The Return of Crestone and Beyond and the Crimson Tide

The University of Alabama football program won its 13th National Championship under Coach Nick Saban in a season which began back in September, 2009, with a exciting opening game against Virginia Tech. The Crimson Tide has returned to winning championships, and should win many more under Nick Saban.

Despite not attending the University of Alabama, I have been a follower of this football team since 1959 when I watched the Crimson Tide defeat the Tulane Green Wave at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama in November, 1959. I also traveled with my grandfather from Montgomery to New Orleans on an overnight Pullman coach to watch the Tide defeat Arkansas in the old Sugar Bowl (the Tulane Stadium which no longer exists) by a score of 10-3, capping the 1961 season to claim Coach Bear Bryant’s first of 6 National championship.

It was pretty exciting for a 10 year old kid to watch the old-time Crimson Tide greats like Pat Trammell, Lee Roy Jordan, Billy Neighbors, Bill Battle, Mal Moore, Bill Oliver, and others, defeat the Razorbacks with a suffocating defense which had allowed the regular season’s 10 opponents a mere 22 points scored.

For readers who may not know what a Pullman coach is…it is a railroad passenger car with especially comfortable furnishings for day and night travel. These days it’s one of those bygone era type of fond memories.

My last experience in a Pullman coach venue was traveling through the Alps on a full moon night from Austria to Italy, and waking up near a ferry location on the way to Venice. This was in the summer of 1972, during my college years. For the next 15+ years I forgot about my football passion while being immersed in college premed studies, medical school, surgical residency, and development of a surgery practice. I was also a student of spiritual topics, natural healing, marriage, and child rearing. I forgot about the Crimson Tide for a while, but the passion resurfaced in my consciousness during the late 1980’s.

My time in a coffin…

On Friday October 23, 1992 images of my 2 sons and me were enshrined, along with others, in the 100 year coffin time capsule that is buried in front of the Bear Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A pedestal with a plaque marks the spot of the internment. The coffin is to be exhumed and opened on October 23, 2092.

What will football be like then?

1992 marked the Crimson Tide’s Centennial Year of football. A ceremony was held in front of the museum that afternoon. A videographer captured everyone present using the old VHS format. The VHS cassette was place in the coffin with a boat load of other memorabilia. I have set aside a television and an old VHS player for my grandchildren to pass on to their children with the hope that someone can make it to the 2092 ceremony. My oldest grandchild will be 80 years old then.

After enjoying the National Championship teams of Coach Bryant and Coach Gene Stallings over the years, fans of this football team will now get to enjoy many future championships under its best head coach yet, Nick Saban. The probability of multiple future championships under this coach is a certainty, and I think that Coach Saban will surpass Coach Bryant as the greatest college football coach. His Process oriented style of coaching closely approaches some of the best types of life coaching and spiritually oriented themes that could possibly be taught in such a collision sport.

My last Journal entry of September 17, 2009, mentioned the Crestone arrival and community presentation of my friend and mentor, Mark Macy. I devoted a Jounral entry, on June 16, 2009, to how I met Mark and his work, entitled Study Categories of Life After Life, III.

Mark’s colon cancer changed both of our lives forever. He has written about this experience in several of his 7 books, and on his earlier blog postings. His new web address is Macy Afterlife: The Beacon. His entries on how to improve oneself and the world are excellent, and represent over 2 decades of worldly and spiritual research.

In late February of this year, I found my self contemplating a kind of personal query. Football season was over; there were no more such distractions, excepting Crestone’s beauty and its interesting inhabitants. It seemed like the time had arrived to fish or cut bait over my quandary, let go, and discover some simple resolution to what was on my mind.

This discovery announced itself at a cremation ceremony conducted here for a friend and client named Greg, who passed on in late February. Greg was involved with The Crestone End of Life Project. His body was cremated one morning in an open air cremation ceremony.

Crestone is the only community in the United States which offers its inhabitants the option of open air cremation, a dignified, sensitive, and profound experience for all who attend. You can see Crestone End-of-Life Project for more information.

As Greg’s body was offered to the ether in that 4 hour cremation ceremony, I peered into an portal which brought some clarity to my minor identity crisis and human condition.

The next Crestone and Beyond entry will be my story of this ceremony, and how it affected me.

Signing off from Crestone and Beyond.

Associated Reading

1. How Alabama coach Nick Saban used psychology to build a football dynasty…a short article profiling how Nick Saban became associated with Process oriented thinking and living. Process thinking is very akin to the spiritual practice of mindfulness which taught in one form or another in most of the world’s great wisdom traditions.
2. Like Father, Like Son: For Nick Saban, There’s No Greater Compliment…a look into the West Virginia mountain community past which molded Saban.
3. Nick Saban’s Alabama Has Reached A  New Stratosphere…for those of us Crimson Tide fans who grew up in the Bear Bryant era of dominant Alabama football, the intense and long running success of Coach Nick Saban in this modern day age of college football program parity and competitiveness has been especially sweet, even more so than the Bryant years. It is unusual to sustain this level of consistency and excellence in any kind of life endeavor.
4. Thank You, Alabama…after winning the 2017 National Championship, star defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick, arguably the greatest player Saban has ever coached, celebrates his time in the football program with these words posted on February 14, 2018. This writing is an example of how peoples’ live are changed in ways that are difficult to quantify and qualify, but Minkah seems to do so in this tribute.
5. Saban Proving You Can Do It The Right Way Without Cheating…a simple article about doing things right.
6. Alabama football players build 17th house with Habitat for Humanity…Nick Saban’s football program is really a life skill building program to teach people how to interact with and contribute to a positive society. While Saban leads and trains his students in these life skills, they win championships. Here are some pictures of this event.
7. Nick Saban is ready for another season–and that’s just the beginning…the balance and realistic perspectives of Nick Saban and the football program he has created.
8. Why You Should Pull for Alabama…Monte Burke tells the story of how his grandfather indoctrinated him into the passion of Alabama football. Burke wrote a bestselling biography about Coach Saban which you can read about on Burke’s website.
9. How Nick Saban Keeps Alabama Football Rolling…the people at Fortune magazine think Nick Saban is one of the world’s greatest leaders. He ranks 12th on their listing of 50 great leaders. Here is a nice writing about the leader who keeps innovation flowing as the Crimson Tide rolls along.
10. It’s Not Just Saban or Alabama That Make This Team Great, It’s the Combination…an important point is made in this nice writing about how Alabama and Saban needed each other for more successes by the program and by the coach.
11. The Gift of a Legend: The Life and Legacy of Bear Bryant…this is who Coach Saban is in the process of surpassing in Alabama lore.
12. DNA of a Dynasty: How Nick Saban Built Alabama into the Greatest College Football Empire of All-Time…an in-depth look at the rise of the Alabama Crimson Tide football dynasty from 2008, and beyond.
13. Alabama Football: 25 Greatest Games in the Saban Era…the list as of the end of the 2017 National Championship. I posted this just so I could save the link somewhere and be able to come back from time to time in the future to remember and enjoy some of this unprecedented success.
14. Alabama vs. The World…a 9.5 minute video presentation of Alabama’s participation in the 2017 championship games against Clemson and Georgia…expressly made for Crimson Tide fans to savor and enjoy.
15. Nick Saban Has Six New Assistants–and Will Probably Still Win…the people at the NYT seem to have been processed also. This writing appeared before the start of summer training camp for the 2018 season.
16. Nick Saban Leadership Lessons: Winning is a Strategy…a Newsweek writer and author of leadership books takes a look at why Nick Saban is so successful as a leader. He defines 8 Saban strategies.
17. Nick Saban’s best press conference moments and rants!…here you can get a feeling for Coach’s personality.
18. How a 1968 high school title explains Nick Saban’s legendary career…an ESPN article published on 11-14-18 which details the history of high school quarterback Nick Saban at Monangah High School in Monangah, West Virginia.
19. Turning of the Tide: How Alabama’s 2008 season changed college football…a 14 minute video tells the story.
20. DNA of a Dynasty: How Nick Saban Built Alabama into the Greatest College Football Empire of All-Time…one of the finer articles that explains this phenomenon.
21. In the beginning…Nick Saban’s rise started at Toledo, and he’s never forgotten…the early days of Coach Saban’s career, which started at Toledo, are chronicled here.
22. As everyone chases Alabama, Nick Saban and the Tide relentlessly chase the best version of themselves…on the eve of playing to win another national championship, this article explains the Nick Saban and Crimson Tide version of how the program has achieved its perennial successes. Of course, the Tide lost the 2018 National Championship by 4 touchdowns. Is the dynasty over? Read #23, below to find out…
23. Alabama’s dynasty will never really be over…the best reporting and analysis of the subject yet, posted here on 2-10-19.
24. Long Before Alabama, the South Had Sewanee…the story of the 1899 Sewanee football team and the kind of mythical blueprint it set for southern football.
25. The men before the Bear that started the story of Alabama football glory…the early successes of Coaches Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas in their Rose Bowl victories and Bama’s first 4 National Championships. Bear Bryant came from the 1935 championship team. The Crimson Tide’s successes through the years was established on the foundation of these teams from the 1920s and 1930s.
26. The 50 best college football programs over 150 years…this writing, posted at the start of the 2019 football season, honors Alabama as the top program in college football over the past 150 years of the sport’s history.
27. Inside Alabama Football: Saban’s Way…The Athletic presents Armen Keteyian covering Nick Saban and his Alabama football program in 3 short video segments. Posted on 9-10-19.
28. An appreciation of Nick Saban’s run of excellence at Alabama…fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide football program have traditionally been some of the most satisfied of all football fans. For the past decade, all credit for this goes to Nick Saban.
29. Why is Nick Saban Smiling? The answer goes beyond him leading Alabama to another title…posted here on 1-13-21 after Coach Saban and Alabama won its 18th National Championship. Saban has won 6 National Championship titles in the past 12 years, an unprecedented feat and will likely never be repaeted.
30. Jumbo Package: Wrapping up a remarkable season for a special group of young men…the 2020 season of college football was challenged by the SARS-CoV-2 crisis. This article celebrates this very special Crimson Tide football team.
31. Nick Saban Warned Us That He Was About to Break College Football, We Didn’t Listen…Saban won his early National Championships at Alabama with stout defenses. In 2014 he opened up Alabama’s offense to a different type of play in order to keep pace with the shift to the run-pass option (RPO) game that was being adopted across the nation. This article briefly chronicles the adaptability and wizardry of the old coach.
32. Nick Saban wins Bear Bryant coach of the year award, his first at Alabama…Named for Saban’s most famous and beloved Alabama coaching predecessor, the most prestigious of the college football coaching awards goes to the now greatest college football coach of all time…Nick Saban.
33. Nick Saban’s journey has been indescribable…in the wake of Nick Saban’s 7th National Championship victory, 6 of which were won at the University of Alabama in the past 12 years, is another good article celebrating one of the greatest human motivators and organizational leaders to ever live.
34. After watching leaked recruiting video, it’s now clearer than ever why nobody is on Nick Saban’s level…this leaked video of Saban conducting a virtual meeting with a high school recruit helps explain some of the wizard’s success at recruiting and program building.
35. Nick Saban Isn’t Stopping Anytime Soon…there are 4 reasons that college football coaches retire or move on. Saban has mastered or conquered all 4.
36. Saban Era At Alabama Not What Was Expected…a synopsis of Alabama’s great football coaches. “Those who predicted ‘no more than five years’ at Bama – mostly Alabama-haters – now have endured almost three times that, 14 years of ecstasy among Crimson Tide faithful, 14 of misery for the rest.”
37. How Jeff Allen became invaluable to Nick Saban and Alabama football…posted here on 1-9-22. On the eve of Alabama’s opportunity to win the 7th National Championship of Coach Nick Saban’s legendary career at Alabama, one person stands out as the glue of this amazing run of excellence. Here is a look into the importance of athletic trainer and Associate Athletics Director Jeff Allen.

Footballisms…here is a collection of penetrating football wisdom and silly folklore for the sake of your smiles and laughter.

“Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble the football”…. – John Heisman