Training Camp 2000s

[RWB]

Quick basketball stories today. One is either funny or dude we really didn't need to know that.

Ok the weird maybe gross one. Talking with my brother who did the Bird sculpture just attended the opening ceremony for the Bird museum in THaute. There is a really nice article in the museum's official program on my brother. Well there is one thing not in the story. As Bird and the group were on the podium stage Bird thanked my brother and my brother told Larry quietly. " For you I packed a little extra clay in the shorts for the ladies" Bird got the joke and said "I appreciate that". I have driven by the statue many times but have never had the urge to see if it's true. I'll just have to take my brother's word for it.

Early 90s I got to jump Steve Alford's butt. During the time he was the coach for Manchester in division 3A college ball. His team was at R+H in THaute and were losing at half time. I'm working security detail and as his team is walking off the court and into the locker room there is a garage door entrance nearby. Alford picks up a folding chair and heaves it at the door really hard. I know he was trying to get his team's attention and probably even surprised him how loud it was. He looks over at me with an oh $h!+ look. I do the following.

Coach I can see you're upset with your team but this isn't IU and you're not Bob Knight. You're at Rose and that is not going to happen again. He made a quick apology and ran into the locker room. Probably wasn't the best move by Steve doing that in front of someone with a badge.

Best Alford story involved my wife. After one of the all star Larry's Game at MSA the Mrs. was able to get Alford's autograph on a program. A few feet away was his grandfather (not dad the coach) was standing and watching the festivities. Alford quietly asks the Mrs. "My grandfather is over there. Would you mind asking for his autograph"? The Mrs. is such a sweetheart and said absolutely. So she approaches him and he is really shocked, embarrased, and humble as in you really don't want my autograph. She puts it on thick and of course I want your autograph. Steve chimes in grandpa you need to sign for this nice lady. Well that must of been grandpa Alford's first ever autograph and he had such a smile and Steve had this big grin watching this.

Side note: Thinking of Bird's game. The Mrs. had a basketball signed by Damon Bailey, Todd Leary, and Pat Graham who had made a tour of Indiana after graduating from IU. They had a table set up where they would charge at various locations. I don't remember it being for charity which really doesn't matter to us but to someone else it did. The Mrs. took this ball to the Bird game and asked Coach Larry Brown to sign it. He sees D.Bailey's name on it and says I see you have Damon's. The wife innocently explains how she got it at a cash table. Brown was not happy and said and I quote "He's a professional player, that will never happen again if he's on my team". Felt really bad since Bailey was a rookie and just trying to make it. Here we put a bad taste in the coach's mouth and the guy's pro career is just getting started.

[RWB]

For some reason poor old golf carts were usually the victim of choice during camp. Either someone would take off the tires of another players cart or wrap it up in cling wrap. One investigation I was involved with and the other I did not witness but was told by a fellow officer.

As mentioned before early mornings we would have a quick incident meeting.Was told this by the night shift crew. There is a nice lake/pond (30 ft deep in some places) adjacent to the halls the guys stayed in. In the middle of the pond was a floating dock to sunbath or take a break from swimming shore to shore. Well in the middle of the lake sitting on the dock was a poor defenseless cart with no tires. I had a brain fart moment (seems pretty common with me sometimes) wondering how the heck did they swim out there with that cart? Officer laughing "Man you really need some coffee this morning". " Nah it was kind of spooky. There was no moon and we hear this splashing out in the lake. We shine our flashlights and see Jeff Saturday (who they recognize) and some other guys swimming in the lake with the dock and a cart on top". Yeah I needed coffee for sure. They had simply swam to the dock, lifted the anchor, swam the dock to shore, put on the cart, swam the dock/cart back to the middle of the lake and dropped anchor.

Didn't know who's cart they picked on. Solution getting it back was getting the grounds crew out with a couple of canoes who simply towed the dock back to shore.

Not sure why but the coaches stayed in a completely different hall away from the players. Because of this they allowed some summertime students to stay in this same residence hall. As mentioned above Matt Sinclair was the main individual on campus to run Colts camp for the campus. He stops by the office with his assistant Al Morrison (actually Al is currently an Indiana State Rep district 42) asking and hoping we have cameras on the coaches residence hall. Someone has driven a golf cart into the hall and did some major damage to the interior walls. The Colts are not happy their cart was taken and that a student was out joyriding with their property. So I tell the guys give me an hour or two to review video and hopefully we have something.

Well cameras don't lie (especially those at access doors) the video shows a man opening the double entrance doors, prop them open, drive the cart up two stairs, and into the lobby area. The cart then continues down a first floor hallway hitting the walls putting big gouges and scapes along the way. Cart get's parked in front of someone's room door and the male jumps off and enters another room.

I place a phone "Matt I'll burn this video for you. Come on up I think you'll want to see this". Since I was around the team so much I knew who this individual was. Matt arrives and here was pretty much our conversation. "Matt it wasn't one of our kids. So do you think maybe Coach Teerlinck may have partied too much last night"? Yes sir video don't lie... Coach John Teerlinck either trying to be cart funny or simply drunk on his @$$ did some real damage like you read how rock stars do to hotel rooms.

Well other than a report to be made that completed my involvement. Matt had a really big smile and not because the incident was funny (though actually it was). He had a smile cause he had something over the Colts. Not saying the Colts were terrible but I know they were pretty demanding with him being over all logistics. Payback is sweet I guess sometimes. So Matt (last I heard he was at Auburn) hope you're doing good bud.

[RWB]

I was lucky enough to meet several former players who would come into camp for ESPN, FOX, and CBS. I can honestly say they were all great except one who was a total diva and might surprise you. John Clayton and Milke Ditka came in for ESPN. Clayton was such a nice guy but Ditka was a total Dickta. For a guy branded as this tuff as nails guy he whined pretty much the entire time.

Terry Bradshaw...... is Terry Bradshaw. Acts exactly the same you see on camera when the camera is off. Legit friendly to everyone no matter who you are.

Ron Jaworski...cool dude. Was pretty funny as he was standing along the sidelines when he got distracted. As mentioned before the practice fields were adjacent to a very popular jogging trail. A young lady with a white horse shows up next to the field. Now understand this was not a mascot or something planned by the Colts. Rather the horse was actually blind and she was riding it (not sure how you steer a blind horse but she did) to gather attention to some horse charity, Anyway it caught Jaworski's attention and instead watching the Colts practice he spent most of his time petting the horse.

Tony Dungy was such a nice guy. Funny after meeting him the first time he remembered my first name and always addressed me like we were friends.He gave me a personally autographed copy of his book. I'm sure it came from the stack in his office but he did get my name right without asking.

Jim Caldwell was so friendly. I had some family members from out of state visit camp and Coach spent a good 10 mintues just chatting with them.

[RWB]

So for today's story this is out of left field and not really a Colts player memory. However it did occur during training camp.

In the office we had a nice display of Police and college shoulder patches from various departments around the country. For some reason I got the inspiration (must have got punch drunk from the heat) to purchase a Super Bowl poster and have all the officers, Colts regular staff, and any behind the scenes worker to sign it. Now actually at first they looked at me funny asking for their autographs but after signing they really got a kick out of it. So I still have it stored away (it had been displayed in the office until I retired) and I got about 60 folks to sign. It does have Bob Lamey (Colts radio broadcaster), Howard Mudd (O-line coach), Jon Scott (equipment manager). Al Morrison (SRC assistant director and current state rep for district 42), and of course the most famous housekeeping staff. Now the reason for posting this story.

One infamous autograph of note. There was a Vigo county deputy that liked to work beside me many times when Peyton was signing. When you work your responsibility is to protect the players and protect the public. For some reason he thought he would give me some expert advice. He noted everytime he would see a picture in the paper of Peyton signing autographs you would never see my face and only my backside standing next to him. Frank tells me" you need to stand sideways when the photographer is taking pictures so they see you. That's what I do". I not trying to be a butt let him know thanks but my job is to watch the crowd and I really don't need to be seen.

Comment from Frank was no big deal but sometimes the little things show a person's character. Mr. Frank Shahadey (Deputy Sheriff) was arrested in 2016 for fraud and theft, and spent time for this in a federal pen. Who would have known my poster had the signature of a convict.

So here's a tip. If you go to a game and the police or security person is watching the game instead of people they suck at their job.

[RWB]

So here's my sort of Larry Bird story.

I had a student come into the office (this was in 1987) who wanted to file a malicious mischief report to his vehicle. Apparently someone had entered the vehicle and did shall we say an adjustment. Turns out the student's father was a friend of LBird. Because of this connection Larry let the student use his personal pickup truck his begining semester as a Freshmen at the college. Actually the office was well aware of this vehicle because at the time it was the largest Ford extended cab truck I can say we ever saw out on patrols and such. Most of the time it had to use two spaces or end of the aisle locations to park properly.

So he files this report after a Thanksgiviimg break. I ask can we look at the vehicle and see the damage? He responds no I no longer have the vehicle and had to give it back to Larry and he was pretty upset with me for what happened. Me "So what exactly happened? Was there damage or something stolen"? Student "No nothng like that but it was really disgusting. When I went home we opened the glove compartment looking for paperwork and it was full". Full of what? "Used condoms, full of used condoms".

Later I found out his roommate set him up. I guess the hall he lived in all got together to pull this off. The explanation was the student was so obnoxious and constantly bragged about knowing Bird, hanging out at Bird's house, had his personal vehicle, and could call him any time his classmates decided to punish him.

[RWB]

As noted on previous stories it seemed the hazing was limited to golf carts at least under Tony Dungy. Not sure Dungy was a little more strict or Mora was not aware during his coaching days but a quick note on training camp in 2001.

Last day of camp 2001 I'm approached by then rookie Idrees Bashir asking if I would help him out. All the players were gone except him and three other guys still in the parking lot. They couldn't go anywhere because all the windows on their cars were coated in about two inches of Vaseline. Man what a greasy mess and with it being warm it was even worse. I was able to get a large quantity of paper towels from the housekeeping staff and began to work with Idrees to get it cleared. After a half hour the windows were not perfect but he so wanted to leave he said he was good. During this time the other three asked for some help too. One was Cory Bird (can't remember the other two guys names) but I did find out why they were picked out. The 4 were all dbs or safeties. I'd have to look it up can only assume whoever the backfield starters were decided to pick on the rooks.

Anyway it was the only time in my 10 years around the Colts where players had their own personal items touched. Once again not sure if it was a Dungy respect thing or Mora anything goes attitude. But I can say no carts wound up in the lake or inside a building under Mora either.

[RWB]

Under the 6 years I covered Peyton only one time was I threatened to be replaced. Usually it was I and an additional helper up front with two uniformed gun toting officers around but not so close to freak out the fans. In this instance I found a child 4 years of age wandering around camp crying to the hills cause he lost his parents. Well of course this took priority over a 6ft 5 guy who could knock out any fan that gave him crap anyway. Found the parents and of course they were so grateful and Peyton survived with 4 deputies surrounding him. Still Colts were not happy.

Now this came from a guy named Steve Ch?? (you can find the name if you need to under player developement). Not sure what Peyton really said. Steve "Look Peyton likes what you do, depends on you the way you work with the crowd (Peyton was big on his image), but we have to depend on you to be there. If you don't want to do this let me know and we'll get someone else". Of course at the moment I was a little irritated, thought maybe I am tired of doing this, but let's see the response after explaining what happened. Steve calmed down and said a child is more important but make sure Peyton is a priority too. It worked out ok and of course I remained Peyton'slittle sounding board in the crowd.

I would love to say I'm the only one who could do the job but what a boat load that would be. It really came down to three things with Peyton. Is the person doing a good job (I was really good on the PR part taking the heat so he would look good), he had to feel comfortable around them, and actually the most important he was a big creature of habit apparently. He loved routine and apparently it could have easily been someone else once he got use to them.

[RWB]

This goes under the power of Peyton. I remember standing along the sidelines and a group of fans asked Dallas Clark to take a photo with them. He was very humble and but made a quip like "sure but do you really want a picture of this ugly mug"? For some reason I had to chime in and say " Of course they do. Your picture will be much better than the guy with the big forehead". He had a grin and says "Remember you said it not me". And he was semi serious.

[Bball]

These are sheer gold!

[RWB]

These are sheer gold!

Appreciate it bud. So with high school football starting up it kicked in this memory. A coach for Terre Haute North was allowed in a restricted area near the locker rooms after a practice to obtain autographs for a football he was going to auction at a game. He stood there as players walked by and was really decent about not being pushy but no one would stop to sign and actually kind of gave him weird looks. He was getting really frustrated until Robert Mathis stops, looks at him funny, and then signs the ball. The coach kind of smiles and looks at me and says "I swear I wore deodorant". Me "Coach can I give you a suggestion". Coach "Sure I'm not sure what's going on". Me "Well the guys sign all the time but.... you being a coach for the North THaute Patriots and wearing a cap with a Patriot on it might be bad". He's ah no of course. So the Colts were not being rude. They just thought a Pats fan was trying to get autographs. The amazing thing was Robert Mathis still signing when no one else would. RM98 is was class guy.

[Bball]

Appreciate it bud. .

Those were fun times. Nobody could've ever guessed how it would all end. Not just with the Manning situation directly, but the 'heir apparent' (Andrew Luck) just up and quitting.

[RWB]

Noticed the NFL has not said anything on the Ty Hill incident as of yet. They (NFL) have their own investigative group who will look into this fully. So Mr. Hill and the Dolphins may want to slow their roll a little bit with their statements. Before every camp their would be one or two reps (NFL guys who were former FBI) visit without Colts reps present leaving contact information and basically saying if someone had passed gas they wanted to know about it. Actually kind of alarming how controlling they were now thinking back. Don't be surprised Mr. Hill doesn't get the big support he thinks from the talking heads at the top if the facts don't support his view.