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278 I JOE KAPP, "THE TOUGHEST CHICANO "

how to win this one. He may be wounded, but not wounded forever.
His team will help! The family, doctors, nurses, and all us old athletes
he coached, we'll use our skills and talent and cunning and strength

to pull him through. And we'll pray. It's the fourth quarter. Mrs. Lewis
just called with the two-minute warning. Coach Lewis is facing the
game of his life.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1993
7:30 P.M.

Young Brian Lewis tried to phone me at home. He left this message
on my answering machine: "It happened .... Dad passed away today."
Standing alone in my small home office, the recorded words ring-
ing in my ears, I felt like I was in an elevator falling forty stories. A
part of me clung to the cruel possibility that some kind of mistake
may have been made. It was torture to imagine the truth. I had to call
his house. I wanted him to answer the phone himself.

I called and reached Mrs. Lewis.
"It's true, Joe," she said. "The Coach is dead."
Her voice was sad, tired, and in pain. But the words she spoke as
we continued talking demonstrated an inner strength that could only
exist in a woman who'd mothered six children and been married to
a high-school teacher for half a century. Don't forget, she shared
forty-eight winning and losing football seasons with Coach Lewis.
That provides a unique understanding of life's ups and downs. De-
spite her formidable stamina, she sounded vulnerable. I knew tears
were somewhere nearby, but she kept them harnessed. She sounded
tough, just like him.