Coach Bob Timmons
I think it is safe to say that Bob Timmons had a pervasive influence on a large number of persons at East High School. This included his athletes, but also their families and their friends. A coach is really a teacher. Most coaches teach athletes 
how to master the techniques of their sports, and how to compete and prepare for competition. Bob Timmons went far beyond athletics. He was a teacher of higher-level concepts, including those related to achieving excellence, goal setting, personal best, honesty, integrity, loyalty, ethics, and morality. More importantly, Bob had his athletes during the formative years of their lives. He was able to make the higher-level concepts he taught part of our DNA. His famous question, “Do you think that is the best you can do?” became part of the ether of Wichita back in the years when he was coaching swimming with the Wichita Swim Club and track, cross country and swimming at East.
I don’t think he realized the importance of having his kids during their formative years at the time, but he came to realize this at KU. He remarked to me one day, “You know Jonathan, I just don’t seem to be able to connect with my ‘kids‘ at KU the way I did at East.” What he was talking about is that by the time young men and women get to college, their personalities and characters are formed. As a rule, it takes a force majeure to change them.
In 2001, I worked with Bob to create and write a piece entitled, “The NCAA: Who Protects Student Athletes?” This paper was published in 2002. It was distributed to all members of the NCAA. These are the presidents of colleges and universities that are the members of the NCAA. Student representatives to the NCAA at member institutions also received copies. The piece was sent to all major newspapers and TV networks in the United States. It also was sent to members of Congress, the Senate and the White House.
The purpose of this piece was to stimulate discussion of what Bob saw as major abuses of college athletes by the NCAA and the relationship between the NCAA and member institutions. This relationship includes conflicts of interest and corruption at the expense of college athletes. (NB: The term “student athletes” is a contrivance of lawyers at the NCAA who were fighting off an antitrust investigation and hearings by congress.) Being the man he was, Bob chose to try and work within the NCAA system. His approach was to encourage the NCAA to adopt a bill of rights for athletes similar to the first ten amendments that are part of our U.S. C
onstitution.
In December 2002, Bob and I traveled to Saranac, NY to a meeting of academics, coaches, and sports writers. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss abuses of power by the NCAA. The picture at right was taken at that meeting.
The Student Athletes Bill of Rights (BOR) was an interesting exercise. The MAN was famous for his have-fun-helping-me-paint-this-fence approach to engaging others. Bob and I remained very close over the years. We talked frequently, and when I needed to have my spirits lifted, the sound of Bob’s voice always did the trick. He was an amazing influence on my life. So, when Bob called me in 2001 asking for my thoughts and suggestions on his idea of a bill of rights for the NCAA, it was the start of an amazing journey. Bob had many great talents. Writing, research, and constructing logical arguments were not among them. The BOR took many months to complete. Among other things, I needed to clarify just what the hell Bob was trying to say, put it in a coherent form, do research to bring together data and case examples to support his points, etc. Then came drafting, redrafting, redrafting, and redrafting the text of the piece. The final BOR is the 130th draft. 130. In late June 2002, I finally put a stop to this drill, which was by then converging by increments to the X axis. At the time I said no mas, the MAN was in his hospital room recovering from a heart episode. Turned out that Bob was out moving stones in a wall at Rim Rock Farm in 95 degree heat. On the way home, he apparently lost consciousness and ran his truck off a bridge into a creek bed. Ergo, the ER and then into the hospital.
The day after Bob got out of the ICU and into his room for rest and recovery, I get a call at 06:00 EDT from Bob. He wanted me to send the “final” draft of the BOR to him that morning — so he could look it over “one more time” before it went to the printer. (A drop-dead manufacturing slot was already scheduled.) I sent a PDF file to the Kinko’s nearest the hospital in Lawrence. A little before 9:00 EDT, Bob had his copy. About 11:00, Bob called back saying he needed more time to see if there were some changes to be made. (Remember, we are talking about draft 130.) What he had in his hands was letter perfect; Bonnie had done the final page layout; the PDF files were flight-checked for manufacturing.
Everyone knows my personality by now. Rather than say, “Bullshit” to Bob’s idea, I decided to use the man’s psychology on the man. In the softest tone of voice I could muster, I asked Bob if he thought the BOR was “the best you can do.” That phrase hangs in ether in Wichita. It always will. He then said, “I don’t know, but I think so.” My reply was that if the latest draft was the best he could do, we had a printing reservation, and in a sense, we had crossed the finishing line or touched the end of the pool. I reminded him that at the end of every race, he would ask us if we had done the best we could do. “If that was the case, then you, my dearest friend, have done it. It is time to take pride in what you have done, which has been created out of whole cloth. No one has done anything close to what you have achieved. I will take everything from here on.” Amazing restraint, eh.
To my surprise, the MAN bought it with no push back. File under it’s a big wheel that does not go around.
Within a week, pallets of the Bill of Rights were through manufacturing and ready for us to send out. In print manufacturing, a printer always requires the publisher to make a trip to the plant to review a color cover under pure white light. This had been done.
I immediately shipped Bob a copy via FedEx. I got a call from the MAN. He was ecstatic. Not with the content and printed Student-Athletes Bill of Rights, but with the color of the cover. It was KU blue.
You get the idea.
