Coach K At Duke On Faith, Sports, and Leadership

A few years before I retired, EA had a spectacular basketball team, ranked nationally, and contained two highly recruited players. Gerald Henderson would choose Duke and Wayne Ellington would go on to the University of North Carolina. When the players returned from their official visits to those schools, I was told that Gerald’s mother really was more interested in the character of Coach K than she was in anything else. I was not surprised because she was a person of faith.

I had a wonderful experience at Duke and Duke Medical School and was glad to hear that she felt that it would be a terrific environment for her son. At a recent lecture series Coach K was chosen to address a full chapel at Duke on the issue of Faith, Sports, and Leadership.

I am sure that what you will be hearing below is an expanded version of what Mrs. Henderson heard. As a personal practice, any time in my history at EA I would ask the many leaders that came to campus, “What is your view of faith and leadership?” What I discovered along the way is that each person had their own particular response to the question. I was blessed in have direct experience with many great leaders including the Presidents of Universities such as Monk Malloy at Notre Dame, Coach Martelli of St. Joseph’s, workers in the steel mill, a neighbor who took DuPont into China, a janitor, and Gordon Gee, President of Vanderbilt, and President Biden, et al.

Coach K made a point in his address that leadership is a lifelong experience. However, It always demonstrates how to work with others. Coach K went to West Point and was followed as the basketball coach at West Point by Dan Doughtery who was our legendary basketball coach at EA who was a master of getting the most from his players.

Sometimes you learn leadership by listening to leaders. But leaders are also built by providing students with real life leadership experiences. That was true for the work of our student spiritual leadership team known as the Vestry. They were the players, so the speak, and I was their coach. I can only hope that they learned something from me that I, in turn, learned for others, and not books about it.

Enjoy the lecture below!

AX Coach K at Duke On Faith, Sports, Leadership