Mom Taught Me to Do the Right Thing…

LSU basketball coach Dale Brown accomplished what most do not. “The Coach” became the remarkable man he aspired to be.

LSU Coach Dale Brown

Louisiana Legend. Basketball Hall of Fame Coach. SEC Coach of the Year. TV & Radio Analyst. Author. Speaker. Movie Consultant.

Who impacted his life? Who showed him the way?

Often, it’s moms who step in with that fatherly hand. These remarkable women bring in the bread, nurture as mothers and mentor as dads. Coach Brown had such a gift in his life.

It’s an inspiring story of Mom, written by Coach Brown for The Savvy Dad:

“I guess you could say that my story of faith started two days before I was born.

Two days before I was born, my so-called father—I’ve always referred to him as “my mother’s husband”—left my mother, two young sisters, eleven and twelve years of age, and me, and he never returned. His departure put my mother in a difficult position.

She had an eighth-grade education, came off the farm in North Dakota, and couldn’t get a job during the Great Depression in 1935. In the cold prairies of North Dakota, she had to do two things that were very unpleasant for her: she became a baby-sitter to earn money, and she had to put our family on welfare.

We lived in a one-room apartment above a bar and hardware store, and I remember my mother getting $42.50 in Ward County welfare each month. She sat down and meticulously decided what breads and canned goods we could buy for the coming week.

Several times during these difficult times, my mother taught me a lesson that has stayed with me during my entire life.

Two times, I saw my mother get on her winter coat, walk down a flight of stairs, and take back to the Red Owl and the Piggly Wiggly grocery stores 25 cents and 40 cents, because the clerks had given her too much change for the groceries she’d brought home.

Seeing her dressing in the middle of winter, I said, “Mama, where are you going?” She said, “Oh, I’m taking this money back to the store. They gave me too much change.”

It reminds me of a poem by Edgar Guest.

I’d rather see a lesson than hear one any day.
I’d rather you walk with me than to merely show the way.
The eye is a better teacher, and more willing than the ear.
And counsel is confusing but example’s always clear.
The best of all the teachers are the ones who live the creed.
To see good put into action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you let me see it done.
I can see your hand in action, but your tongue too fast may run.
And the counsel you are giving may be very fine and true,
But I’d rather get my lessons by observing what you do.

My mother followed the advise of St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century when he said, ‘Preach the gospel every day, and if necessary use words.’

I saw other lessons in the life of this woman who had no PhD behind her name. Not once, after being abandoned, did I hear my mother talk negatively about the man who had walked out on us and never returned, never sent any money, never wrote.

She didn’t drink, and she never smoked. I never heard her swear. She was never bitter, angry, or ever complained about her situation in life.

My mother taught me a great deal of things…but most of all she taught me to ‘do the right thing’!”