Johnny Wooden & Tommy Lasorda

A few years ago, I had a chance to meet Pete Carroll. I was leading a group of at-risk children on a tour of USC and one of our campus hosts had an in with him. I am pretty sure it meant more to me than it did to the kids who described as “some white guy.” But we didn’t exchange contact info and the clandestine meeting, which many of my friends have heard me exaggerate, really was little more than 10 minutes and I was part of a group tour.

Then why am I so upset about his departure?

I started asking this question when my brother called me at work Friday with the scoop – he knew I would be upset. My dad knew I would be upset. Most of my friends knew I would be upset. Why do I have such an emotional attachment to man who by all technical definitions of the word is a stranger?

Is there something bigger than Pete Carroll’s departure to be written about? It is my dysfunctional attachment to sports celebrities (everyone has heard me go on and on about Brett Favre) or is a larger issue with the changing face of sports? What happened to the days of John Wooden(or Johnny Wooden as he was known in my house growing up) when a coach built a dynasty and saw it through?

Johnny Wooden is said to attend as many UCLA home games as his health will allow for Pete’s sake (no pun intended) a team he hasn’t coached in nearly four decades! That is loyalty, that is devotion, that is a bygone era. He didn’t leave in the middle of the unmatchable streak of National Championships to coach the Lakers lured by a higher paycheck. I don’t doubt he might have at times wanted to, but he was faithful to a setting that suited him well.

Or consider another L.A. Sports Personality – Tommy Lasorda. He goes to many, many Dodger games. Moreover, last year during the playoffs he was acting like a freaking cheerleader – out of his seat, jumping around, waving a towel all in a clear effort to rally the fans because he himself is a fan. I highly doubt Pete Carroll will be singing “Fight On!” clad in cardinal and gold in fifteen years. I know your counter is that in the case of Tommy Lasorda he remains an employee of the LA Dodgers, but still, I think paycheck aside, he is very invested in the team he not only played all of his games with but one he helped earn its last championship ring.

But bigger than sports trends, do the untimely and painful departures of guys like Pete Carroll remind of us a profound shift in our culture? Have we become transient consumers not unlike Pete Carroll prone to flee when the going gets tough (NCAA violations, a terrible season, players leaving early, etc) and frankly a better offer is on the table? And so maybe we hope for those moments when he had success at USC that he, Pete Carroll would be better than us, the exception to the rule the noble one who boldly and nobly stands face to face with all that is bad in our culture and draws a line in the sand instead of well, cashing out for a bigger paycheck and less hassle?