An Evening of Excellence

7:58 AM 4/29/2009
AN EVENING OF EXCELLENCE
Last night I attended the Inaugural Don Meyer Evening of Excellence at Lipscomb and it was outstanding. Driving over I had a long visit with my former roommate, and a smooth first baseman, Mark Carter who lives in Huntsville. As we visited it really got me pumped for the evening.When I got to Music City, I met Mom and Dad at my aunt and cousin's house Nashville at 1230 and had a wonderful visit with them. My aunt, Kankie, is in her upper 80's but an amazing lady. It is great to hear her talk about taking care of the the 'old' ladies and men at church or from the neighborhood--many of whom are younger than her! It is always wonderful to get to have some time with my parents. As we get older it is more pleasant and precious than ever. At 530 we arrived at Lipscomb and there was a dinner in the Ezell Center for former baseball players. I sat with Bob Parsons, Steve Fletcher and Clark Williams. Bob was a Gold Glove second baseman and Steve was the MVP of the 1977 College World Series. We had a great time laughing about college days and marveling about the improvements to the facilities at Lipscomb. Also at our table was Clark Williams who was the trainer at DLC from 1969-1973. He is retired and lives in Red Bank in Chattanooga now. Steve Burton was at the table beside us and it is funny to see him showing off pictures of his granddaughters....It's funny, how time slips away!After dinner and a power point presentation of Lipscomb baseball history, Jeff Forehand, the Lipscomb head coach made a presentation on this year's team and encouraged those of us from the past.....to support the present and future baseball program at Lipscomb.Then we walked across campus to the Allen Arena and over 1200 people were on one side of the facility to hear Coach Meyer speak. If you don't know his story, he was basketball coach at Lipscomb for 21 years and won the NAIA National Championship in 1986 before her left and went to Northern State in South Dakota. On September 5, 2008 he was involved in a horrific wreck as he was going with his players to a retreat before the season started. He was critically injured and lost his left leg from the knee down . As the trauma team was attending to him and trying to save his life, they discovered he had cancer that was inoperable. Fortunately the cancer has been slow growing and they discovered it early. He came back to coach again at Northern last fall and in January achieved his 903 win, passing Bob Knight for the most wins in NCAA men's basketball history. He has an almost insane dry wit but a great perspective on life. And he did not just acquire it when he lost his leg--he is a great person and a great motivator. He sat on a stool and spoke for about 45 minutes about life and the important things in it. Outstanding. For some reason, old habits die hard, and while Coach was talking, I had a notebook out taking notes. To those who know Coach Meyer you'll understand!After the program was over, Fletch, Parsons and I stood out around and visited for about an hour in the lobby. We got to see Phil Stinson, All American shortstop and now a CPA in Nashville, Marshall and Jacqueline Shumate, a great catcher and their girls, and several other players from our era. (That sounds old but I guess to a lot of folks that 35 years ago was a long time ago!)Also saw and visited with Mike Roller, who I coached with at Georgia Christian in the early 1980's. He is an administrator at David Lipscomb High School and a great guy. He was a big influence on me as we coached together and has remained a friend.It was really an enjoyable day and evening.On a different note, during the day I heard that the 37 year old brother in law of Rhonda Wheeler had taken a turn for the worse and began hemorrhaging in his brain. They had to do emergency surgery in Birmingham and he faces some serious challenges today and in the next few weeks. Please keep Steven and Michelle in your prayers. They have 2 small children ages 5 and 2.Mildred Carson, one of my special ladies at Trenton, is being transferred to Vanderbilt today to try and stop some internal bleeding, so I may stay in Nashville long enough to see her at Vandy before heading home to be there by Bible Study tonight.It was a great day to see a lot of old friends and be with family and just reminded me once again that it really is "A Wonderful Life"!