From Ashes to Glory

by Bill McCartney with Dave Diles

This review by Edwin M. Willmington

Many of us guys are both sports fans and Promise Keepers these days. With those common interests, I wanted to read From Ashes to Glory — the autobiography (with help from Dave Diles) of Bill McCartney. Many of you know that Bill has, for the past few years, been the highly successful coach of the University of Colorado football team. He also was the founder of, and is at the forefront of, the Promise Keepers movement for men. I thought this book would provide some interesting background on what made this leader tick. Since it was a revision of a pre-Promise Keeper book, it doesn't spend as much time on the Promise Keeper side of his life as I would have liked, but it was a good sports book.

Like many people who have a strong public profile, Bill McCartney was not always as we came to know him — head coach of a major college football team. Bill actually got into head coaching in basketball before football. He started out as a basketball coach and football assistant coach in a Detroit parochial high school. Later, he became head high school football coach and won a state title. From there he became an assistant at the University of Michigan and then on to Colorado to try to resurrect a very lifeless football program. Rejuvenating a football program is not easy, and the steps that Bill went through in that process are most interesting for any of us who are in leadership. The book traces his dealings with school officials, high school recruits, assistant coaches, alumni, and the like. It almost sounded like some of the things we in music ministry go through — choir members, church boards, pew sitters, pastoral staff members, etc! Bill's up and down path to the top — a national championship — provides good modeling for priorities in making strategic moves and staying optimistic in spite of very real, difficult circumstances.

The book parallels Bill's professional life with his personal life. Often we see high profile people — whether in coaching or ministry — only in their public role. From Ashes to Glory presents an honest view of the "real" life going on around Bill McCartney. He had some really tough issues to work through. Not only was it tough to be an above board recruiter, but he had some personal struggles to deal with. Probably the toughest was with his daughter, Kristy, who became pregnant by the quarterback of the Colorado football team. Can you imagine that? So between caring for his daughter, coaching the quarterback, anger with the situation, we get a good look at how a man handles difficult situations. Someone once said that "burden is born out of experience." It is easy to see from the personal life of Bill McCartney how his experiences were the necessary preparation for the Promise Keepers movement. Oh, by the way, that quarterback accepted the Lord into his life through the witness of Bill! Could you or I have done that?

I think a real unique and sometimes startling feature of the book are the excerpts from Bill's personal journal and short statements from others who had contact with him over the years of his career. Through those comments you get a good feel about the credibility of the man in his work and home. You also get a clear picture of how tough it is to be misunderstood by both the press and family. Dealing openly with failure came through in the journal outtakes as well. The candid nature of some of the comments is sometimes somewhat shocking — though highly realistic and honest. Some of Bill's feelings of getting caught short between some of his convictions and actions that become clear in these clips led to his eventual decision to resign from his coaching position to spend more time with his family. When his whole life had been spent coaching, that decision took a lot of intestinal fortitude! Throughout the whole book — especially the journal entries — you catch the process of how Bill took God into his life and how that continual wrestling relationship lived itself out.

I enjoyed the book. It certainly is not tough reading. At the same time, for a male leader in a home, business, and/or church, there were some valuable insights to learn from and observe. If you have any comments or questions raised by any of the issues in the book, please let me know by e-mail at: emw@shepherdsstaffmusic.com

EMW

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