Gary Patterson and Coach P — they’re a good pair. They’re college football’s toughest duo. The two coaches are both tough and smart and hard-working and unrelenting. They’re not afraid to speak truth to power and they are both great motivators of men. They’re both coaches who have survived ups and downs and yet they always manage to find a way to win.
Gary Patterson is a man of few words. Coach P rarely speaks publicly, but when he does, he says what he feels. He says what he wants to say. And the message he wants to communicate is simple: TCU is a football program with a rich history. There are no shortcuts. There is no secret formula. There is no secret player. It is important to know the history of the program. It is important to know the history of the program. It is important to know the history of the program.
FORT WORTH, Texas - In the 21 years that Gary Patterson has now been head coach of TCU, he has been on the biggest stages, such as… B. by winning the Rose Bowl in 2011, when his little Mountain West-era Horned Frogs beat an undefeated Wisconsin team and made football history.Patterson is a Hall of Fame coach who leaves a lasting impression. He gestures violently, sweating through his shirt and screaming until he loses his voice. This man, in his opinion, is Coach P.
Nobody wants to be Coach P, Patterson joked last week in his office overlooking the football field at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
My whole life, I’ve been seen on game days for three hours, and I’m very stressed. My [players] will stick their heads in here and ask: Who’s with me today? Coach P or Gary?
The answer, he said, depends on his question.
Most of us don’t get to see Gary. He grew up in Roselle, Kansas (population 150), and was so successful in school plays that he was offered a theater scholarship to Wichita State. He also sang and played guitar for about 10 years in a band called Walk on Easy, which performed at parties and in various garages in the Roselle area.
All these years later, Gary is on stage at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, Texas, giving everything he’s got. Although Patterson’s workplace is just six miles away from the icon known as the world’s greatest Honky Tonk, it’s not the place you’d expect to see one of the greatest football coaches of the modern era with an acoustic guitar on a Wednesday night in June.
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But it’s not exactly a breeze for Patterson, who has been writing songs for most of his life and released two songs, Game On and Take A Step Back, on streaming services last year while football was on hiatus during the pandemic.
These songs earned the coach about 74,000 streams on Spotify, which earned him a nice $9.08 check and also validated his life choices on how he makes a living.
But for Patterson, it was a chance to show a more casual side to the public. Although these two songs focus more on his state of mind during a tumultuous 2020, Patterson also has his share of acoustic ballads.
I think that’s one of the characteristics of these songs - you want people to understand your story. I just wanted to say mine. You’re shocked. How can a 61 year old man acting like this sing a Lonely Blue Eyes song about someone he knew when he was 27? I mean, it can’t be the same person.
But Skip Rice, who attended the show, was a believer.
A coach’s voice is different than any other voice. He’s penetrating, said Rice, who noted that even as a graduate of Texas A&M, he’s willing to give compliments. He has the voice of a coach. When he sings, we hear his message.
Patterson and Fin Ewing III, a Dallas-based car dealer, philanthropist and TCU alumnus, both got the chance to make their dreams come true on the stage of Billy Bob’s Restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas. Patrick Greene Photography
The show turned out to be a charity event for the Patterson Foundation, co-founded with Fort Worth-born and Grammy-nominated singer Leon Bridges and called The Big Good. It was a chance for him to team up with an old friend, Phin Ewing III, a Dallas car dealer and philanthropist, TCU alumnus, long time Cotton Bowl committee member and another man living the dream of his alter ego.
A few years ago, Ewing read that anyone could become a singer. At the age of 58, without any musical training, he decided he wanted to give a concert. He took singing lessons, put together a band of 13 musicians, some of whom are among the most experienced in the region - Milo Dearing, his violinist, has recorded with Madonna, Garth Brooks and the Eagles, for example - and started putting on a show. He always wanted the finished product, Fin Ewing & the Wrong Direction, to play at Billy Bob’s, and with Patterson they got it done.
I said to Fin: You and I will always have that bond, said Patterson, who noted that achieving other goals gives him energy to keep working.
We were on that stage. This is our story.
This partnership provided an ideal environment for a football coach to perform as a musician. Having an All-Pro group is the same as having an All-Star second group. You don’t have to worry about making a lot of mistakes because they will always help you look good. And it’s especially gratifying after the busiest June of Patterson’s career, when a rapid influx of recruits resumed following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
It was seven days a week for us, Patterson said. Unofficial practices were held Monday through Wednesday this year. On Thursday and Sunday there were camps for 400 children which started at 1pm and lasted until 8pm, 9pm, 10pm and 11pm. The official visits took place on Friday and Saturday. I mean, it was seven days a week. On 1. We started the work in June.
The show went off without a hitch, although Patterson’s busy schedule meant few rehearsals. This was Ewing’s show, and for about three hours he performed as singer, master of ceremonies and master of ceremonies. Also on the show was TCU alumni J.T. Hodges, a singer who is Patterson’s co-writer and songwriting partner, and Heather Morgan, another singer who has written songs recorded by Keith Urban, Brett Eldredge, Kenny Chesney and others. The singing frogs were everywhere.
Ewing’s band is tailor-made for such occasions - they played at a wedding Saturday, Billy Bob’s restaurant Wednesday and a concert in Whitefish, Montana, Friday - with a variety of covers and party songs. Ewing splits it between the band members and the backing vocalists, who take turns at the mic, which always works out well.
I know why you’re all here, Ewing said at the beginning of the event. So we have Coach Patterson here, where Coach performed a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising.
The first time in a long time with a song on stage! Thanks to everyone who participated! Great party! pic.twitter.com/ayCtCeHY90
- Gary Patterson (@TCUCoachP) July 1, 2021
Patterson seemed relaxed, singing songs he had barely practiced. If you’re used to doing your normal job in front of 100,000 people, it quickly changes your perspective when you sing in front of 800 people, he says.
The hardest thing for me is to see how the forwards get the ball every 8-10 seconds, Patterson said. So you have to see the formation and the personnel group and come up with the right play about 60 to 70 times, hoping to do better than them. It’s much harder than memorizing all that [music].
A table full of TCU assistant coaches spent the holiday evening clapping, singing and cheering for their coach. The former drummer of Patterson’s school band came from Kansas to check it out. Elsewhere, students and older fans in cowboy hats mingled on a surreal Wednesday night, watching a football coach and a well-known car dealer swap stories and songs on a distinctly Texan stage.
I think it takes a city that lets him do both, said Brian Dove, one of the fans in attendance. I think it’s great that Fort Worth wants Gary to be Gary.
Patterson called Billy Bob’s appearance on the legendary stage a boxing test, a chance to prove he could do something and a hope to expand his philanthropic efforts. Last year, the Patterson Foundation distributed more than 19,000 turkeys to families in Dallas-Fort Worth for the holidays, and there was a line of cars 3 miles long waiting to pick one up. This year, Patterson hopes to get as many as 25,000 turkeys, big enough to feed four or five people, in partnership with Bridges.
So he raised some money, did some witty things, and helped Ewing fill out his own wish list. But now, what Patterson calls his one-night stand is over.
The singing season is over and the talking season begins again when the Big 12 media days take place on the 14th. Early July. Patterson is looking forward to a season where he thinks the Frogs have a chance to be really good, and says this team has the best chemistry in years.
I love playing music, but not as much as this, Patterson said before a glass table dotted with watches and rings collected during a remarkable career at TCU. I took over the game for the third time at Cal-Berkeley [opening for the Frogs on the 11th. September]. Now I start writing scripts for two days and doing all that.
The guitar is back in the corner of a room in his house. Soon after, Coach P loses Gary’s voice again.
I think everybody wants to be Garth Brooks, you know? But this creativity has gone on the defensive. You can’t do both.
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