“What?” was my first response. But upon taking a second to think about the question I started to see both the positives and negatives of loyalty. Communism demanded loyalty–negative; our military also demands loyalty–positive;

As with any good thing someone can always take it to an extreme or abuse it. So with sound reason and thought out examples I proceeded to defend my belief of how important loyalty is.

For some reason or another that doesn’t seem to be the thoughts of those in college athletics. From both basketball and football coaches at West Virginia leaving for bigger jobs to Nick Saban jumping from LSU to the Dolphins to Alabama leaving players and families in his wake, college athletics has become a self serving business not interested in the broken contracts or wrecked loyalty.

But last week’s “eleventh hour” resignation and hiring of Bobby Patrino from the Atlanta Falcons to the Arkansas Razorbacks might have been the biggest slap in the face I’ve seen in my years of watching sports. To shake your boss’s hand and tell him that you’re the coach for him and 12 hours later to resign and have a 10:30 p.m. press conference for your new job is beyond disloyal. It’s dishonest and disrespectful.

No matter what sport you’re participating in—basketball, football, baseball or soccer—no matter if you’re a player or a coach, to be loyal to other people and something bigger than you as an individual is both exciting and rewarding. When the only person you are loyal to is you, you’ll never be able to experience the thrill of being a part of something bigger than yourself.

Mark Chapman

OK, let’s start with this. I’m a big fan of quotes. I love reading quotes from coaches, world leaders, US leaders, unknown individuals – anyone actually that has something inspiring to say. I’ve made a notebook of about 150 of my favorite quotes to have on hand when I need/want them. The insight and wisdom that can come from a sentence or two is amazing to me.

This past Sunday night ESPN hosted their annual ESPY awards show which acknowledges the best in sports over the last year. This tradition started 15 years ago in which a gentleman by the name of Jim Valvano was the first recipient of the Arthur Ash courage award, in 1993.

Coach Valvano was the head men’s basketball coach at North Carolina State which made an improbable run in 1983 to the NCAA championship game against a Houston team with players like Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. A true David and Goliath matchup. Many of you may remember seeing Coach Valvano running around the court, after his Wolfpack pulled off the unbelievable victory, looking for someone to hug. Or maybe you just remember it from watching “One shining moment” at the end of every college basketball season. Either way it was and still is a moving clip.

Coach Valvano lost a battle with cancer just six weeks after his famous speech at the ESPY’s. That speech has been played over and over for the past week on ESPN radio while they try to raise money for the V foundation. While his entire speech, which runs about 10 minutes, is one that every person should listen to at some point in their lives, there were two specific quotes that I loved.

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.” – Jim Valvano ESPY awards 1993

“Don’t give up, don’t ever give up”
- Jim Valvano ESPY awards 1993

So as I sit here watching and reading that incredible speech thinking about my future, I’m motivated and inspired. A man with cancer that could barely walk up the steps to receive that award found energy and enthusiasm to inspire a sports nation. I only wish Coach Valvano was still here today. He’s one that could fill up my quotes notebook all by himself.

You can watch his speech here.

Mark Chapman