University of Maryland Basketball Coach Gary Williams waves goodbye.
As I drove out to College Park to join the media frenzy covering the announcement at Comcast Center, I reflected upon those things Gary and I have in common.
We both are retiring from careers that we loved. We are both dinosaurs — him, 43 years coaching, and me, 37 years of working to improve the nation’s mail delivery. We both are Maryland alums, Terrapin Club members, give money to the university, and we both have seats at the Comcast Center. He, however, stands on the sidelines cajoling the referees; I do that from my seat in the upper deck.
At the press conference I got the answers to the why question.
It was his time to go, his way.
He realized it before others could pull the rug out from under him. He knew that coaching is a young man’s profession. That he gave that career his best years. That he is far richer now, especially with the basketball court to be named in his honor and the potential looming for an invitation to join his friends and colleagues in Springfield, Mass., at the Basketball Hall of Fame. He even has recently remarried, and he wants what he has been missing during time that spent on the road.
Add it all up — a no brainer, it’s time to go.
I recalled too how I went through the same thought process as I approach my pending retirement on May 31. So it was here at Comcast, in the ending, that we both shared one more thing in common — a new stage door in life.
Jim Morrison, lead singer of the fable Doors once said: “There are things known and things unknown, and there are only ‘Doors’ in between.”
Good luck, Gary, meet you on the other side.
Editor’s Note: The Town Courier is pleased to note that Phil Fabrizio will continue to take photographs for our paper and website.