Not So Fast, Sonny

📖 The Scoop

After surviving Hurricane Andrew while an assistant coach at the University of Miami, Sonny Lubick had to make a decision: Stay at Miami and likely inherit one of the top coaching jobs in college football, or set out for his own path, and return to a smaller program where he had been an assistant coach, at Colorado State University. Though he savors his time at Miami, he chose Colorado State, and built the cellar-dwelling Rams into a conference champion, and nationally ranked team, despite having a fraction of the resources that the upper echelon of top Division I teams, including Miami, have to keep their programs at the top. But Lubick has never chosen the easiest route, instead weighing in such factors as family, friends and happiness. Growing up in Butte, Montana, Lubick nearly lost his arm during an accident cleaning ore carrying railroad cars. A year later, he was given Last Rites and assumed dead after another accident. Yet he came back, and finished his education. After a stint coaching in high schools, he built a bond with Jack Elway (who would nearly burn down his own office while interviewing Lubick for a job at Stanford years later), then at the University of Montana. Not long thereafter, Lubick was recruited to be the assistant, and eventually the head coach at Montana State University in Bozeman. However, a rough season led to his dismissal, a move that to this day conjures up a myriad of emotions for a many who reached the top level of Division I coaching nationally, but remains a Montana native at heart. Read about how Sonny Lubick decided that he would bring a "family" approach to coaching Colorado State University, and how values like character, honesty, perseverance and hard work led to one of the most recognized jobs of coaching in college football. There are times to travel to a situation where one can reach for the top. And there are other times when one has to decide to bring the top back home. It's all about chasing dreams while keeping the proper perspective to Lubick. Though offers of jobs from Miami to Southern California came Lubick's way while his building of Colorado State was underway, he never wavered in his commitment to finish what he started. Though he could have quadrupled his salary and contended annually for titles, he paused, looked at those around him to whom he had made a commitment, and decided, "Not so fast, Sonny."

Genre: Biography & Autobiography / Sports (fancy, right?)