Sometimes we are reminded it's just a game.
Or we are reminded it's more than a game.
Last week was one of those weeks. Last Thursday was one of those days. That morning, we learned that John Schlarman, Kentucky football's offensive line coach, had passed away after a courageous two-year battle with cancer. Then Thursday night came the unexpected news that UK women's basketball coach Matthew Mitchell was retiring after recently undergoing surgery for a head injury.
As an offensive guard first for Bill Curry and then Hal Mumme, Schlarman was an excellent player and a better person. When he returned in 2013 as part of Mark Stoops' staff, it was no surprise he was (a) a great recruiter and (b) a superior line coach.
More importantly, Schlarman was also a husband and father. Back when UK practiced at the Nutter Training Facility, one night a week during the season was Family Night. Catered food was delivered for families to eat with the coaches after practice. Stoops had a young staff. Little kids, and plenty of them, would run around the practice field, climbing on the equipment, hugging their father's legs.
Since Thursday, I can't get those images out of my head.
Matthew Mitchell was exactly the right person at the right time for Kentucky women's basketball. He is funny, smart, with plenty of personality, a coach the general public could become attracted to before they were attracted to the sport itself. You have to win, of course, and Mitchell did that, as well, reaching the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight on three occasions.
And then Mitchell fell while on a hike during a March vacation with his family. Persistent headaches required brain surgery in June. Frustrated by the progress of his recovery, and unable to get "comfortable" in the tasks of his job, Mitchell told UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart he was retiring. Barnhart told Mitchell to sleep on it. Thursday, Mitchell informed his boss and friend he was "resolute" in his decision.
If sadness greeted the news of Schlarman's passing, surprise better described Mitchell's news. To me, both put wins and losses in their proper perspective. As did a pair of reactions.
It would be a stretch to say Louisville Coach Jeff Walz and Mitchell are friends. Fierce competitors, their nationally ranked programs went head-to-head in an intense state rivalry on the court and the recruiting trail.
"Sending great thoughts and well-wishes to (Mitchell)," Walz tweeted Friday. "We came in at the same time. For 13 years our (programs) have battled. Our games were always tough, physical, and what a true rivalry should be. All the best from all of us @uofl."
While an offensive lineman at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Jedrick Wills was a player every football school in the country wanted. Kentucky was one of those schools. It was Schlarman who recruited Wills, only to lose out in the end to Nick Saban and Alabama.
As you might expect, Stoops heard from numerous coaches and former players from across the country when news of Schlarman's passing broke on Thursday. He also heard from Wills, now a rookie tackle with the Cleveland Browns, who wanted to express his condolences to the coach and to the Schlarman family.
Certainly, Kentucky's 38-35 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday was emotional. Even in the postgame press conference, UK offensive tackle Landon Young, all 6-foot-7 and 321 pounds, heard his voice crack when speaking of such a personal loss.
"It doesn't get any easier talking about it," Young said.
There's this Bruce Springsteen quote, "You've got to be able to hold a lot of contradictory ideas in your mind without going nuts. I feel like to do my job right, when I walk out onstage I've got to feel like it's the most important thing in the world. I've also got to feel like, well, it's only rock and roll. Somehow you've got to believe both of those things."
Last week reminded us of such a contradiction, of how sports are fun and games and sometimes something more. Somehow, we have to believe both.
