Mike Leach funeral service stories range from pirates to powdered wigs to dodgeball
STARKVILLE — Each of the 13 speakers who climbed the steps to the flower-adorned podium Tuesday inside Mississippi State’s Humphrey Coliseum to pay tribute to Mike Leach offered the audience an anecdote that filled the bowl with laughter.
The colors were dull, and the faces of the football heavyweights who pointed their fleet of private jets toward Starkville to remember Leach, who died on Dec. 12 at the age of 61, were solemn.
But there was joy shared by those inside The Hump for the two-hour celebration of Leach’s life. The stories Leach had gifted those who spoke made it so.
“He had time for everyone, and also very little concept of time,” said longtime Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who hired Leach as his offensive coordinator in Norman in 1999.
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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey recalled a conversation with Leach where he wondered why neckties remain commonplace in today’s formalwear, but powdered wigs have fallen out of style. USC coach and Leach disciple Lincoln Riley spun a yarn about Leach receiving a call from actor Matthew McConaughey on the way to the team hotel. Leach – behind the wheel – moved to change lanes while chatting, not taking note of the sizable truck he’d just cut off. When the truck’s driver came over to Leach to have his say, Leach thought he was just a fan.
“It was just kind of pandemonium,” Riley said. “Coach had no clue.”
Gary O’Hagan, Leach’s agent, remembered the coach’s firm and unironic belief that he’d been a world-class dodgeball player in middle school gym class. Gabe Marks, a former receiver at Washington State, shared the last text message he received from his collegiate coach. It, of course, arrived past 2 a.m. – Leach was an admitted night owl – and came without a hint of context.
“You’re a stud,” it read.
Mississippi State linebacker Nathaniel Watson spoke about waking from a nap on the team plane to an impassioned sermon from Leach on the subject of grizzly bears. Gardner Minshew, a quarterback at WSU under Leach, dropped an f-bomb to raucous laughter, staying true to his authentic self as Leach had always implored him to do.
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Hal Mumme, who employed Leach as an assistant coach at three stops, shared the origin story of Leach’s well-known pirate obsession. It began at Captain Tony’s in Key West. The two had ventured there together only after Leach had found a kicker from the area to recruit as an excuse to take a Florida vacation on Iowa Wesleyan College’s dime.
These narratives were Leach’s currency, and he happily traded with anyone who would listen.
The anecdotes turned an occasion meant for grief and mourning into a reason to laugh and smile Tuesday afternoon, as one speaker after another filled the air with stories only Leach could live out.
Watch any college football game in 2022 and Leach’s impact is evident. Listen to the voices of those who spent time around him, and his impact on their lives is just as obvious.
“He changed what I thought was possible for myself,” Minshew said. “I just couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you, Coach.”
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mike Leach funeral service: Pirates, Gardner Minshew f-bomb, dodgeball
