Gailey

Chan Gailey at FCA banquet

Date published: 3/7/2007

BY JIM Mc CONNELL

In the ultra-pressurized world of big-time college football, there have been many stories of coaches who were willing to compromise their integrity in order to win games and keep the boosters happy.

Chan Gailey's just not one of them.

In December, senior Reggie Ball, who just happened to be the starting quarterback for Gailey's Georgia Tech football team, was declared academically ineligible to play in the Gator Bowl against West Virginia.

Rather than attempt to exert his influence or work back channels to get Ball back on the team for his final college game, Gailey opted to start Taylor Bennett against the Mountaineers. Bennett played well in just his second career start, but the Yellow Jackets still wound up with their third consecutive defeat.

It was a disappointing finish to a season in which Georgia Tech won the ACC's Coastal Division and reached the conference championship game. But at least Gailey could wake up and look at himself in the mirror every morning.

"I fought for the young man and tried to help him in any way I could, but I wasn't going to break any rules to do it," said Gailey, who has been coaching football for 33 years. "There's still right and wrong. Once you've made up your mind that's how you're going to live your life, it's not that hard."

Gailey will share that message in Fredericksburg tomorrow as the keynote speaker at a banquet hosted by the local chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The Georgia native has been active in FCA since the 1960s, when he joined a chapter that had been formed at his high school. Gailey has maintained a relationship with the organization during a coaching career that has taken him to six different colleges and included stints with five professional teams.

"I tell people all the time that I'm not a coach who is a Christian, I'm a Christian who happens to coach for a living," Gailey said.

Before coming to Georgia Tech in 2001, Gailey was best known for the two seasons he spent as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys--an odd pairing, considering Gailey is a devout Christian and the Cowboys were infamous for wild drug-and-sex parties during their Super Bowl years in the mid-'90s.

"Through FCA, we try to influence coaches and athletes by showing them the Christian way," Gailey added. "We don't beat anybody over the head with a Bible. We just let them see what living a Christian life is all about."

Clearly, Gailey is more in his element at Georgia Tech, a demanding academic institution that requires its coaches to recruit true student athletes and refuses to lower its standards in pursuit of athletic glory.

While those standards make it more difficult for Gailey and his assistant coaches to sign players who can succeed in the classroom and on the football field, it's a challenge the coach both understands and welcomes.

"We're not promised an easy walk," he said. "All we're promised is the strength to deal with what comes along. And that's a pretty good promise."

Jim McConnell: 540/374-5444
Email: jmcconnell@freelancestar.com

WHAT: Fredericksburg-area Fellowship of Christian Athletes Booster Club luncheon WHEN: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday WHERE: Carrabba's Italian Grill in Central Park SPEAKER: Georgia Tech football coach Chan Gailey TICKETS/INFO: Call Kerry O'Neill at 540/899-3422 or e-mail Fburg- FCA@fca.org.

Date published: 3/7/2007