Coach K on the football media tour

When Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was about to get his 900th career win recently, I thought back to 1986.

We were on the ACC Football Media Tour, with 26 sports writers and one bus driver riding from one Atlantic Coast Conference school to the next.

I think we'd just visited the University of Maryland in Landover and were heading through Virginia en route to Clemson, S.C. We got off the bus in Petersburg, Va., for lunch and walked into a steakhouse. The first people we saw were Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and his wife.

Coach K wouldn't recognize me from Adam, but he knew a lot of the other guys in line. You could read his lips ("Oh, SH--!"), and he obviously wasn't happy. He figured we were going to badger him with questions.

We all walked by his table and said "Hi, coach." A few guys said a little more, probably explaining what we were doing. We didn't bother him at all. We wanted to eat.

I never found out what he was doing (or who he was recruiting) in Petersburg.

><

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  BLUESKY: PROFILE

MORE BLOG ENTRIES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

ANECDOTES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer OUTTA there!

EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

Coach K on the football tour

These Are Coach K's Most Important Leadership Lessons

In 1986, we were on the ACC Football Media Tour, with 26 sports writers and one bus driver riding from one Atlantic Coast Conference school to the next.

I think we'd just visited the University of Maryland in Landover and were heading through Virginia en route to Clemson, S.C. We got off the bus in Petersburg, Va., for lunch and walked into a steakhouse. The first people we saw were Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and his wife.

Coach K wouldn't recognize me from Adam, but he knew a lot of the other guys in line. You could read his lips, and he obviously wasn't happy. His response was short and succinct. He figured we were going to badger him with questions during lunch.

We all walked by his table and said "Hi, coach," one after the other. A few guys said a little more, probably explaining what we were doing, but we all lined up to eat. We didn't bother him at all.

We were equally puzzled; we never did find out why he was in Petersburg (or who he was recruiting).

><

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  BLUESKY: PROFILE

MORE BLOG ENTRIES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

ANECDOTES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer OUTTA there!

EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing