Athletics Director Lonn Reisman:
You know the football program at Tarleton State University is a very, very, very important program, and like all the other programs, it is vital to the University. It has been a very successful program at this University. It has tremendous tradition. It has a tremendous winning tradition at Tarleton State University, and so today, we are going to announce our 24th head football at this University.
I am going to introduce to you, and it is my pleasure, to take over the reins of this outstanding program, Mr. Cary Fowler.
Cary has done a tremendous job here in an assistant’s role, and I have every confidence in taking the program from where it’s at and taking to the next level. I know that many people contacted me in support of Coach Fowler. I want to thank the search committee. I want to thank the athletics administration. I want to thank everyone who has had the opportunity to contact me about Coach Fowler, and we look for a great season next year, and the seasons after that. He is a man of character. He is a man of leadership, and I have every confidence that our football program in great hands.
Head Football Coach Cary Fowler:
Thank you. First, there are a few people you want to thank. First of all, I want to thank Jesus Christ. There have been a lot of prayers from my family, and He has given me this opportunity. It is through Him that we have this opportunity.
I want to thank Dr. Dottavio and Coach Reisman. You know it is hard to hand over the reins of a Top 10 program – one of the top programs in the country – to a young coach that has never had head coaching experience. That is something that took guts, and I really appreciate them.
I want to thank my wife, and my two little girls. Behind every great coach there is a great wife, and she is a better wife than I will be a coach. They are always behind us, and those who were here last year saw her drive all over the country with those kids, and they hold up the signs. We are a football family, and we are committed to this program, it’s not just me.
I want to thank my mom and dad who came all the way from Kentucky. You guys who played defense this year, after about the sixth game I told you to write a letter to your moms or somebody significant to you in your life because when you get in a situation in your life when you feel like you’ve made it, there is many more people in your life that have sacrificed for you to be in that situation than you have had to be in that situation. I want to thank my mom and dad for that, and I want you guys to do that when you talk to your parents or someone who has been significant, thank them for what they have done for you because I promise you, now that I am a father, I know there is a lot more sacrifices that you make for them. I appreciate that from my mom and dad.
There are a lot of coaches that have helped me to this situation. I was influenced a long time ago by two men. Houston Nutt was my college coach, and after I was a player, I became a coach. I played on a Saturday and was a coach on Sunday. My position coach, Kim Damron, also wanted to be here today, but they had some things they had to take care of. I want to thank those guys.
I want to thank Coach Sam McElroy for giving me the opportunity to come here. A lot of people don’t know that for 17 months, I lived on my office floor because I was dedicated to this program even though my family couldn’t sell our house in Wichita Falls. I thank coach Mac. He never interviewed me, he called me up and offered me the job. We have been friends for a long time, and I want to take this program higher than we have it right now because, he had the ultimate opportunity at Texas Tech, but I know his visions and dreams were a national championship here. I promised him on the telephone this morning that I would make sure I see his dreams through on the program for what I know he had been working so hard for.
A couple of things about the people who watch this program. Like I found out a long time ago, we are going to be creators of men. I will hire coaches and make sure the coaches that are here now are builders of men. I learned a long time ago about character, and what character is what one does when nobody is looking. That is what we are going to instill in this program is character and discipline.
There are three questions I will ask them, and three questions I will ask myself. The first one is can I trust them? Are they going to trust themselves? It is easy to lie to someone else, but when you look in the mirror are you going to do that 10th rep when nobody else is in the weight room? Are you going to run that last lap when nobody is out on the field? When nobody is pushing you there, you have to be able to push yourself. I am looking in the mirror to make sure that I can trust myself that I’ll do the greatest job that I can to be your head football coach.
The next one is do you care about yourself? Do you care about yourself to take care of yourself? Do you care enough about yourself to take care of yourself? Do you care enough about yourself to live right? Do you care enough about yourself to do right when nobody is looking?
The last one is, are you committed? Are you committed to greatness or are you committed to just getting through? I don’t mean this to disrespect to this program, but I put the divisional championships up in my office where you can see it and those players can see it. I asked a few of them the other day about that being a signal of the a great decade of five divisional championships, but if you really want to know where this program wants to go, that is a sign of mediocrity because our dreams and visions have got to be bigger than the Lone Star Conference. Our visions have to be bigger than that. Our visions have to be about winning a national championship.
In everything we do we are going to be committed, we are going to be men of character and discipline. We are going to take care of those things because are going to refuse to lose in everything we do. We are going to refuse to sleep in when the alarm goes off and we are supposed to go to class. We are going to refuse to be late. We are going to make it a point that if the meetings are at 7:30, we are going to be there at 7:25, and we are not going to push the issue.
When you guys come back in the fall and you walk over there and see our field house, when you walk in the locker room it is going to say, “Work like a Champion.” Above the coaches’ offices there is going to be a sign that says, “Prepare like a Champion.” And when you walk out on the field there is going to be a great, big sign that says, “Play like a Champion.” But more importantly when you walk out those doors to go into your every day life, there is going to be a huge sign right above that glass that is going to say, “Live like a Champion.” That is the most important quality is that living like a champion.
Those are the things we are going to try to instill in this program. I thank everybody for being here today. This is the greatest day in my life. If you ever dream, dream bigger than you can ever dream because today, a little ‘ole boy from Kentucky that everybody thought wouldn’t make it, reached his dream today of being a head football coach of a Top 10 program, and I appreciate everybody sharing it with me.
