Washington U Coach Quotes Thoreau - And Wins Games

ST. LOUIS - Larry Kindbom is a different kind of football coach. He has a tendency to quote the Trancendentalists: Henry David Thoreau. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Wayne Woodrow ``Woody'' Hayes.

Transcendentalism is a philosophy that values spiritual beliefs over material things.

This is not only noble. It's also a good idea if you coach football at Washington University. The school's aversion to material support led, in part, to the departure of Kindbom's two immediate predecessors.

It would be unfair to say that Kindbom is Mr. Rogers with a headset and clipboard. But a certain naive earnestness gives Kindbom his charm. And it breeds his success.

After going 4-5 as a rookie last year, Kindbom's second season coincided with the school's football centennial. The autumn-long celebration ended Nov. 3 with a 27-7 victory at the University of Chicago as the Bears finished with a 7-3 record.

Their last previous winning season was 1978 at 5-4. This was the best winning percentage since the 1973 team went 6-2-1. The Bears had not won so many games since the 1966 team went 7-2.

The urge is to say that something divine, not just transcendental, was at work this season. Kindbom, the thinking man's eager beaver, does not wallow in the abstract.

Or as he put it: ``I don't sit around and talk philosophy. Football is lined with philosophy, but it's not a philosophical game. It's a practical thing.''

Then he rattled off his ground-level, non-transcendental battle cry: ``Dig, dig little pig, root hog or die. The best man wins.''

He credits that porcine doggerel to Tiger Ellison. ``He was an old Ohio football coach,'' Kindbom said. ``And I really believe in that.''

Kindbom, a boyish 38, believes a lot of things. Few of them have to do with relying on outside variables. Many of them have to do with getting your mind right.

He traces a lot of his credo back to the late Woody Hayes, the irascible and erudite ruler of Ohio State football for nearly three decades.

After playing at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, Kindbom was an apprentice under Hayes in 1977 as a graduate assistant.

``Woody used to talk about Emerson,'' Kindbom said. ``Emerson would have been a great football coach. He was a lot like Woody. He was a rebel in his day, too. Woody and Emerson both believed that if everybody tells you you're wonderful, you're probably not.''

Emerson and Hayes have little in common in their personal styles. And Kindbom has little in common with either of them.

Except the stubborn need to hack out his own path.

Kindbom refuses to be judged, or have his players be judged, by outside observers. Specifically, he is no slave to his won-lost record.

``People are fickle,'' Kindbom said. ``People want wins. You might play well and lose, but people might not be happy with that. And you might play poorly and win. Woody always said, `Never accept in victory what you wouldn't accept in defeat.'

``We've got to be consistent in our reactions to things. You have to go back to what you can rely on. You can't rely on other people. You have to rely on yourself.''

The previous coach, Ken Woody, ran afoul of his bosses because they were slow to follow up on promised support, such as adequate weight-room privileges. Woody was fired in 1988 for speaking out publicly - on behalf of his players - to improve the program's deficiencies.

Woody's predecessor, Fred Remmy, thought the program was being downsized, with changes such as joining the new University Athletic Association and the dropping of powerful rivals.

Remmy's resistance led to his rude dismissal after the Christmas holidays in 1986, after he had begun recruiting and after most other staff openings around the country were filled.

Kindbom knows that both men were good coaches, despite Remmy's four-year record of 11-25-1 and Woody's two-year mark of 3-16-0. And he knows that they are good people who were popular with their players. What he doesn't know, and doesn't care to know, is why they weren't able to get the job done.

``It's all attitude,'' Kindbom said. ``I don't know how other people looked at it.''

He points to the success of other sports at Washington U., such as basketball, soccer, volleyball and track.

``How did they get there? Don't they have the same kinds of facilities? Don't they have bright students?'' Kindbom said. ``Don't tell me football is different. Well, it is, but it isn't on a pedestal. On my priority list, it's God, family and - because I'm in an academic setting - academics, and then football.

``I came in with the idea that I liked what I'd seen. There are just so many elements of success here not to come in and be successful. And you can win with a positive mental attitude.''

Next to Kindbom, Norman Vincent Peale seems like a hopeless depressive.

``If you told me our weight room was the size of my office, I'd say, `OK, we'll just get it done anyhow,''' Kindbom said. ``What we have is what we have. There are only so many hours in the day. If we sit around and talk about it, we can't raise our level of play.''

That was Kindbom's mission when he arrived from Kenyon College in Ohio.

``The only thing we've talked about from Day One is raising our level of play,'' he said. ``We have a lot of advantages here. They had a good staff here when I came. We had good players in the program. We have a great rapport with the high-school coaches, and that started with Fred Remmy and Ken Woody. We have a great stadium, and we don't have to practice on our field.

``We had to make our players understand that other people and other things can't control us. Once they believe that - that there's nothing that keeps them from achieving and getting better but themselves - then let's focus on what we should focus on. And that's the effort, and raising our level of play week to week.

``Winning isn't a gimmick, or everyone would be doing it. If you concentrate on winning, then you're right back where you started. Our program had focused too much on that in the past. Wins are not something you can control. If you focus on that, eventually they're going to control you.

``You might lose, but you might have played your best game. You can't get down after a loss like that.''

It's safe to say Kindbom has made believers of his staff, players, bosses and fans.

``To me, this is the game of football,'' he said. ``This is all it is. It's dig, dig little pig, root hog or die. The best man wins. That's it.''