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Section Knowledge By Kellie Allen football Coach Howard Schnellenberger Inspires at NACE Section fundraiser O ur Southern Florida NACE Section recently held a fundraising event. Our 3rd Annual Golf Classic — to benefit NACE student scholarships—included a luncheon and keynote speaker. The day was hot for October, more like July, and slow play illustrated that our golfers' talents lay in the coatings field, not on the golf course. Time had come for the luncheon and the players were still on the links. The sultry day suddenly became a scorcher for me as our guest speaker, a legendary NFL and college football coach, strode down the hall and boomed, "Where is everyone?" There Florida Atlantic University (FAU) coach Howard Schnellenberger stood, wearing his trademark red suspenders and black cowboy boots, with a mission in his eyes, probably wondering why he volunteered to help with our event. I grew up in a family of his admirers and now his steely stare and gruff voice fell upon me. Acting as an ambassador for FAU, Schnellenberger had agreed to speak at our golf tournament luncheon after studying our NACE Section webpage and discovering that our scholarship recipient for 2012 was an FAU student. We only generated one scholarship in our schol- arship program's first year of existence, but apparently it was the right one to lure Schnellenberger to our golf event! But what to do with a famous speaker and an empty hall? I don't k now a b out you , but Entertaining Sports Icons 101 was not part of my college curriculum. We talked about life and NACE as if we were old friends. It was hard to keep my eyes off all the championship rings that adorned his ring fingers as he reminisced about his career. Over the course of his life, Schnellenberger took over three college football programs in varying stages of oblivion. He led one to a national title. He gained a reputation as a program builder at another. His third set an NCAA record for being the youngest program invited to a bowl game. He previously held the head coaching position for the Baltimore Colts, was part of the staff of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins, and recruited Joe Namath to the University of Alabama for Bear Bryant in 1961. Schnellenberger came across as a jovial fellow, nothing like the prima donna attitude one might expect from a man who has coached legends, recruited legends, and became a legend in the face of sizable odds. With the clock on the luncheon hall wall ticking inexorably toward Schnellenberger's next speaking engagement of the day, a nationally televised interview, the golfers finally arrived, and the famous coach was set to begin his talk. HUDDlE UP! Schnel lenberger bega n by greeting each guest as he or she sat at the tables. However, while this was happening, the event organizers discovered that the facility's audiovisual projector was out of commission. "Strike Two!" Schnellenberger called out when he learned our PowerPoint projector had chosen to take the day off. I was able to empathize with our organizers' angst — mainly because I was seated far from all the brouhaha in a far corner of the banquet hall. "Would a microphone help?" our tournament director offered. "A football coach does not need a microphone," Schnellenberger replied. "A football coach needs everyone to huddle up!" So the golfers leaned forward as much as possible to hear Schnellenberger deliver a rousing "chalk talk" type January 2013 g www.coatingspromag.com 19