John Madden - Coach

Reading about John Madden’s induction into the NFL Hall of Fame brought back memories of a morning in April 1967. I was a student at Fresno State College. I was also a member of the Football team, a 187 pound offensive lineman, with dreams of someday coaching. In conjunction with the conclusion of Spring Practice there was a spring game and a clinic. One of the speakers at the clinic was a little known defensive line coach from San Diego State, by the name of John Madden. A friend of mine had played for him at a small Junior college near where I lived. He could not say enough good things about Madden. The statement that stuck with me the most was that he made football fun. When I found out he was speaking I asked my coaches if I could attend the clinic. Needless to say it was great. He was animated, just like on TV. Chalk flying everywhere. Shirt untucked. You could see and feel his passion for the game. He also talked about a simple test he used to pick his defensive lineman. It was a simple figure eight sprint around the goal posts (Two posts in those days) he said the fastest people on the test were his best players. Interesting concept I thought. Incidentally they had a tremendous line that was notably undersized but very fast.It must have been fun to play for this guy.