Really Bad

The year under consideration is 1972, and the day is the very first day of that year, New Year's Day. It was a day that the college football picture would be completely colored in and we would know who was number one and who was number two and so on. It was a day when many men, and some women, would be comfortably settled in their favorite chairs to watch football games all day long.

The 1971 football season, as many others, had been a great one for Alabama. They were undefeated and riding high in the polls. High they were, but not at the top. Nebraska was also undefeated and ranked number 1 going into the Orange Bowl to play Alabama. To Alabama fans, that was merely an annoyance that would be dealt with and demolished during the game. Alabama would win and end the season as the undisputed top team in the nation.

It was a perplexing problem in the mind of many Alabama fans as to why so many other colleges fielded football teams, especially with the hopes of being champions. Alabama fans could, and usually did, tell anyone that wanted to know, or didn't even care, that there was only one real football team in the nation and that team played its home games in Tuscaloosa, AL. I could say a lot more about this, but I have mellowed over the years.

At any rate, Alabama fans were riding high in their hopes and could have written a book, but Charles Dickens had beaten them to it (Great Expectations.) They knew without doubt that a three hour football game would fix the deficiency of mind that had pollsters voting Nebraska number one over Alabama. So the game began. For Alabama it was really bad. By the end of the first quarter, Nebraska was ahead 21-0, and they didn't look back.

If there has ever been a person who was riding the highest high only to have the bottom completely drop out, any Alabama fan who watched that game became one of them. Devastated and humiliated are appropriate words. That was really bad, and I enjoyed watching it. (Did I mention my dad was born and raised in Omaha?)

But now, I have become one of them as well. (No, not an Alabama fan.) Let me first say that I am small of stature, so not the desirous hunk you want on your team. But I have always been athletic and quick and vigorous in competition. I have climbed 14ers in Colorado, run two marathons, and a plethora of 10K's. Additionally, I have been healthy while I have seen others afflicted with various health issues that I seemed always to evade. I was riding high.

But early in December of 2025, a doctor walked into a room in which I was seated, waiting for him, and he said, "Your heart is really bad." My first thought was, "Please tell me its not as bad as your bedside manner." I was surprised to hear that, but I knew I had been told the truth. I was not humiliated, because I was not in competition over this matter, but the word "devastated" comes close to how I felt at that moment.

I was scheduled for triple bypass open heart surgery. It was frightening. I had told friends who faced this same situation before me that my observation over the years was that open heart surgery was one of, if not the, best surgeries there was for actually bringing about a better condition for the patient. Now, it was time for me to believe that.

But I felt like I was letting people down. I was letting my wife down. I was letting my children and their families down. I knew they would have to struggle deeply with whether I would survive, and then how well I might recover. I was even letting myself down - I was not one to be sick, and especially not one to be in need of hospital care.

My next joyous moment was when I came to in recovery (or CCICU - I’m not sure where I was. I remember thinking, “I’m still alive!” My wife and children would not have to deal with the loss of a husband and father, and I would be able to be around to see their continued progress in the world.

Some indirect complications from the surgery kept me in the hospital for almost two weeks. My hospital time seemed almost interminable to me, but I must say I received excellent care from every nurse who tended to me. Finally, I was released, but I still have a long path to recovery. Some day this will be behind me, but for now my life is not what it used to be.

I have always been committed to God, that’s how my parents raised me, and they did it well. If anything, I am more committed now. I prayed many prayers to God for a complete recovery. I was reminded how Hezekiah did that in the Old Testament and God gave him an additional 15 yrs. I wondered, “Is there anything about me that would make God want to keep my influence and example on this earth?” I think that’s a good question for us all to ask. Then we need to live our lives in such a way that the answer would be, “Yes.” If the answer were to be “no,” that would be really bad.