You never forget where it all begins.
The year was 1964, the place was Hastings College, 150 miles from Omaha, Neb., and the coach was Dean Pryor.
“He brought me to Hastings for just one season, it was kind of a part-time thing,” Bill Parcells recalled yesterday on a national conference call for his Aug. 3 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in Canton. “You know you learn an awful lot of things … you had to do things that you didn’t consider — like we had to wash the players’ uniforms after practice.
“But I will say this, and I’m going to say this in my speech, he taught me and he preached to me something that I carried with me my entire coaching career. And that is that the players deserve a chance to win. And you have an obligatory responsibility to try to give it to them. … That means you as a coaching staff, you as an individual coach, have a responsibility to try to give these players who are putting themselves at risk and in harm’s way, to have a chance to achieve success,” Parcells said.
“And that goes for universities and professional teams as well. I know I preached that to every organization and to every coaching staff I ever had. These guys deserve a chance to win, and we’ve got to give it to them.”
Parcells had been drafted by the Lions out of Wichita State — Pryor had been the backfield coach there — but learned quickly he didn’t have what it took to be an NFL linebacker.
“I think I’ve always been a pretty good self-evaluator in terms of what my chances were,” Parcells said. “I think probably I had a much better chance as a baseball prospect on the professional level than I did as a football prospect.”
His salary was $1,750 — for the year. Married and the father of one, he lived in a one-bedroom apartment under a dentist’s office for $62.50 a month. Parcells is thrilled Pryor will be at his induction, along with Mickey Corcoran, his revered basketball coach at River Dell (N.J.) High School.
“I’m happy that there are going to be a number of people that are very important to me, that have a lot to do with me ever getting to this stage, that are going to be able to be there,” Parcells said. “And I think that’ll be the emotional part for me.”
His most memorable game? The 1990 NFC Championship upset of the 49ers in San Francisco while coaching the Giants. His best coaching job? The 1999 Jets, who lost Vinny Testaverde (ruptured Achilles tendon) and a championship dream on opening day.
“We were able to eventually get to 8-8 and holding that team together to accomplish that I think probably was one of the better things,” Parcells said. “Now that wasn’t any monumental success or anything, but I think most coaches will tell you when you start 1-6, it’s tough to maintain the things that you need to be successful.”
He admits his abbreviated run as Dolphins czar — he left in October of his third season in 2010 — was not particularly successful.
“I was trying to take a first-time head coach [Tony Sparano], first-time GM [Jeff Ireland], and then when you throw in a first-time owner [Stephen Ross], that’s a difficult dynamic because everyone wants to put their own mark on the franchise and they have every right to do that,” he said. “I thought I was doing the right thing to let these guys go and take it on their own. Retrospectively, I don’t think it was the right thing. I just saw [political] things happen that I would have made every effort to try to avoid.
“I would say it’s just mixed reviews at best. I think the personnel was definitely better, but I can’t prove it to you.”
His speech? He mostly will wing it after ex-Giant George Martin presents him.
“I haven’t written anything down, nor probably will I write too much down,” Parcells said.
For Parcells, the magnitude of the moment will start rushing him the way Lawrence Taylor rushed quarterbacks at the Enshrinees Gold Jacket dinner the Friday night before his induction.
“That’s where I first felt a sense myself last year in presenting Curtis [Martin],” Parcells said. “I think that was the first time I said, ‘Hey man, something important’s happening here.’”
Asked to pick one player he has ever seen, coached or coached against to start a team, he paused and decided on LT.
“I know he’s going to be there every Sunday and try his best to win the game for sure.”
Then Parcells added: “I’m very prejudiced.”