Pep Talk: "Guts and Gusto!

It’s a chilly Friday night in the Mile High City, darling wife is away, Billy Joel’s playing in the background and I’m thinking of my old man. This day, the ninth of January, would have been his 84th birthday. Cancer took his life, but nothing can quench that man’s spirit.

That’s my pledge to him.

My mind wanders to the night before. At the usual A Stronger Cord Thursday night workout, this ol’ jock had encouraged and challenged the other gathered knuckleheads with, “Let’s have a great workout in honor of my old man.”

What a guy.

Challenges? You have challenges in life? Of course you do. We all do, right? Marvin Walter McIntosh, Jr. was the oldest male in a six pack of siblings. The oldest boy. His father - I never met him - checked out before my father was ten. His mom died shortly thereafter. Grandparents raised six kids. Dirt poor. Dad used to say, “We didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out.” I hope that doesn’t offend. It’s the truth.

But he never complained.

From a dirt poor and uneducated background rose a great man. A knucklehead for sure - tap dancing on bar tops in golf spikes - but a dude that rose above adversity, time and again. From quite humble beginnings the father of four cared for his kids, rose to outstanding business success and befriended a ton of folks who would have ran through a brick wall for a enthusiastic spirit who loved to organize golf gatherings.

So I’m sitting here on a cold Colorado evening with Joel cranking out “Say Goodbye To Hollywood” and, considering it would have been my golf buddy’s 84th birthday, somewhat pensively wondering, as Donovan sang long ago, "To catch the wind and play a round of golf with Dad.” He’s missed greatly.

And then I zoom back to the night before, when a bunch of knuckleheads from missions to mansions and everything in between came together for a wonderful workout that honored a guy affectionally called, “Marv Dog.”

We were, to steal a line from the beloved ’89 Colorado Buffaloes, “One Heart Beat.”

With gusto and guts, everybody poured heart and soul into a challenging workout. There was a spirit present on this night that, at least for this simple dude from Missouri, resonated with the ol’ man sitting up there, at the 19th hole after a round, shouting, “Way to go!”

That’s just the way Hacker Mac was. There were many bumps, physical, emotional, and financial along the road. He never allowed himself time to be a victim of them. He attacked life with guts and gusto. Trust me folks, it was not a walk in the park. Dad persevered. He never gave up.

The knuckleheads gathered for ASC’s Thursday “Sweat, bond and grow” gathering poured that kind of magic potion into the workout in honor of my old man. Pretty cool.

Guts and gusto. Worked for my father. It’ll work for us, too!