FRONT-PORCH GOSPEL: Cool Hand Luke strikes again
The gospel sure comes in many, many forms.
We’ve traveled together for so long here; and you are well aware that our 50-year high-school reunion at Georgia’s LaGrange High School has had a great impact.
At this moment, we have stopped to write just before crossing the bridge over the majestic Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Ah, we’ve crossed that river, and we’ve crossed many rivers since this journey began.
50-years ago we crossed it in our final move from Georgia to Texas. But, now, we’ve gone back to that red clay again – in more ways than one – for the 100th time to reminisce.
The great theme that has reemerged many times these past days and weeks is just how good the Lord has been, so good indeed.
Many approached me this past weekend and commented about our writings about a certain Cool Hand Luke, the electric point guard for our high school team.
One of those people was a gentleman named Larry Cofield who came to our reunion having married a lady from the 1974 class. He was a hero himself to me back in the early 1970s. I want to tell you his story up ahead a bit, and the theme, again, is the same.
The Lord has blessed us all by giving us great influences and inspirations; and, ironically, in the process, we may have blessed others along the way without even knowing it.
More on that in the weeks ahead. For now, I want to introduce you to Cool Hand Luke.
Until a few springs ago, it had been 17 years since I had been in my old high school gym in that Georgia town not far from the Alabama line.
But during one of my semi-annual visits there, I dropped by to see if it still looked the same.
The gym did seem a little smaller than I remembered, but other than that it hadn’t changed much at all: the floor was set several feet lower than the stands with iron rails running along the edge, and the bleachers were made of about the same hardwood as the floor.
And it still had that kind of storybook feel that it had back then, as if it came right out of the “Hoosiers” movie.
A lot of good players came through that old high school playing for coach Dick Shrewsbury: There were Gray and Anderson, who formed one of the Grangers’ quickest backcourts ever in the early 1970s; there was Clinkscales, a guard who gained notoriety (to Coach Shrewsbury’s dismay) by putting the ball behind his back and dribbling through his legs before he’d shoot a free throw. (I heard he came up missing a few years ago, and there were bumper stickers all over town asking, “Where’s Kyle?” And to this day – despite recent tips and a renewed investigation – that question hasn’t been answered.)
There were other good players, too: Cofield, Boatwright, McHaffey, Pickett, and Kelly. Ah, I loved ole Kelly.
As far as I was concerned, none was any smoother than Kelly. Cool Hand Luke, we called him.
I had never seen anybody in Granger blue who could shoot going to his left the way Cool Hand could, even way back when he was in the seventh grade.
He’d glide down the baseline going left, and all of a sudden he’d be in the air floating above everybody else, as composed as a high-wire artist; and when the ball came down, it was always nothing but net.
That’s how I remember Cool Hand.
It was Cool Hand Luke who bailed out the Grangers in a big game against New County in 1973. With the score tied and time running out, Shrewsbury called time out and carefully designed the game-winning play – Give it to Luke.
Luke got the ball on the left wing with six seconds to go, went right, then spun back to his left in one fluid motion; and before you knew it, he was pulling up on the left baseline, soaring in mid-flight, and the shot was in the air. That shot floated about as softly as I’ve ever seen, but it landed more softly.
Cool Hand had done it again.
That moment and a hundred others passed through my mind as I stood looking over that gymnasium. It had been a long time since I walked across that old gym floor.
Before leaving, I couldn’t help but stop at that big “L” at center court and soak it all in for a moment. Finally, I shook my head nostalgically and started for the stairs. But then, a loose ball rolled to my feet near the left corner of the court. A kid in Granger blue shorts said, “Show me whatcha got.” I picked the ball up and dribbled left, skied the way Cool Hand used to do, then let it fly.
As I headed out the door, I could hear the gym thumping from the roar of the crowd and the feet stomping, and I could smell the fresh popcorn. I didn’t even have to turn and look to know the result.
Nothing but net.
Cool Hand had done it again.
Coach Steven Bowen, a long-time Red Oak teacher and coach, now enjoys his time as a writer and preacher of the gospel. And, after a ten-year hiatus, he’s also returned to work with students at Ferris High School as well.
In addition to his evangelistic travels, he works and writes for the Church of Christ of Red Oak at Uhl Road and Ovilla. Their worship times are 10 a.m. Sundays and 6:30 pm. Wednesdays. Email coachbowen1984@gmail.com or call or text (972) 824-5197.