Yes, Digger Phelps the former Notre Dame Basketball coach and current ESPN College Game Day analyst, that Digger Phelps. Digger to his friends.
So Digger and I............(he asked that I please just call him Digger), So Digger and I chewed the fat for a good twenty minutes or so talking about people and places we both know. He's really just a regular Joe who loves basketball with a passion. He's also a guy who hasn't forgotten where he came from which is how I ended up getting the call in the first place.
Digger's latest book "Undertaker's Son: Life Lessons From A Coach" just so happened to have found me while I was browsing at the Library last month. Since March Madness was just beginning I figured it would make a good basketball read during the tournament. What I found in the book was a very familiar voice talking about familiar people and places.
Imagine opening up a book of someone nationally known and reading of names, places and events that are in your hometown, population around 15,000 or so. Teachers from your high school, coaches from your pop warner league, go cart derby locations and stores on main street. Well, that's what I experienced once I began reading Digger's book.
Us who come from small towns will always have a bit of that small town in us. What Digger does in his book is show how the small town values he came from helped mold and prepare him for the many successful things he's experienced in life, basketball coaching included.
If you're a sports fan and are looking to read a fun action packed sports book, then this book of Digger's may not be for you, try his "Tales From The Notre Dame Hardwood." But if you wanna know the type of place, people and things that go into making a man like Digger then I strongly urge you to read his "Undertaker's Son." It really is a book on life lessons and its heartening to know that many of those lessons came from a small town in these United States of America. In a time when there's so much anger, resentment and distrust of the American way of life, I found Digger's book a much needed injection of what makes America and Americans so great.
After reading his book I wrote a letter to Digger expressing just how touched I was by the familiarity and the message in it. It wasn't just that I grew up in the same town, but that I felt the same way Digger felt about the town. I felt that this small town in upstate New York provided me with all the basic needs and character strength to be a success in whatever endeavors in life I chose. And I can be successful in any place in many ways. Knowing how to give back is one way and Digger seems to have done just that.
So the call from Digger was to thank me for understanding the message of his book and expressing it so well in a letter written to him. And my thanks to Digger was for just being a small town boy who went on to national fame and success yet still finds time for another small town boy like myself. True, the lessons of life never stop teaching.
Thanks Digger!
