have both of those gentlemen on in just a moment. Hello, my football friends. This is Darren Hayes of pigskin dispatch .com. Welcome once again to the Pigpen, your portal to positive football history. And boy, we have a special episode for you tonight. Now there's those times in football that we'd love to talk about where we find somebody that's very inspirational and just makes the game and the people around them that much better. And we have the subject of that tonight with a coach from a small school in Louisiana and an author that wrote an interesting book on him the author's name is Galen H. White. The name of the book is coach of a lifetime. And it's about the story of coach Lewis Cook Jr. And we have both of those gentlemen on tonight. Galen and coach, welcome to the Pigpen. Good to be here. Thank you. Galen, I think we're gonna start off with you here a little bit because I know when I get into a book, I sort of look at it, I look at the cover, I judge a book by its cover, I guess. I look at the cover. I look at the dust jacket, learn a little bit about the author, see who's writing about the subject. And maybe for the benefit of the listeners, you could just give us sort of the 50 cent tour of your writing and your association with sports that gets you the point of writing a book on a football coach.
Galen White
I started my career as a sports writer. Denver Pulse was my first newspaper. Then I went into the corporate world. That's so my family could eat. And I stayed in the corporate world for about 40 years. While I was in the corporate world, I became a speechwriter for CEOs at Goodyear, Control Data Corporation and Eastman, which was then part of Kodak. As a speechwriter, I of course were around leaders, people who at least were charged with leading. And one of the things I learned is that most people in leadership positions aren't very good leaders. I was once with the chairman of Goodyear and he was contemplating his successor. And he looked at me and he said, Galen, the worst combination in a senior executive is a huge eagle and a thin skin. Now, when I met Coach Cook, I met this very humble man who has one of the best winning percentages in the state of Louisiana. He'll probably hit 400 wins this year. He's seven wins away from 400. And that's still with eight years out for coaching in college. He had two different four -year stints at University of Southwestern Louisiana. I grew up in Los Angeles. One of my heroes as a coach was John Witten and his pyramid of success. I went to the University of Oklahoma. My first year in college was Bud Wilkinson's last. So those two coaches were sort of my models of what a coach should be. And when I met Coach Cook, there was something about him. It was an aura. He had helped me get Ron Guidry to endorse my previous baseball book. All my previous books have been on baseball. Coach played with Ron Guidry at University of Southwestern Louisiana his freshman year. So he helped me connect with Ron Guidry. And as a result of that, we wound up having this one conversation at the last book signing. And I asked Coach a very innocent question. Have you ever thought about doing a book? And someone had started writing a book about him and not completed it. Had gone so far as to travel to Tuscaloosa to interview Nick Saban about Coach Cook. He was allotted initially 15 minutes. He was given an hour. The fellow course did not complete the project. And so when I jumped in, I contacted him and said, I'd like to use the forward with your permission, but I'm gonna have to reduce some things. And we'll go back to Nick Saban for his approval, which is what we did. The interesting thing about Saban's forward is that when he approved it, was two days after LSU upset Alabama last year. So I had almost given up having Saban approve the forward because LSU had beaten him. This was late in the season. As it turned out, he approved it and the rest is history. And it's great to have, I think it gives Coach Cook a lot of credibility to have Nick Saban, the finest college coach in the game right now. And he still is. I think it's quite a tribute to Coach Cook that Nick Saban has done the forward of the book. And so that's a little background on me and how I got to do this book.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, that's an absolutely phenomenal story in how you got to meet. Now, Coach, you know, it's very done very well in the book telling about your childhood and what sort of motivated you to and pushed you into getting into the coaching ranks. It's kind of a bumpy story there. But maybe you could just tell us a little bit about, you know, what was your first attracted you to athletics and to maybe the game of football as a youngster.
Coach Lewis Cook
Well, you know, we were we were six children in our family. I'm the second oldest, I have a sister older than me. I'm the oldest boy of three boys, we were three boys, and three girls. And, you know, my dad was was in athletics, he actually had spent a year on a college basketball team and in Lafayette during his college days. And, you know, so we were always, you know, kind of encouraged to play. And from the very beginning, and going back to talking to guys that I finished school with, and they'll always say, you know, Louis always was the captain or the guy that organized the games and the teams. And so, you know, I can remember way back, just, you know, always want to be involved somehow another 18 years old, I ran the recreation summer baseball program for the for our little town in rain, where I grew up, and organized all the leagues and can remember, you know, having to sit with these gentlemen that was 20, 30 years older than I was coaching these, coaching our summer teams, and trying to tell them, you know, follow the rules and those types of things. So it was something that was always there. You know, the only problem was, my dad wasn't too excited about me being a coach. I majored in accounting for three semesters before I convinced him that it wasn't what what I was here to do. And made the switch into the educate to go into education. And, you know, here in Louisiana, at that time, which was 50 years ago, this was my 50th year to coach, you had to you had to be a teacher for them to allow you to coach. So, you know, I actually taught bookkeeping, because I had those, those years and some messages in accounting. So taught bookkeeping and started off with, you know, right back in my hometown's first seven years were here in rain. Then I was blessed. Sam Robertson was the head coach at the University of Southwestern and offered me a chance to go into college football. And I did it for four years, but realize that, you know, I thought I would be better suited and happier in high school, although I did try four more years later on, and result and headed right back to high school. So it's, it's been a great journey, you know, for me, the college, have an opportunity to spend those years in college to help me understand the game obviously a lot better. But it made me realize also that I was suited for the kids, high school age kids, to be there for them and try to help them prepare, you know, for their future and what they were going to do with their lives.
Darin Hayes
But no, coach, tell me, what did you think about this when you you're at that last book signing, as Galen said, and you have this gentleman, it's a writer that comes from the West Coast. He went to Oklahoma, lives in Tennessee, he's in Vol country. You know, LSU, you can't like Vol country. That's the SEC rival there. And this guy comes and says he wants to write a book about you. What's your first thoughts and your reaction?
Coach Lewis Cook
you know, my wife, Faye, which, you know, we'll have our 50th anniversary in December as well. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. At times, you know, said, you know, following the stories, knowing the kids that I dealt with, she's been there every step of the way. So, would make comments about, you need to put that down, you need to put that in a book and and I go, yeah, okay. So, and then I had a secretary, our athletic secretary, Karen Birkin, was with me for 20 years and kids would come in, our coaches would come in recruiting and I knew the coach and that would lead to a story. Well, how'd you know, she'd say, how you do him, coach, tell me about this kid, you know, they just came to visit and she'd say, coach, you need to, you need to tell those stories. So, in the back of my mind, you know, it was there, but it's nothing that I really pursued. The gentleman that wanted to start doing one at first, he and I had actually coached a little bit together in youth baseball. So, he knew me that way and said, coach, you have a good story. I'd like to try to do it. And then it just went away. You know, we met just a couple of times and he's an attorney. You know, he wasn't at the level where Galen obviously is good because, you know, Galen's pretty high way up on how to do this. So, and, you know, Galen and I probably had only spent maybe 30 minutes total over the course of the eight or 10 days he was here in Louisiana to promote his baseball. Both had dealt with Crowley where Notre Dame's located and it was, they had a minor league team in the 50s and Galen kind of, he featured that league and Crowley and that's how we got together. So, when he asked me, you know, and he said, you know, coach, something's compelling me to want to do this. We're coming out of COVID. And I said, Galen, if we can, you know, if you think we could do it where it helps somebody, you know, kind of maybe inspire some young coaches or help people, he said, you know, I said, I'm far and then he said, well, coach, you know, we need to talk to our wives. He said, he said, I'm 900 miles away. I'm 75 years old. I don't know that I could do this again, but he said, it's something's compelling me to want to do it. And he went home and talked to Mary, his wife, and I told him, I said, well, Galen, you know, if it's something that doesn't work, it's not a big deal. You know, I said, I'm kind of thinking in my mind, who's gonna read a book about this little high school coach took the way in South Louisiana, you know, but so anyhow, thank God you wanted to do it. Because, you know, I think the comments that we've gotten from people already, you know, about after reading it, you know, coach, you know, I called a friend of mine, apologized for something I did, you know, didn't know, you know, they didn't they don't understand what, what all we go through sometimes, and, and how we have to, you know, deal with kids and why this was playing this position, why he's playing that, and, you know, that it all kind of all comes together sometimes. So, but, you know, and coaches that my mentor, a guy named Larry Dautry, who was a guy that helped me start my career, you know, he called and said, Coach, every high school coach should read this book, you know, first words out of his mouth after he read it. So, and when the publishers accepted to do the book, because they had, they published Galen's first five books on baseball. And, but he was told when he when he mentioned this one that, you know, it's again, we've never done a book on a high school coach. So it wasn't a guarantee that they would do it. And he sent in the he sent all the information in. And, and when we got the notice late last season, we went prepared for a playoff game and getting pulled up the email that he got. And Roman and Littlefield said, we find it to be timely and inspiring. And I was thinking, I said, you did it. You know, that was what that was the objective. And they saw it. And I said, well, if they see it, others may see it also. So here we are.
Darin Hayes
Yeah, definitely. Coach, you said you hope that would inspire coaches out there. Well, I can tell you as a former official, you know, the dark side of football is the coaches like to refer to it. It inspired me and made me want to be a better person. And, you know, emulate some of the things that you're doing because it's fantastic. And, and Galen, you really portray the story very well, and using former players and all kinds of people, the secretary that the coach talked about. And some of these people are close to coach and, you know, these stories are just phenomenal. So, you know, Galen, where, okay, now you said you had the Ron Guidry connection with your book. Now, where did you first hear the story of coach and his successes and the empathetic man that he is and the great things that he does for people?
Galen White
The major source for my baseball book was another coach in the area, Richard Pizzolato. And so Coach Pizz, they call him, had mentioned Coach Cook many times in our conversations. In fact, at one point, he's quoted in the book as saying that when Coach Cook moved from Crowley High to Notre Dame across town, Coach Pizz said he could have moved anywhere in America except across town to Notre Dame. That's a rival. Yeah, it is a rival. And you get private school, public school. But when we sat around and talked about the book, about two weeks prior to that, a very unfortunate incident, one of Coach's players was murdered in downtown Rain, not too far from where Coach lives. It was a senseless killing to still have him come to trial. And for him to come and talk to me even at that point, I mean, he had a crisis to deal with at the school, young players trying to cope with the killing of a teammate, a senseless killing of a teammate. And I was struck by that. And then also coming out of COVID and the pandemic, I don't want to get political here, but we have a dearth of leadership in this country. And I'm sitting across from this man who has just been through a crisis with his team. He's navigated that situation. He has demonstrated in our conversations that he has some of these other leadership skills. You know, what is a great leader? A great leader understands his people, Coach Cook understands his kids, not just the kids, but the kids' parents, the kids' brothers, because so many of them have come through Notre Dame. The Family Connections is a chapter in the book called Family Ties. Excuse me. So it was these qualities of leadership, his humility. Coach Cook is a great storyteller, but his stories are not about him. They're about other people. And I decided I'm going to interview these other people and get, you might say, the other side of the story, which I did. What was interesting, and of course, coaching here in the South and Louisiana, and this being a national book, and I wanted it to be national because I think we have a national crisis around leadership, I knew that we'd have to deal with the racial situation. I mean, racism is being introduced to everything, things that it has nothing to do with. So I thought, you know, he's coaching at Notre Dame. It's mostly white players, but previously he had coached at Crowley High, and he had a high percentage of black players. And I found his biggest fans were the black players he coached at Crowley High. One of them said he's the closest thing to God with a whistle. Now, you don't get better coming.
Darin Hayes
than that. No, that was some of the statements that I heard, like that said about you, coach, were just phenomenal. I mean, some of the other ones that said, you know, basically, and I'm going to paraphrase this, that, you know, you are, your ministry is coaching in essence in, because that gets you closer to people and you get to practice your faith with them. And of course, and just an editorial note for the listeners, when we're talking Notre Dame here, not the university, it's the high school that coaches at, and it's in New Orleans, right?
Coach Lewis Cook
It's in Crawley, Louisiana, which is, you know, we're, we're on I -10, you know, which runs from LA to Jacksonville, and we're right in the middle and here in Louisiana, we're probably we're 65 miles west of Baton Rouge. Okay. Yeah. So kind of between Houston and Baton, I mean, Houston is two and a half hours to the west. But we're right, right. There's a small crawly town of about 12 ,000. Our school has 320 kids in the school, it's a small Catholic school. And so but that's, yeah, you know, I was at Crawley High, which was a larger school, we were 4A and Crawley, Notre Dame's 2A. I was at Crawley for eight years, which is just down the road from from where I am now. And so that that's where, you know, I coached a lot of the black players that we had were more there. I've had a few at Notre Dame, but not at the numbers that I had at Crawley or even at USL when I coached there, you know, the college kids. So, but that's, that's where we are.
Galen White
I might add, Darren at Notre Dame, uh, of the student body, which is less than 400, 70% of the boys in this school play football. Wow. That's amazing. They don't have enough for a band. And the other thing is when he went to Crowley High from a university of Southwestern Louisiana, they had a 21 game losing streak and he went in. And the first game they lost with him as head coach, and then five years later, they're playing for the state championship and they win the state title. They wound up going to the Superdome where the state championship games are played three times in coaching, uh, cooks tenure at Crowley High. No other coach has been able to do that at Crowley High. There's a lot of talent there, but no one has been able to harness that talent as coach cook. And he comes over to Notre Dame and they're mostly white players. They're mostly sons of crawfish farmers and rice farmers. They're hardworking kids. They have their pickups. He has them out there in the summer practicing their choice at five thirty, six o 'clock in the morning. Uh, I think coach initially you had them at six o 'clock and they decided to move it up. Is that right?
Coach Lewis Cook
Right, yes, some of them had to go to work for eight o 'clock. And our training summer training is about a two hour session. We go three days a week. And so they were like, Coach, can we come a little earlier? So we bumped it to 530. And yeah, it's been, you know, they work really, really hard. And so that that's kind of been our lifeblood is our training program that that we have, which that's what gives us a chance.
Galen White
Notre Dame is a pipeline to life, not to tier one football team or the NFL. At, uh, at Notre Dame, he's only had one player go on to play in the NFL. It's Tyler Shelvin who started the last series with Cincinnati Bingles. I think he's on the Tennessee Titans roster now. Now Crowley high, Orlando Thomas is probably the best known player to go on and play in the pros. He was an all pro safety with the Vikings. And unfortunately came to a tragic end with Lou Gehrig's disease, but his relationship with Orlando was a father -son relationship and the title of the book coach of a lifetime comes from a statuette that Orlando gave coach. Uh, coach wouldn't take anything else from him. Uh, Orlando signed a contract for over $2 million initially. And then later on, $11 million contract, Orlando wanted to do something special for coach coach cook said, save your money. And Orlando gives him this statuette and it says, thanks for your support, love, honesty, and friendship. So the title of the book comes from Orlando Thomas, one of his players who he had a black player had a father -son relationship.
Darin Hayes
story that you tell and you sort of start the book with alluding to us and give us some foreshadow on Orlando. And then you have a whole chapter later on in the book. And it's really, you know, it's heart wrenching. It's a love story of two people, you know, a coach loving a man of a place for him and in loving him all the way through to his successes and through his whole life until, you know, his demise with that disease. And it sort of took away, but it's remarkable that the number 42 had some special significance to Orlando. And maybe you can talk about that.
Galen White
Now it's Orlando Thomas at Crowley High. He wore number 13 at University of Southwest Louisiana and coach wound up coaching there. His second stint was he was the offensive coordinator at USL and Orlando was there at that time. He wore 42 there. His father died at the age 42 when Orlando was drafted in NFL in 1995 he was the 42nd pick. When Orlando died in 2014 he was 42 same age as his father. So that number and and and to me it's what's significant about it. When you think of the number 42 you think of Jackie Robinson and when you think of Jackie Robinson you think about courage and you think about perseverance. Orlando battled Lou Gehrig's disease for 10 years. The normal life expectancy with Lou Gehrig's disease is less than five four to five years. So he went 10 years and at one point when they thought he might die at age 41 he hung on a little longer so he got to 42. But I mean that that's uh Orlando was when I heard the Orlando story uh the first time that's one I thought that one has to be told in a certain way. I want I wanted to uh hit this father -son relationship because it's not just with Orlando there's another uh one of his players went on to Texas A &M, Shane Garrett. You know he uh refers he sees Coach Cook as a father figure. One of his other players went on to Louisiana State Wes Jacob. Coach is with him now. He calls him pops and those are all black players and that was it's remarkable to me you know in this era of racist this racist that you got people who see each other's heart not the color of their skin and to me that's that's something that more people uh need to do and more people need to know about and that's what makes Coach Cook so special. Yeah he has so many qualities of a leader I could go on but uh you know he has a has a great sense of humor and I think that comes out in the book. I'll let Coach tell the story with Jake Dahome when he was a freshman you know Jake Dahome was supposed to be redshirted but Coach uh well when the guy they had pegged for number one through three interceptions in the first half and his backups each through one well is Jake's turn. So Coach uh later in the season Jake was being treated a little bit with kid gloves because he was a freshman having a great year. He wasn't doing so well in practice so I know that Coach say what happened.
Coach Lewis Cook
You know, we recruited Jake. He's out of a small high school in a Catholic high school in Lafayette now. Now they're much bigger, but. You know, as we got in August practice, I kind of thought that we needed to have Jake ready to go in case the guy we thought we could win with went down. I didn't think the other backup guys could handle it. I was offensive coordinator. I was coaching quarterbacks. And I had coach Nelson Stokely with son Brandon went on to have a 13 year career in NFL. You know, he had every intention to redshirt Jake. Jake, you know, he wasn't the biggest guy. He was still growing, maturing. But Jake had some special qualities as well. So that's getting said that we opened the season. This was a 93 season a home game conference game. We just moved into the Big West Conference and we play Utah State. Our number one has three interceptions in the first quarter. Coach says get him out. Number two goes in. It's picked off. Coach tells me get him out. Number three goes in and we end the half with a fifth interception. I was so embarrassed and get into coaches office and the head coach is already sitting in there waiting for him and he asked me what we're going to do. I said, Coach, we got to go with Jake and kind of slammed his hand on my desk and he said, I told you we're going to redshirt Jake. I said, you know, for who coach? I said, if we don't win this year, we might not get to coach him at all. But so anyhow, Jake took the first snap of the second half and took every snap for the next four years for for you. I went on and if you remember, led the Carolina passes to the Super Bowl one year. And but as Gator was referring to, Jake was having a bad day one day. And, you know, I guess maybe that whole week was bad because I was, you know, and I finally told Jake, I said, Jake, we went to husband. I said, Jake, if the cops come to your house at night to arrest you for murder, just plead guilty because you're killing me. And evidently I died, but I'll get you for attempted murder for sure. But so Jake laughed. And, you know, he's great. He talked about a great kid there. Jake, man, what, you know, what a job he did for us. And it's proven, you know, he was undrafted, hung around the Saints had him in the back of their roster. Finally got to Carolina and showed what he could do.
Darin Hayes
almost won a Super Bowl too. He took the gutsy performance.
Galen White
Sure. So the, uh, the incident that coach refers to, uh, you know, Jake says of that, that was Louis Cook's way of dog cussing. He has that magic, that charm that way. You can feel it. It kind of oozes from him. I never felt so bad for letting somebody down. And that's the thing about coach cook. You didn't want to let him down. And that's, that's what he, that's what the players for him feel. They feel this attachment to him. They, they know that coach is looking after them, that they are number one. It's not the winning, it's the kids first. And coach will tell you, he hardly ever mentions winning. He teaches life lessons at the end of a practice. You know, they'll talk about, uh, the dangers of smoking. They'll talk, one of the chapters is called, nothing good happens after midnight. One of his other favorite scenes is leave no stone unturned. And I thought in doing this book that I had done that. And then I find out one day, uh, at the book is out and I'm walking across the practice field with him. And I noticed coach isn't wearing sunglasses. And I noticed that he had never worn sunglasses. And so I asked him about, he says, no, I don't even own a pair. I want to look them in the eyes. And I wanted them to see my eyes. That's the kind of, of authenticity that he has as a coach. And that's why he's a great leader. And that's why too, in developing and one other point in doing this book, I didn't necessarily come in with this point of view, but I developed this point of view. And that is the greatest coaches are not at the professional or college level. Those guys are managing talent. I took another player to point this out to me, but they're managing talent coaches, developing talent. He's taken what God has put in this area where he lives and he's developing that talent beyond what their capabilities would be without him. And so there's a significant difference. So when you think about high school coaches, they're developing these kids, these raw talents. They're not managing talent because a lot of these kids don't have that much when they first start to play in high school. So that's a, that's a significant difference. And I think that's one of the things that is in his heart to develop that talent. And it ties in too, with his core beliefs, which are the three F's, faith, family, and football. And if you look at his going back to high school coaching, what did he do? He came back to coach his sons. So he's lived those core beliefs. And that's why I did this book on a high school football coach at the time when the publisher said, we've never done a book on a high school football coach. I didn't quite have all that answer. I do now.
Darin Hayes
that's one of the things that I took out of the book is just some of these things, coach, that you say things to people in a way and you communicate in a way where you turn a little switch on inside of them. We mentioned earlier, your first year at Crowley and you weren't sure if you were going to take the job and finally you did and you walked the halls one day and saw a rather large individual that wasn't playing football and I believe you had a little conversation with him about some LSU coaches. Maybe if you could talk about that a little bit just to show that communication.
Coach Lewis Cook
Yeah, there was a key. He's actually on the basketball court. I was watching practice and six fours about 245 at the time. And so I asked, I hadn't actually hadn't taken the job yet. I was on the verge of deciding whether to go or not. And I asked some of the coaches that were there. And I said, what is he playing football? So coach, he doesn't play football. I thought to myself and the one that they've lost 20 straight games. They got this guy, good looking athlete. So we had a conversation. You know, I'm coaching in college at the time. I met USL and I said, his name was Tracy Boyd. And I said, Tracy introduced myself. And I said, have you heard, do you know who Dale Brown is? Of course, Dale Brown's basketball coach. Everybody knew Dale Brown in Louisiana. Oh, yes, sir. I know. I said, how about Bill Orangebark? That's when Bill Orangebark was head coaching. No, I've never heard of him. I said, well, I'm not trying to knock your basketball talent. I said, but you do play center. You're the post player on the basketball team. I said, there's no 6 -4 centers in the SEC. I said, Dale Brown probably walked out of here in 10 minutes. I said, Bill Orangebark would be still sitting there like I am wanting to talk to you about football. So I said, I may be the coach here when we come back from the Christmas break. And I said, I'd like for you to consider playing. And so when we had our first meeting, I took the job, had our first meeting, he was sitting in the front row. So Tracy went on. Here's a kid that wasn't going to play high school football. When I went back to coach at USL for my second stint, Tracy was just finishing up his college days. And I had a scout, a pro scout come in to find me to ask me about Tracy Boyd. And he said, the guys told me you could help me with information about Tracy Boyd. I said, yeah, I just sent him to Elizabeth City College in North Carolina for his last year. I mean, he played at Elizabeth City State College and said, coach, he ran the fastest time of any lineman, but now he was 6 '6", he weighed 300 pounds. And he ran the fastest time of any lineman he'd come by. So here's a kid wanting to go to high school football, he played for the Patriots, played for Seattle, had a couple of years in the Canadian Football League. But he had talent, he had some ability. And fortunately, he decided to come out and play for us.
Darin Hayes
Now, another one of those little stories that, uh, this is classic. I'm going to remember this one forever. There's a part in a book Galen, where you write that, uh, you know, one of the players on coaches team, and I'm not sure if I think it might've been for Notre Dame, uh, gotten a little bit of extracurricular, uh, activity after the play, let's say, ended up getting a penalty flag thrown 15 yards goes against your team coach and, uh, you've huddled them up. You must have had a timeout or something. And you told that player that, uh, was the offender, you said, Hey, uh, you're going to call the next play because I don't have anything for third and 25. I about lost my cell phone now and I was, I was classic.
Galen White
that was David Bergen and he's the son of Karen Bergen, who was a coach's longtime assistant. You want to tell a little bit of what happened there.
Coach Lewis Cook
Yeah. Yeah, they got in a little scuffle after the course, we get the penalty. And, you know, I jumped in pretty good. But in my mind, I'm going like, good, good boy, David, don't back down. David was a four point old student, went on to play football at Rice University. He's now an orthopedic surgeon in Treeport, Louisiana, and just one of the finest kids that I've ever coached. They lived one way. It took him at least 40 minutes to get to Notre Dame from their farm where they lived. And like I said, Miss Karen, his mom drove every day to be our secretary. And never missed an early morning workout in four years. Just a super kid. But yeah, I kind of was trying to make a point with him, you know, that you hurt the team when that happens. But in the back of my mind, I was kind of glad it was a scrimmage. So it wasn't that crucial. But, you know, that that we weren't going to back down that that I was, in a way, kind of glad to see that. But I had to make a point that it does hurt the team. And you call this play because I don't have one on my script for 30, 20, 50.
Darin Hayes
It probably didn't do anything like that again the rest of the season I'm sure
Coach Lewis Cook
And, of course, his mom jumped in worse than I did after it was over with, but yeah, he was a heck of a player.
Darin Hayes
But, you know, you talk about, you know, he became a surgeon, you know, I'm, you had, there's a quote in there that, uh, Galen puts in there that, uh, somebody said that, uh, you've put more, you put some players in the NFL, but you put even more people in heaven and you know, you, you look at this, you, you have doctors, uh, besides football players or professional football players, uh, Catholic priests that have come out of your program and a lot of them, according to the quotes that Galen has in a book or attributing to some of that to, to you and your, your teaching and your, uh, example that you, you led by. So that's, that's quite high honor, sir, to have somebody say that.
Coach Lewis Cook
You know, we yeah, we had a young man that was. Ordained a priest and and just before he's ordained, he he he came to visit. I I didn't think about it till he told me, but. You know, and he used it in his first homily once he was ordained a priest, he said. You know, I'm a sophomore football player. It's our first day and coach got this is up. Gathers all the team up to talk about goals and coaches now look, you all realize you know what? The ultimate goal and he says I'm thinking go to the dome. Play for the championship. I want to be like some of the guys that had gone ahead of him that had played in one championships. And he says then coach says your ultimate goals to get to heaven. He goes, it just kind of knocked me back. And he said the whole time I was going through the seminary. I can't be here and you know, coach goals to get to heaven. So he used it in his first homily. But yeah, you know, we've had some great kids come through there and you know, we have four of them that have played in our athletic program that are ordained priests now. And you know, we have offices, offices in the military and guys heading up all field service companies because you know, all industries big down here and, you know, electrician, you know, when Galen asked me, he goes coach. The first when we first when we talked about the book, he said, Coach, you've done this for almost 50 years. What is it about coaching that's kept you in it? And that's when I made that said, what other profession is there that you can have all these young men that go into every walk of life? And that's when I said, you know, I have, you know, you have doctors, you have accountants, teachers, coaches, military personnel and priests. And so it's it's, you know, and that that's a reward in coaching. It's, you know, financially, you know, you're not going to make it, you know, you're not going to get rich as a high school coach here in Louisiana. And I know my dad, you know, was only looking out for my best interest. His best friend had a large CPA firm and I was going to go to work for them. You know, it was all cut. Go get your degree. Go to work for Mr. Moody. He's going to take, you know, you're taking great care of me. We're real close to that family. And, you know, my dad said, you know, Louie said, you know, coaching is a no win. He said, if you win the game, people are going to say you should have won Bob Moore or you should have played why this kid didn't play or, you know, why didn't you win the game? You should have done. But he never saw that, you know, he was he owned a car dealership. And so he never saw the side of that to see these kids go on and be successful. Successful in life and know that, you know, you may have had some of those small port in aiding them to get to where they got it. And that's that's where the reward comes.
Darin Hayes
Fantastic. Now, Galen, you write a little bit about what Coach is saying about some of his interaction of parents coming in just pleased that little Johnny or Mike is not getting a playing time. And maybe Galen, you could tell us a little bit about what you've experienced or heard about with Coach doing.
Galen White
Coach is a straight shooter. And he says what needs to be said. But he has a way of saying it. It's like Jake DeHomes say. He has a way of dog cussing or in presenting something to you in a way that it's kind of an aha moment for you. And so Karen Birkin, his administrative assistant, was the one who said how many times she saw parents walk into his office. And they were upset when they came in. And they were laughing when they came out. And that's a gift. I mean, some of the qualities he has are gifts. Julius Scott, who, a Texas football coach, actually, he was connected with Johnny Manziel, wasn't he, Coach? Johnny Manziel, high school coach. Right. And so Julius Scott traveled around the country interviewing successful coaches on what is a successful coach. And when he said to me this quote, you read about Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They say that when you talked with her, she looked at you like you were the only human being in the world. That's the way Coach Cook makes you feel. Now, Julius went on to say one day, he said he was talking about Coach Cook. And he said how he handles different situations. And again, he said, Louis, I think you coach like Jesus would have coached. And of course, Coach Cook, humble as ever. I don't know about that, but I'd like to know what he would have called on third and one the other night when we got stopped.
Darin Hayes
going to do some help or the third and 25 he's still working on that. So the coach, you had an interesting background, you know, before you got into coaching, you were wearing a stripe shirt out on a football field. Now, how has that helped you in your interactions with officials? Because we, you know, a lot of people see the interactions of officials and coaches and, you know, they, they see the bad. It's not, I mean, I can tell you from the officiating standpoint, I had a lot more fun times and laughs with coaches on the sideline when I was a sideline official than I ever had arguments. But it's a, there's an animosity there. There's, it's a no -win situation for either one of them. You know, one coach is going to be happy. One's going to be upset on every play. So how has that helped you being on both sides of that?
Coach Lewis Cook
Well, you know, I would have loved to have played college football and I love playing the game, but you know, five, 640 pounds like came out of high school. And I joined the area, the area officials Association because I thought that would be a way to stay close to the game and learn and learn that side of it, you know, and and it makes me have more of an appreciation for the officials. Having done it for five years while I was in college, you know, gave him a day. He's on the sideline with it. We don't parade the officials at all. You know, we we have a conversation with talk. You know, I'm not a good enough coach where I can coach the game and and try to officiate and yell at the officials the whole time. I don't know how some of those guys do that where they every play they yelled, you know, and I don't I can't I'm not good enough coach to be able to do that. But I know, you know, I know what I went through when I was an official and so I and it's like you said, you know, the people the people have no idea I was listening to a game on the radio one night local local radio station. I knew the guy calling the game and it was a situation in the game where a punt was blocked. But the team punting picked the ball up and ran it forward. It was blocked behind the line. And so the punting team picked it up and ran and made a first down. They got beyond the chains, where they couldn't understand how they still maintain the ball. The punt got blocked. They were berating the officials for sock. I texted a guy on his phone. Let's explain to what happened. And so he told the story and apologize for for calling out the officials over the air. But you know, like you say, a lot of them don't understand the coaching side of it. Why are you running this or why are you running that? I've had a lot of people sometimes they go, you know, coach, why did you run that plastic? Well, I thought it was going to work. So if I knew it wouldn't have worked, I wouldn't have called it. You know, or they'll want to say whether officials cost us a game. I mean, 50 years, there were a couple of games that the outcome, you know, was determined by, you know, poor fish, a call. Like last year, last year, we lost a game team. We were up by a point of two, the team made a first down at the two yard line, the clock stopped for the first down, okay, they move the move the box. There was only four seconds on the clock. They instead of spiking the ball, which they had time to run, you know, line up spiking, they ran their field goal unit out where you can't get a field goal unit out. And it was on the far hash, all the way to the two yard line. And the referee held the clock until they snapped the ball. And 18 seconds had run off, had run off the clock, the play clock. And so that's a game that we really should have won. That's one of a few very few games that were ever decided, you know, by an administrative move by the official, or maybe a call that affected the game. So, you know, that's why I don't want to blame the officials either, because it gives the kids an excuse sometimes, you know, they want to know the reason we lost because we didn't play with it was it had nothing to do with the calls, you know, but sometimes it was easy to point the finger at somebody else always, you know, and so, but I enjoyed if I hadn't gone into coaching out of state officiating, because, you know, I really enjoyed doing that. And, and it was, like I said, it was a learning experience for me as well.
Darin Hayes
I'm sure. Now, Galen, why don't we take this opportunity? Why don't you go ahead, let's tell the name of the book again, your publisher and where folks can get a copy of it at.
Galen White
Coach of a Lifetime, published by Roman in Littlefield. You can order it directly from Roman the publisher. It would be www .roman .com. Or you can go to galenwhite .com and order the book from us there. All proceeds from books ordered on my website. All proceeds go to an Notre Dame coaches setting up a fund to pay some of the non -faculty coaches who work for dirt. They don't make much, is to pay them a little more. And that to me is the kind of guy he is. I mean, he's got a servants mentality and his son who coaches with him, Lou the third has the same way. He has a servants mentality. And when you have that in a coach, that is a tremendous example. In fact, one of the black players, one of my favorite stories was this black player. He was a good ball player, a good kid, and he's a minister now to black churches and Crowley. And one day coach you tell the story about what was happening.
Coach Lewis Cook
Well, his name's Gerard Joseph, and like Gillen said, he's become a minister, he's a preacher, and actually runs two churches now. But we were in the huddle one day, and we broke the huddle, we ran a plane, he never came out of his stance, and he was a good kid, you know. And we got back in the huddle, kind of had his head down, and I lifted up his face mask, and I go, Gerard, that can't be you in there, that's not you, you know. I said, well, you know, what's up? And he just kind of hung his head. So I had him come in my office after practice, and I said, Gerard, you know, what's up? He goes, Coach, I don't think anybody cares about me anymore, you know. And so we talked, and you know, I look at it, and I tell young coaches, I said, you know, I could have gone and kicked him in the seat or jumped all over him, you know, why, you know, who knows, I mean, good Lord steps in a lot of time. But so anyhow, we had a great conversation, he got, and so we made it to the championship game that year. And the first touchdown of the game was a touchdown pass, a corner route by Gerard Joseph from his tight end position for a touchdown, you know. And so I'm like, you know, had I gone crazy, and he walked away, because who knows what would have happened, the state he was in that day, then we lose a good tight end, he loses great experiences of finishing the season in the championship game. And, you know, who knows where, but like I said, now he's, you know, he's very respected minister and crawler.
Galen White
In fact, in the book, I quote him as saying that his son, and he's Baptist, he wants his son to play for Coach Cook in Notre Dame. So, hey, there's no religious, you blur the lines when those kinds of things.
Darin Hayes
Jeff. That's fantastic. Gentlemen, we're out of time here, but I really appreciate you both coming on here. And Galen, for you telling this wonderful story of football and inspirational story and coach for you being that inspiration to not only your players and the people around you and your writer friend that's sitting right next to you, but your family and now your family across the nation and the world that Galen is sharing your story with this book. And I'll forever remember some of these quotes and some of these stories you had because they're very inspirational and I think the listeners will too. And I'm sure they'll be wanting to copy this book up and listeners, Galen called out some URLs and some places to get the book. We'll put those in the show notes of the podcast. If you're driving, don't try to write it down or anything. We'll get there to Galen and Roman Littlefield to get this great book.
Galen White
It's also on Amazon. Everything's on Amazon. And so, you know, it's it's one last comment. It's been a real blessing to write about coach cook and I hope that blessing is conveyed to people who read the book. If you are blessed by this book, then I've done my job.
Darin Hayes
I think you have, sir. So both of you. So so thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you, Dad. Appreciate it.
Coach Lewis Cook
Thanks.
Galen White
Appreciate it. Thank you.
