Tag Archives: Bum Phillips

Found: the end of the world!

NEEDLES, Calif. — Bum Phillips, the late, great football coach, once told a magazine interviewer that his hometown of Orange, Texas, “wasn’t the end of the world, but if you get up on your tippy toes, you can see it from there.”

Well, Coach Phillips, I believe I have found the end of the world. It is here … in Needles, Calif.

This is the latest stop for Toby the Puppy and me as we trudge our way westward and northward. It’s an overnighter, then we head for the central part of the state, where we intend to gaze skyward at some tall timber at Sequoia National Park.

There really is nothing to see here. The highway west from Needles is among the more desolate stretches of roadway in these United States. The next day’s travel will be — without a doubt — the least scenic leg of this journey. I’ll be looking at mountains, but they will be far, far away.

Family members await in Sacramento, then in Santa Cruz, then on to Eureka, Calif., before heading into Oregon.

Toby the Puppy and I have enjoyed plenty of scenic splendor so far. The Grand Canyon is as gorgeous as it gets anywhere on Planet Earth. The drive into and away from Gallup, N.M., presented plenty of eye-popping visuals as well.

A saving grace about our stop in Needles has been the courtesy extended by the campground hosts where we are spending the night. Indeed, we aren’t strangers to this particular site, as my bride and I came here at least three times before while pulling an RV. It’s all changed, of course.

For now, though, I am enjoying the company of my pooch, who — to my total non-surprise — has proved himself to be the King of Road Warriors. His stamina is astounding, not to mention his ability to “hold it” for as long as he does.

The road ahead awaits my puppy and me, even if much of the next leg will be oh, so lonely.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It is so cold …

The winter blast that is beginning to pummel North Texas — and the rest of the region — reminds me of a story I like telling about the late O.A. “Bum” Phillips, the legendary football coach of the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints.

My old haunts in the Panhandle already are shivering.

I cannot prove Bum said this. Even if he didn’t, it sounds like something Bum would have said.

He took the Oilers to Buffalo to play the Bills in a late-season game. The weather was hideous. Wind, rain, snow, ice, bone-chilling temps. The Oilers won the game.

Afterward, Bum delivered — I believe — a classic answer to the question from the reporter: “How did you like coaching in the cold weather.”

Bum said: “Cold? This ain’t cold! I used to coach in Amarillo, Texas.” 

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Ol’ Bum would love it here today

washington_winter_plains

Today is the kind of day on the Texas High Plains that would make Bum Phillips proud.

The late, great Texas football coach said a lot of things about life in his home state. He once, for instance, might have told a TV reporter after coaching his Houston Oilers to a win in Buffalo — late in the NFL .season when the weather in upstate New York was at its worst, with wind chills in the minus double-digits, snow, wind and sleet — that the folks there ain’t seen cold.

“I used to coach football in Amarillo, Texas,” legend has it he said on national TV.

Well, coach, today is your kinda day.

It’s about 10 degrees. Wind chill puts the temp at something south of zero. It is, shall we say, a bracing kind of day.

I also am reminded of something one of my sons once told me. It was during his first winter in Amarillo. I’m trying to recall if he said it the day he moved from Huntsville, in the southeastern part of Texas, to Amarillo after graduating from Sam Houston State University.

Whatever. It got so cold that day in 1995 that my son moaned, “Dad, I can’t feel my face!”

Yep, this is his day, too.

Hey, and just think: The winter solstice is still five days away!