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Aging Like a Fine Wine - The Tim Kish Interview
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Apr 16, 2024
On this episode Mel Greenberg talks with Tim Kish, renowned American football coach and mentor. Listen in as he shares his storied career and the meaningful work he continues to champion with the National Football Foundation. Find out how retirement hasn't slowed him down but instead fueled his passion to make a lasting difference. Tune in for an uplifting discussion that will leave you feeling inspired and motivated. Life Uncorked, where every story gets better with time. #lifeuncorked #aginglikeafinewine #Footballcoach
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[Music]
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hello everyone welcome back to another
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episode of life uncor I'm super excited
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to introduce you to my guest who's also
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a good friend Tim Kish he is an American
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football coach with quite a storyed
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career at some top schools you may have
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heard of I don't know Purdue Illinois
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Ohio Arizona Oklahoma and even now in
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retirement because no one really retires
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anymore do they Tim is continuing to
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mentor and change lives through his work
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with the National Football Foundation as
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southern Arizona's chapter president so
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without further Ado hey Timmy how are
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you welcome I'm doing great Mel thank
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you so much for uh humbling me and uh
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asking me to be a part of this today
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well I appreciate your time and I know
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our community is really going to
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appreciate your story because it's
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inspirational it's not without its
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challenges and detours along the way and
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how did you end up at this point in your
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life life now with the nff and doing
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what you're doing uh my dad was my
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biggest influence uh in my life my dad
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was a high school and college basketball
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coach and uh as a matter of fact uh yeah
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my brother was a H coach as well and my
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sister might as well have been a coach
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because she was in theater and uh was a
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director so all of us kind of tied into
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my dad's uh uh work life and uh but he
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was so influential to all three of us
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that uh it made it pretty easy for us to
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head in that direction my first job out
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of college was at uh Marymont High
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School in Cincinnati Ohio and I was an
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assistant basketball and football coach
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there so I really wasn't sure what
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direction I was going to go in and then
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I applied for uh uh the master's program
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at Bowling Green State University and
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they had a graduate assistant job open
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there in football so I left Cincinnati
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after two years and went to Bowling
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Green got my Master's Degree football
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seemed to be the direction I was heading
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in but I still wasn't 100% sure 41 years
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later and coaching at the highest level
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in division one I guess football was the
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right sport for me to pick so a good
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choice I was at West Point coaching the
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Army football team for eight years which
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was a wonderful experience in 2003 Mike
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uh hired me here at the
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UA um and I was thrilled to come to
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Tucson after I left Arizona I went to
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Oklahoma and worked for his brother Bob
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for another eight years and worked with
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Bob STS until he retired and then
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Lincoln Riley my last two years so we uh
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just played in our third
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semifinal uh FBS final four and
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unfortunately lost Alabama and the
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Orange Bowl and I've been thinking about
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it for a a while but I decided it was
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time to retire and pass the Baton so we
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just loved our time here in Tucson um
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our kids grew up here uh two of them
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went to the University of Arizona one
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went to AIO State I don't know why did
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the stay but that's okay uh but we knew
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in our minds we always wanted to come
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back here and live and so for one year I
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didn't want to watch football but I'd
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never been to a tailgate and so I went
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to three Gates down at U OFA what was it
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like being on the other side your first
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time walking down it seems like
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everybody's in a good mood they're
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excited for the game and uh I didn't
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know what I was missing out on
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Mel and then uh the second or third year
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I I was here uh one of the board members
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from this nonprofit the National
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Football Foundation Southern Arizona
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chapter called me up and asked me if I'd
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be interested in being on on part of the
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board and then I uh I talked to Angela
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about that my wife and I said you know I
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think this could really be a good
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organization and she goes well why don't
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you suggest something and raise your
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hand well you know what happens when you
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raise your hand and in May of uh 2 uh
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let's see it was
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2022 uh I actually became president of
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the organization what inspires you at
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this point well uh that's another good
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question and I I can tell you this you
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know after 43 years as a coach um it was
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my livelihood but it wasn't my life so I
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prioritized I mean family and friends
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were the most important thing to me uh
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and always have been um so when we moved
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back to Tucson I was trying to figure
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out well what does retirement look like
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you know and uh I knew I wanted to pay
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it forward uh in some capacity so this
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nonprofit was is going to be my way to
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stay connected in football and uh get
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back to the community that I really uh I
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really deeply care about and uh I want
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to know what ways we could support uh
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football and grow the game of football
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in Southern Arizona so we we started
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developing a kind of a road map for what
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we wanted to get accomplished we have 45
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high schools under our umbrella it's
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basically everything south of Phoenix
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one thing that's really pretty cool I
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think so we started going to the high
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schools themselves and presenting the
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awards there so that the kids could have
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it in front of their peers and uh we
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will go during
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end of the year assembly a senior
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recognition night uh whatever it is that
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uh the administrators want us to do then
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we'll show up at those particular
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schools and uh hand those Awards out and
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that's been really really uh a home run
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for us I can attest to that having
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visited the Showcase outside Phoenix
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what you're doing to change these young
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men's lives and their Futures and
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presenting opportunity for them to be
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seen by schools that maybe they wouldn't
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have the chance to be seen by and I
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think I'm going to ask you how you want
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to be remembered I know I can say that
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so many of the players will remember you
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and how you touched their lives how do
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you want to be remembered well that's a
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that's a good question and I'm I I've uh
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I've got a few answers for that I think
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but I know it's a cliche but uh you know
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I think at the end of the day I just
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hope I could make a the world a little
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bit better than when I found it and uh I
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ha I like you said I hope I can make a
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small difference uh in the lives of the
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Youth of our community and in turn um
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inspiring them to be Future Leaders uh
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who positively impact our
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community um our hashtag is helmet on
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helmet off and I created that two years
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ago I asked people I said well what do
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you think this means and I've heard
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every answer Under the Sun but what it
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really means is we want to stay with
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them when they put their helmet on for
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the first time and we'll stay there with
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them until they take it off the last
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time you touched so many lives and to
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your hashtag helmet on helmet off I love
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that you said you got so many answers
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about what that means because what went
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through my head when you said it is what
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we've always believed that it's what you
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do on the field is as important as what
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you do off the field and I feel like
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you're you have made a difference while
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they're on the field with you but now
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they're going out into the real world
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world and taking those lessons you know
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and Grace with them and bringing it back
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to you to share in their Glory it's
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wonderful closer to home though I think
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I could say you know I I wish I I hope I
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can be remembered as a good uh a good
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husband and a good father um now a good
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grandfather on top of that a good
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brother and uh my friends are so
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important to me I really hope that I can
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be considered a good friend I was lucky
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because my parents passed on to me how
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important it was
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to uh be a responsible adult respect
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others and uh and be a good citizen and
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a good parent and uh so as a parent they
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say happiness is when you realize that
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your kids have turned out to be
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wonderful and amazing kids so all three
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of mine my two daughters Megan and Emily
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and my son
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Michael uh have done just that for me
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and for my wife Angela so we're we're
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very very proud of that what's next Tim
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Kish well uh so I was very fortunate
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when I was in Norman Oklahoma to
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befriend uh a gentleman that uh was a
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pretty good country western singer and
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he was a big sooner fan and he came to a
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lot of our home games and he'd always
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come to our bowl games and and U and his
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name is Kobe Keith and uh unfortunately
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uh he just passed away at the age of 62
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from stomach cancer and it was very sad
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time for all of us that knew him because
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he uh was a wonderful human being he was
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so humble um so I'm going to share a
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little story with you um he was out in
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California golfing uh with Clint
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Eastwood and at the time Clint Eastwood
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was making the movie The
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Mule and um he had just uh wrapped it up
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it had just finished uh uh being edited
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and it was going to be uh uh on the
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market uh in the next couple months and
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um he and Clint were playing golf and
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Clint's like 90 something I I can't
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honestly remember exactly how old he is
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right now but I think I'm pretty close
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and uh he uh Toby asked Clint why they
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were playing golf he says well what
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keeps motivating why are you why are you
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doing this at this age and he said he
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turned to him and he said uh Toby he
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says you can't let the old man in and uh
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Toby went back to Norman I don't know if
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you know the story or not he uh was so
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inspired by what Clint would told him
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that he wrote a song he said it took him
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30
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minutes and he said he just did it for
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Clint and he sent it to Clint he
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recorded Ed it he sent it to Clint Clint
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said I'm putting it in my movie um he
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says it's so Dynamic and um and uh so uh
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they ended up putting it in the in the
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movie The Mule uh we got to think about
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the choices that we're going to make in
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the fourth quarter so um that's one
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thing I'm going to try to do is not let
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the old man in those are great mantras I
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think for everyone and and
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to this the don't let the old man in it
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encompasses so much depth
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and um thought to this time in our lives
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that it's a beautiful reminder that we
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don't have to and you don't you are
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active and vibrant and making a
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difference every day still and I suspect
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you will as long as you possibly can and
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I really really thank you for joining us
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today and taking your time to talk with
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the community and keep making the most
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of your fourth quarter Kish thank you so
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much well Mel it was a pleasure I
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certainly appreciate having the
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opportunity like I said before to to be
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uh with you today and uh um look forward
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to uh us carrying on our our fourth
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quarter in a good way so all right
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everybody we will see you next time on
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Aging like a fine wine ciao
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[Music]
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