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Gailey A Class Act To The Very End
Nov. 27, 2007
By JACK WILKINSON
Around 10 o'clock Monday morning, Gregg Garrett got a phone call.
It was Frank Small on the line, with a last-minute request.
"There's a lot of rumors going around," Small told Garrett. "Would you
mind speaking?"
Small is in charge of arranging speakers for the "Lunch Bunch," the
North Metro Georgia Tech Club which meets and eats every Monday
throughout the school year at Frankie's in the Prado. Garrett's a
fairly regular Lunch Buncher, too, but Small had a potential problem.
Monday's scheduled speaker was Chan Gailey.
"Frank," Garrett told Small, "why don't you call down to Teri and confirm?"
Small phoned Teri Anton, Gailey's secretary in the Tech football
office. "Frank," Anton said, "he's coming as far as I know."
By then, Gailey had already met with athletic director Dan Radakovich.
By then, he'd already been fired after six winning seasons on the
Flats, a foregone conclusion which Radakovich announced at a
2 p.m. press conference. By noon, some 75 or so folks -- mostly Tech
regulars, some just curious -- were already at Frankie's.
"Chan was scheduled to speak and things were up in the air," Garrett
said. "And people wanted to see what was going on."
When Garrett arrived, his services weren't needed. The former Tech
coach was already there.
"Chan stepped up to the podium, and was very classy," Garrett said.
"Regardless of what you think about his coaching ability, he was very
classy. He said, 'I made a commitment to speak to this group today.
You guys have always been very loyal to me and my staff -- although as
most of you know, I've been relieved of my duties as coach.'"
How many coaches would do that? Speaking at an impromptu press
conference, as Gailey did later Monday afternoon, is one thing.
Showing up to speak at a weekly booster luncheon, barely an hour after
you've been fired, is another. It's something else.
When Garrett later spoke to the group, he said, "Regardless of which
side of the fence you're on with Chan as our coach, that it didn't
work out, well, it's a disappointing day for Tech."
Gailey shook hands with everyone as he left the Lunch Bunch. "He
didn't come there on an ego trip to get a one-up on everybody or prove
anything," Garrett said. "He'd made a commitment, and he fulfilled
it.
"I don't know of another coach who'd have done that," he said. "He
didn't know what he'd face there, coming off a loss to Georgia. But it
was a classy move."
According to Garrett, Gailey said, "I know a lot of you guys supported
me, and a lot of you guys didn't support me. I understand that. When
you're in coaching that's part of the deal."
Who knows what might've happened had Tony Hollings -- by then, the
nation's out-of-nowhere leading rusher and scorer -- not torn up his
knee against Brigham Young in 2002, in Gailey's fourth game at the
helm? Had Gailey not encountered an academic quagmire that was none of
his making. Had the Jackets beaten Georgia just a time or two.
Gailey (44-32) is the only coach in Georgia Tech history who never had
a losing season. He took the Jackets to six consecutive bowl games. He
won the 2006 ACC Coastal Division title and nearly won the conference
championship.
But he never finished in the Top 25, and never won a top tier bowl.
No, he never filled up a reporter's notebook with one-liners and
quips. More to the point, he never filled up all those seats in Bobby
Dodd Stadium on a regular basis. But he's a good football coach and an
exceptionally good man, yet one who never excited and energized the
Tech fan base.
Ultimately, that cost Gailey his job. It didn't deter him, however,
from going out to recruit Sunday night. To continue to do his job,
while the job was still his.
"First, I'd like to thank the Georgia Tech community for allowing me
to be their head coach the last six years," Gailey told the media
Monday afternoon. He called it "an honor" to coach his players.
"Nobody likes to get fired," Gailey said. "But all they can take is
your job. They can't take your faith, they can't take your family and
they can't take your integrity."
And as for his immediate plans? "I've got to clean out my office,"
Gailey said. "Other than that, I don't have any plans."
And his decision to speak to the Lunch Bunch one last time? "I told
'em I'd be there," Gailey said. "It was a commitment."
He paused. Then, in typical Chan fashion: "Anything else? Thank you."
"It'll be what I'll remember more than any of the games: what Chan did
by coming to the luncheon," Garrett said. "You can debate his coaching
ability and whether he should've been coaching or not ad nauseum.
"But no one can dispute that Chan is a classy guy and classy man, from
the very beginning all the way through to the end."
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