Remembering John Ware

This morning, the football coach at Missouri Southern State University passed away, sitting at his desk. He was 46 years old, and he was a great guy.

Coach Ware was the head coach at Truman when I was there, and was still the head coach when I started my career as a sportslady. He, fittingly, looked like a Bulldog-- big and intimidating-- but the man had the patience of a saint with me. Every Thursday during football season, I'd head over to campus, ask him some ridiculously inane questions about that week's game, and he'd always give me great answers... no matter how stupid the question was.

His wife, Melissa, is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She was the Sports Information Director at Truman, so I worked with her a lot-- sometimes on a daily basis. At one point, I told her that I was considering leaving the TV business, and had thought about maybe pursuing a career in Sports Information. The next day, she started emailing me job postings. At least once a week, she'd email me a couple dozen jobs that she'd seen in trade magazines.

I've already written out a sympathy card for her, though I really didn't know what to say. I guess I never really do. Most of my life, I never really had to deal with death. For the most part, everyone I knew who had passed away was an elderly relative. It's only in the last few years that people I know have died unexpectedly. And I have trouble understanding it.

I'm just kind of babbling now as I try to sort this out.
If you'd like to know more about Coach Ware, you can read about him here.