Like almost every one of the hundreds of young men at Derby High School during the DeFilippo regime, I never played another down after Thanksgiving Day of my senior year.  Still, I am one of the best players Lou ever coached, because, thirty some years later I know that those fall days were not about getting ready for the NFL.  It was all about getting ready for a game more certain to occur......life.

 

At 14, I learned that life is not always fair.  As a 130 pound "monster back", I had to try to tackle Brent Sanford every Tuesday afternoon, while he was catching a "Jump Pass off the 32 Drive".  I did it maybe once out of every ten tries, and got crushed the other nine, but I learned that I could 'tackle' a seemingly impossible task, and that I would never be successful if I didn't try.

 

I also learned that with some frequency I was going to trip, miss an assignment, or get beat on a long ball.  From Frank Alu, the message was clear, and remains etched in my mind until today.  Don't make excuses..........tell me what you did wrong, and do it better next time.  I still make mistakes, but I admit them, learn from them, and move on to try again.  From Fred Salvati, a little closer in age than the others, and still playing himself at that time, I learned balance friendship with respect, as I worked for him for three months each fall, and then played basketball against him during the rest of the year.  At 50, I respect but still challenge the generation ahead of me, and I try to include and add something to the generations behind me.

 

Most of all, I learned from Lou DeFilippo.  I and all of us knew that he had 'walked the walk', as a player at the highest level of the game.  We knew that he was every bit as concerned with what went on in class and off the field as he was for 100 days in the fall from 2 to 6 pm.  He was a prowling bear, and he commanded attention and deserved respect.  As a gangly sophomore substitute on the greatest team the school has ever fielded, I was afraid of him in the beginning.  Before long and forever after that, the fear was replaced by a desire to earn his respect, to get that all powerful word of praise from the master, and to employ skills that seemed to be related to wearing a numbered shirt in the fall, but were really about learning to do the right thing in the fifty years that followed Thanksgiving Day, 1971.

Years ago Mary Galvin prosecuted the Roseboro Case.  Roseboro it turned out was a Derby football player coached by Lou.  While Lou was on the witness stand testifying to the character of the accused Roseboro defendant, Mary in cross examination questioning attempted to discredit Lou's recollection of his football player.  She said to Mr. DeFilippo "I'll bet that back in 1972 you couldn't even remember who the President of the United States was let alone recollect anything about a player you coached back then."  Mr. DeFilippo's response was, "No but I can tell you who won the Heisman Trophy in 1972."

 

 

When Coach Calls - Bill Thompson '79

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All-State Cross Country team member Bill Thompson adds the following story.

 

 

I was in the shower after gym class when Coach's voice echoed through the gym..."Thompson, get in here."  I immediately ran out of the shower and went into his office to see what he wanted.  I entered his office to discover that Coach was talking to several college recruiters about me and he wanted them to meet me.

 

It was a moment or two before Coach said, "Hey Billy, why don't you dry off and put some clothes on."