The Indiana Hoosiers are national champs… in football!
(photo credit: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
They were so bad for so long. Historically bad.
Before November, Indiana had the most losses in college football history. Across 125 seasons before Curt Cignetti was hired in December 2023, none of its 23 coaches left the program with a winning conference record. Only twice had the Hoosiers claimed at least a share of the Big Ten title, most recently a three-way tie in 1967. Generations of administrative dysfunction, low football revenue, poor recruiting and a department premium on basketball turned Indiana football into a wasteland.
They changed the coach. And the coach changed the culture. He came across as overly cocky in his introductory press conference:
But, as the saying goes, “it ain’t bragging if you can back it up.” And “Coach Cig” did just that.
(BTW, he admitted later that some of his braggadocio was just trying to wake up the fanbase, and the team. See this clip for more.)
Our youngest goes to IU, so he’s thrilled, and our whole family is fully on board the bandwagon.
“Let me tell ya: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done.”
But to me, the best part of the Cinderella story is that it’s not really a Cinderella story. It’s about how a leader can change the culture of an organization. That takes a lot of hard work.
“You’re rebuilding the house, so to speak, and you start with the foundation and build it up,” Cignetti said. “It’s more process oriented. It’s standards, expectations, consistency, performance and accountability.”
And yes, it also requires a leader who is so strong in his beliefs that others are willing to follow, despite evidence to the contrary.
“It starts with belief. Sometimes the belief has to be a little irrational, right?” said guard Pat Coogan, the Rose Bowl MVP who transferred from Notre Dame to Indiana this season.
“I love to tell you, two years ago, I thought this was going to happen. I’d be lying,” linebacker Aiden Fisher said. “Coach Cig 100 percent believed it, and this is just unbelievable.”
Standards. Expectations. Consistency. Performance. Accountability. And belief. You may not win a national championship with those attributes. But you’ll win at life.
“I think we sent a message, first of all, to society that if you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and you’ve got the right people, anything’s possible,” Cignetti said.
Anyone who has flown more than a few times probably has an airline horror story. Comedians have built bits, or even entire sets, around them.
Dan Piraro has an airline horror story too. He’s the guy who created the Bizarro comic strip, and still does the Sunday version. (His friend Wayno now handles the Monday through Saturday panels.)
In his blog post from mid-December, Dan recounts his air travel travails as he and his wife were trying to get back to their home in Mexico. But he also provides a very healthy dose of perspective.
Please read the entire post if you can. If not, chew on this nugget like it’s airline food:
My wife and I have befriended numerous Mexicans who have never flown on a commercial airline or visited anywhere farther than a half-tank of gas from home. This is common among low-income Mexicans, but they don’t complain. They place their happiness in their families and friends, not in material possessions or travel trophies. That may sound corny, but it’s true, and we find it inspiring.
It is all too easy for us developed-nation-types to forget that around 80% of the over 8 billion people on this planet have never been on an airplane, much less visited a vacation resort. And compared to the legions of displaced refugees worldwide, what my wife and I experienced over the weekend was but an annoying inconvenience compared to their treatment for months, years, or a lifetime.
Even when it’s bad, we’ve got it good.
And that perfect vacation photo on Facebook or Instagram pales in comparison to a life that seems “poor” but is actually quite rich.
They place their happiness in their families and friends, not in material possessions or travel trophies.
Kudos to Mr. Bizarro for his reality check. It’s plane (and plain) wisdom.
Warren Buffett is one of the richest people in the world.
But I’m not talking about his bank account.
Over his lifetime, the “Oracle of Omaha” has amassed a wealth of wisdom about how to live. Check out this excerpt from his Thanksgiving letter to shareholders last year. (It was his final one, as he turns over the company reins to others.)
“Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.”
Help someone… anyone… and help the world.
And your kindness account can never be depleted. Quite the opposite: the more you give, the richer you become.
Here’s to a year filled with heaping helpings of helping!
Warren’s full letter to shareholders is here. The excerpt above comes from his “final thoughts” at the end of it.
1 response to “Warren piece”
Kevin Sullivan
Praise Warren. He also said, “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong”. He really may be an oracle.
I didn’t hurt it while working on a home improvement project. I come up woefully short on Red Green’s favorite saying:
I slammed my thumb in a car door.
Anticipating your follow-up question, let the record show that I was stone-cold sober.
I slammed it in the door of a Honda CR-V. But it wasn’t one of the three that we own.
I was coming back from the graveside service for my dear friend LJ. And I was riding shotgun with Felicity, the widow of my friend Ned. When we got back to the church, I was both distracted and distraught. And I slammed the passenger door onto my left thumb. Making an awful day even worse.
If you look closely at the photo above (masochist!), you’ll see a drill hole at the top of my nail. You’re supposed to use a small drill bit and hand-drill it into the nail to relieve the pressure ASAP. I waited too long to try that home remedy. It helped a bit, but not much.
It’s been more than a month. The thumb feels much better now, but still looks uglier than sin.
Yet every time I look at my ugly thumb, I’m reminded of my friendship with LJ. Which is beautiful. I’m reminded of all the misery he went through during his cancer treatments. Yet he never complained. The thumb is daily reminder that pain is part of life. And that when you’re down, friends can lift you up.
I know the thumb will get better. I also know that even after it has fully healed, there’ll still be a hole in my heart.
I’m not a goth, but honestly, I may paint that nail with black nail polish after it gets better. To keep the reminder handy. And to keep LJ in my heart.
Kevin Sullivan on Warren piece: “Praise Warren. He also said, “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long…” Jan 15, 08:48
Damian on Eternally Grateful… still: “Thanks for reading, and thanks for sharing that song, Chuck! You’re absolutely right that the Deadhead community is amazing.” Jan 15, 08:17
Chuck Wiggins on Eternally Grateful… still: “I’m ambivalent at best about the Grateful Dead’s music, but there’s no discounting the incredible community built around it. And…” Jan 14, 09:05
Kevin Sullivan on Spoken and Unspoken: “You lived the brotherhood Damian, and that is a full plate. Peace to you and peace to John.” Nov 18, 16:54
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