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Coach George Allen: A Football Life
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Mar 22, 2023
Today I welcome author Lee Elder to The Author's Spotlight to talk about his newest book, Coach George Allen: A Football Life. If you are a Coach Allen fan you will not want to miss this conversation about how the book came to be some stories behind it. #football #coachgeorgeallen #footballcoach #footballbook #footballlife Some Highlights: 0:00:00 Lee Elder: A Journey from Broadcasting to Writing + 0:04:12 Lee on His Latest Book, “Coach George Allen” + 0:06:35 Conversation about George Allen’s College Coaching Years + 0:11:12 Conversation about George Allen’s Leadership Style + 0:13:10 Lee Elder: Winner of the Nelson Ross Award + A Little About Lee Elder: Lee is the executive director of the Professional Football Researchers Association, a San Diego State grad, and a proud inductee into the Imperial Valley High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. He began his writing career as a sportswriter, having to come up with five or six stories every day. Following that, he spent 23 years as a PR rep in the auto racing industry. Coach George Allen Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GeorgeAllenbook Pick up a copy of his book here: https://amzn.to/3MiBqJG Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCjBTUcA8l26hDXTDBySyBuw Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/carenglasser Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carenglasserlive Follow us on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/carenglasser
View Video Transcript
0:00
Spotlight make sure to say hi in the
0:02
comments and tell us where you are
0:04
watching from today I'm excited about
0:07
our show because we are diving deep with
0:09
best-selling author Lee Elder the
0:11
executive director of the professional
0:13
football researchers Association he's
0:15
also a San Diego State grad who majored
0:18
in radio TV journalism and was a sports
0:21
broadcaster and sports writer early in
0:23
his career and is a proud inductee into
0:25
the Imperial Valley High School football
0:27
coaches Hall of Fame as a journalist he
0:31
also spent 23 years as a PR rep in the
0:33
auto racing industry so without further
0:36
Ado I am thrilled to welcome back to the
0:38
show Lee Elder how are you today
0:41
Karen it's good to see you again how's
0:43
everything with you everything is
0:45
awesome I am excited to have you on the
0:48
show because of a couple of things but
0:51
you have some really great news that
0:53
we're going to talk about later on but
0:55
we're going to talk about your book
0:57
Coach George Allen but before we do that
1:01
I'd like to talk a little bit about your
1:03
journey uh to becoming a writer because
1:06
it's if you didn't just roll over
1:08
yesterday and say I think I'm going to
1:09
write a book about you know coach George
1:11
Allen you have an actual history behind
1:14
you and how many books do you have
1:16
published right now
1:17
uh right now I have 20.
1:20
okay so you're not a newcomer you're not
1:22
a newbie in this
1:23
um and you have lots and lots of books
1:25
what's that Journey been like when you
1:27
decided to pick up the pen for the very
1:29
first time and put those words
1:32
to paper
1:33
well uh the first five years that I was
1:38
a writer I mean I was in broadcasting
1:40
before that but I was a sports writer
1:43
and I had to come up with five or six
1:44
different stories about ball games every
1:47
day and they had to be concise they had
1:50
to be six eight inches or shorter so I
1:52
had to learn how to write tight and I
1:55
think that gave me some discipline I
1:56
wouldn't have had otherwise
1:57
and then I moved into the public
2:00
relations business and then I started
2:02
writing magazine length treatments so
2:04
luckily for me the need the professional
2:07
need kept stretching me a little bit and
2:10
when I finally wrote that Bloody Hill uh
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I got stretched like I'd never been
2:14
stretched before and it was it was a
2:16
long learning process but
2:19
from head to fingertips you just have to
2:22
get yourself into what I call condition
2:23
writing condition
2:25
and that was a long learning process but
2:28
it was
2:29
uh self-fulfilling
2:32
and you actually have a process you
2:34
write a certain amount of words every
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day don't you
2:37
I demand that I write a thousand words a
2:40
day every day not necessarily always in
2:43
a book but frequently it is in a book
2:46
but that'll include blogs that'll
2:48
include texts that'll include letters
2:50
emails that I write to people but I
2:53
always force myself to write a thousand
2:55
words a day because it's like jogging if
2:57
you don't jog every day you won't be
2:59
able to jog you'll be terrible you'll be
3:01
out of shape if you don't write every
3:02
day it's exactly the same thing right I
3:05
mean it obviously works for you
3:08
um and and you continue to write now you
3:11
also did a book
3:12
um with our friend
3:14
um Buck Weber let's talk a little bit
3:16
about that first because we actually had
3:18
you all came on the show and we talked
3:20
about it how fun was that because that
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was very much a fiction
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it sure was in fact we've written three
3:28
um but
3:30
the two of us working together was uh
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well we talked about it before it was it
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was just the latest part of this long
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friendship that we've had we've known
3:39
each other better than 40 years yeah and
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working together in a creative sense was
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about as much fun as you can have he's
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as you know he's one of the great guys
3:48
one of the great people in the world and
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when we were able to work together on
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something that was creative I know he
3:55
enjoyed it because he hadn't done that
3:56
kind of thing before and I enjoyed it
3:57
because I just he's my buddy and I love
4:00
writing so
4:01
that was a great deal of fun do you
4:04
encourage you know friends to get
4:06
together and do things like this because
4:07
I've heard that you know you you should
4:09
never mix your personal with your
4:11
professional career but I think this is
4:13
a little different right you guys took
4:15
your love for the genre and you you
4:18
wrote this
4:20
you know it depends on the person
4:22
generally speaking mixing business and
4:24
pleasure is not always a successful plan
4:28
but with Bucky Weber and I it worked out
4:31
very well like I said we've written
4:32
three books together and we've written a
4:35
fourth what I would call a treatment
4:37
it's a short story that we want to put
4:40
out uh we want to put on Kindle for free
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just to entice people to get interested
4:44
in the other three books that we've
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written we haven't published that yet
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we're working on it great idea that's
4:49
that's
4:52
let's just dive into the new book this
4:55
is It's called Coach George Allen and
4:57
you are friends with maxfields who
4:59
played for Allen at Whittier College and
5:01
as a matter of fact you quote him
5:03
frequently in this book
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um because he pushed you to write this
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book for years right so he pushed you
5:09
but how did it end up being this kind of
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book
5:13
well uh Max and I met when I lived in
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the Imperial Valley and
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um he told me all of his George Allen
5:20
stories from when he played it for Alan
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at Whittier
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and so all these years later when I got
5:25
a chance to write the book I called and
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I said okay you have to tell me all the
5:27
same stories but this time I'm taking
5:29
notes so that made him laugh
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um so that was sort of planting the seed
5:34
and then years later after I wrote that
5:37
Bloody Hill uh the people at McFarland
5:40
said we'd like you to write a football
5:42
book and I said all I've got is is
5:44
George Allen and I want to call it turn
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around about his first two years with
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the Rams and they very intelligently
5:50
said that's a terrible idea but if you
5:52
write a full biography no one's done
5:55
that that will sell
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and the more I thought about it the more
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I knew they were right so
6:01
um this all came together that way but
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the reason that Allen was the the real
6:06
subject is I sat next to my dad at a lot
6:09
of football games at the Coliseum and we
6:11
saw a lot of George Allen games
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and that that treatment that that feel
6:19
of my dad was with me as I researched
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and wrote and so this became quite a
6:24
quite a unique experience
6:27
and in order to do this you had to
6:29
really dive deep right you
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you could
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because you wanted to you really wanted
6:38
to write what was eventually going to be
6:40
this original idea of doing a biography
6:42
but very little was written about him so
6:44
can you shed a little light on what it
6:47
was like when he was in his college
6:49
years coaching is it was it different
6:51
I'm not a sports girl in any way shape
6:53
or form so if I'm not even using the
6:55
right terminology I'm assuming you're
6:57
going to say no no that's not how you
6:58
say it but he was a college he has a he
7:01
was very active in the college Arena
7:04
yeah he he started his first coaching
7:06
assignment as a head coach was at
7:07
Morningside College in Sioux City Iowa
7:10
and uh then he went from there to
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Whittier College out there in Southern
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California
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and from there he became for one year
7:17
the receivers coach for the LA Rams in
7:20
1957.
7:22
the process of writing about Alan was a
7:26
little bit challenging in that there
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wasn't much written about his college
7:29
Years and I had to go find that stuff
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but I did thanks to Max and some of his
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teammates
7:35
but the big gold mine for me was at the
7:38
Pro Football Hall of Fame in the Ralph
7:40
Wilson research room
7:42
George Allen's papers are there there
7:45
was a fire at the Allen house the house
7:48
was declared a total loss the insurance
7:51
company got everything that was
7:52
salvageable and that meant every stick
7:55
of paper that was on George Allen's desk
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the insurance company had no idea what
8:00
to do with it they gave it to the Pro
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Football Hall of Fame wow and I went
8:04
through it
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and there were times getting now Karen
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you've talked to a lot of people you
8:09
understand what I'm about to say
8:11
I felt at times like I was walking
8:13
around in the mind of a genius because
8:16
he had a very academic approach to a lot
8:18
of things in terms of coaching he was a
8:20
very intelligent man he had a master's
8:22
degree in physical education he was
8:24
quite brilliant so when you go through
8:27
his deepest thoughts his scribbled notes
8:29
his long papers some of them that I
8:32
guess he wrote during his academic
8:33
career you really learn a lot and it was
8:36
a phenomenal experience especially for a
8:39
football guy
8:42
if I were to ask you what is one huge
8:46
nugget that when you
8:48
dug it out you literally went oh my
8:52
goodness I I had no idea was there
8:55
something that you just were so
8:56
surprised at
9:00
um yeah as a football guy
9:04
I was really surprised at the way he
9:07
went about team building
9:09
and it transfers through every bit of
9:13
his career
9:14
uh when he was at Morningside when he
9:17
was at Whittier they would have a
9:19
barbecue at a local park and his family
9:22
would be there and the kids thought they
9:23
were getting a free hamburger what he
9:25
was doing was building his team when he
9:28
was coaching at Whittier he did exactly
9:30
the same thing he did it when he was a
9:32
coach of the Rams he did it when he was
9:34
with the Redskins but the big thing the
9:37
really the thing that opened my eyes was
9:39
at Long Beach State
9:41
he had this relationship with the people
9:43
that ran Burger King
9:45
and so he would on either Thursday or
9:47
Friday have a truck come in and just
9:49
feed the kids feed the players and
9:51
they'd have milkshakes they'd play
9:53
horseshoes they'd do all these things
9:55
and he's building a team
9:57
and when I talked to some of the players
9:59
and when I talked to one of the
10:00
assistant coaches
10:02
that told me something about the way
10:04
that Alan put things together I was I
10:07
was it's just another piece of
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impressive information
10:11
it feels like it
10:14
it feels like he created the community
10:16
he created the team and he created sort
10:19
of like a family of individuals that
10:22
came back to be involved in all of this
10:26
um
10:27
when you when you wrote this book was it
10:29
your intention that Sports enthusiasts
10:32
football enthusiasts in particular would
10:35
say wow I've never heard us you know a
10:37
background story there's never been
10:38
anything written on him I'm going to get
10:41
this book are you also looking to hook
10:44
in new readers that
10:47
like myself and even my husband who who
10:49
said oh wow this is this is cool I don't
10:53
know much about him and now you're
10:54
pulling in some new readers that maybe
10:56
never even wanted thought to go look for
10:58
something like that so is it two-pronged
11:00
you're going after the existing yeah
11:03
it's and the reason is what I really
11:06
wanted to find out when I wrote this
11:08
thing
11:09
was how did he win why was he able to
11:11
turn losers into winners very quickly I
11:14
mean you and I both remember the 65 Rams
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they were terrible but in 66 they were
11:19
pretty good in the 67 they were in the
11:20
playoffs how did he do that that's what
11:22
I wanted to know
11:23
that transfers to business that
11:26
transfers to education that transfers to
11:29
all walks of life the ability to turn
11:31
things around and I wanted to know how
11:33
he did it
11:34
so I think that a non-football person
11:37
will read it and see some some pieces of
11:41
leadership that they that they didn't
11:43
really think about before that's part of
11:46
what I wanted to dig up because I didn't
11:47
know I wanted to find out myself so what
11:49
was one thing what was one of those um
11:52
leadership things that he did that does
11:55
translate into the business world and
11:57
does translate into other things not
11:59
just football that you identified he
12:02
didn't yell
12:03
wow football coaches yell it's in their
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DNA they are they they begin their
12:08
career screaming and they don't stop
12:09
until they're dead
12:11
but George Allen
12:13
spoke he did not yell even at practice
12:15
he did not yell in fact I have a line in
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the book I said he didn't yell at the
12:19
Whittier players after all who yells at
12:21
poets but he did not yell he didn't
12:25
shout and Max talked about that my
12:27
friend Max Fields talked about how he
12:29
didn't yell he just why didn't you do
12:31
this let's do it this way forget about
12:33
it next week is what matters and he did
12:36
that with the Redskins he had a punt
12:38
returner named Speedy Duncan who fumbled
12:41
Speedy was a great punt returner but he
12:43
ran into a little rash of time when he
12:46
fumbled
12:47
and Alan would just stand there and say
12:49
forget it all that matters is next week
12:52
it doesn't matter
12:54
but the funny thing is it wasn't George
12:56
Allen who saw the problems Speedy
12:58
Duncan's wife noticed what he was doing
13:00
when he was about to receive the ball
13:02
she talked to him he stopped fumbling
13:04
but Alan never jumped on him he just
13:06
said forget it and get better
13:10
that's interesting I mean I I think that
13:12
also how that would relate to parenting
13:15
skills yep right
13:17
you know those those parents who have
13:19
spent a lifetime yelling at their kids
13:21
versus those parents who have spoken to
13:23
their kids and encouraged conversation
13:26
I'm sure we could find a correlation
13:29
there
13:30
well my wife taught for 42 years yes I
13:32
believe that we could probably find a
13:33
correlation there so one of the Nuggets
13:36
you heard it here first from the book is
13:39
is when is how you approach what you do
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do not yell
13:43
speak nicely and that that will that
13:45
will help you mentioned earlier um your
13:48
first book The Blood Hill and that is
13:50
also from McFarland correct
13:53
when did you write that book what year
13:55
did you write that book it was finished
13:58
in 2017. it was published uh January of
14:02
18 I think
14:08
still publisher did they come to you did
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you search them out
14:13
no as a matter of fact I this is another
14:15
one of those deals where I got lucky
14:16
it's better to be lucky than good
14:19
um I had this massive information I'd
14:22
written most of the book already and I
14:24
didn't know what to do with it
14:26
so I called a another member of the Pro
14:29
Football researchers Association
14:31
who I know worked for a publisher I said
14:33
I'm not asking to publish my book I'm
14:35
asking you what to do with it how do I
14:37
submit it
14:38
and he asked me to tell him about it and
14:40
I did and two weeks later I got an email
14:42
from him saying they wanted to publish
14:43
the book
14:44
so uh primary thing is to get lucky but
14:47
uh the other thing is that
14:51
understand what you're doing when you
14:52
start to do it
15:02
the right questions to ask
15:04
um and it's and thank goodness for that
15:06
but the fact that you went in that way
15:09
and did it that way probably allowed
15:12
them to take a step back and go okay
15:13
he's not he's not one of those kind of
15:15
people that are come you know pitch my
15:16
book and and sell my book so you did it
15:19
good and then they come to you and they
15:20
tell you the exact kind of book that
15:22
they want you to write not what you
15:24
wanted to write
15:26
and that means they did a good thing
15:27
right because I think we have something
15:29
we would like to share something just
15:32
happened
15:32
that you literally emailed me and said I
15:34
can say it
15:36
oh I was so happy this happened to me
15:38
two weeks ago but I want I'm looking at
15:41
the exact name of it I won the Nelson
15:44
Ross award which is basically the book
15:46
of the Year from the Pro Football
15:47
researchers Association and I was so
15:51
excited about that I I didn't think I'd
15:53
win because my book was released in
15:54
December well who's got a chance to read
15:57
it uh before the end of the year but I
16:00
won and so I was very pleased and very
16:01
very proud to tell you that I'm thrilled
16:04
and I'm you know ladies and gentlemen as
16:06
we're sitting here talking to Lee Elder
16:08
about this congratulations that is a
16:12
huge accomplishment I'm very excited for
16:14
you is there like a ceremony do they
16:16
send you a certificate or a statue or
16:20
what do they do
16:21
uh well there's a there's a big parade
16:25
no
16:27
it's just recognition among my peers and
16:29
that's really all that matters is the
16:31
we've got 400 members of the pfra and uh
16:35
to be recognized by by those uh that
16:39
Association that's all I really need I
16:42
was just very very pleased that the work
16:45
was recognized
16:46
and and you know for those of you who
16:48
are saying okay we've talked a lot about
16:50
this book I think would somebody tell us
16:52
how to go get it so I'm I'm going to
16:54
accommodate people right now uh by
16:56
putting the book up here all you have to
16:58
do guys is pick up your phone turn on
17:00
your camera not even click on your
17:01
camera just turn it on and put it right
17:03
in front of that QR code and it will
17:06
take you over to uh Amazon to pick up
17:09
the book
17:10
this is for the Kindle version there's
17:11
also a paperback version as well if you
17:14
are like me and I like to have that hard
17:16
copy in my hand I'm going to take this
17:19
off the screen
17:21
do you have another book in you are you
17:23
coming out with another one
17:25
uh it'll be a little while I'm working
17:27
on something yeah I've got two ideas I
17:30
have to see which one's gonna work best
17:31
so now that this is such a success this
17:34
particular book with the awards that
17:36
you've received
17:38
um is this something that McFarland may
17:40
come back to you and say okay we need
17:41
number two we have we need you to do
17:43
this I mean it sounds like they really
17:45
like the way you write
17:47
well I hope so but
17:49
um in today's world you know it's it's a
17:52
little bit harder for Publishers than it
17:54
used to be there's not as much papers
17:56
there used to be it's a little bit
17:57
harder to get papers a little bit harder
17:59
to to do a lot of uh the things that
18:01
Publishers have to do so I mean I have a
18:04
wonderful relationship with them they've
18:05
been great to me they've been great to
18:07
work with but I also understand they
18:09
have a lot of other authors too so when
18:12
the time comes I'll probably go to them
18:13
with an idea absolutely well I'm
18:16
thrilled for you again congratulations
18:17
we want to let people know how they can
18:19
follow you you have a
18:23
safe home forward slash George Allen
18:25
book that's that's pretty
18:27
self-explanatory and as well we have a
18:30
Facebook page for the other book which
18:32
you're just going to go to facebook.com
18:33
forward slash Elder book write that down
18:36
go check it out and one last time we
18:39
know that you want to pick up the book
18:41
go and scan this and go find the book
18:44
and then let us know what you think
18:47
about it okay and as a matter of fact in
18:50
the comments we will be making sure to
18:52
answer your questions if you have a
18:54
question for Lee write your question in
18:56
the comments and we'll make sure that
18:57
Lee sees it so that he can respond right
19:00
back to you any last thoughts Lee about
19:03
the writing process about this amazing
19:05
honor that you just received about the
19:07
book about life in general
19:09
well I have to say uh that my wife Amy
19:13
was amazingly supportive through the
19:17
whole process you and I have talked
19:18
about this but she had an illness uh
19:21
that struck right in the middle of
19:23
writing this thing and she never once
19:25
said to me listen stop that you need to
19:27
help me she never did any of that all
19:29
she ever did was she helped me proofread
19:31
she helped me pick photographs she
19:33
helped me do all that stuff she looked
19:35
at the cover she liked it otherwise I
19:38
would have said we need a different one
19:40
um she was been amazingly supportive and
19:43
so I I just very very fortunate to have
19:47
my wife Amy working with me I love that
19:50
I love thank you Amy and thank you for
19:53
sharing
19:58
congratulations
20:00
and keep it up keep up all this thank
20:03
you again this is a wonderful
20:05
opportunity to talk well as always as
20:08
always and when you do your next book
20:09
you'll come back on it and share it with
20:11
all of us hey y'all go out give somebody
20:13
an awesome day we are so appreciative
20:16
that you spent your time with us today
20:19
for that we are eternally grateful see
20:21
you next time on the next authors fight
20:23
like bye everyone
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