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Pell had found redemption
The day after Charley Pell died, Clemson, his old school, penalized itself for recruiting violations -- further proof that God has a delightfully wicked sense of humor. Pell passed away on May 29 at the young age of 60, still regretful that college football had forsaken him. Pell had not been a college football coach since Florida fired him in 1984 for NCAA violations during his six-year tenure. He had come to Florida in December 1978 from Clemson, which also went on NCAA probation for violations committed under Pell. As a two-time loser on the cusp of the NCAA reform movement, Pell had as much chance of getting a college head coaching job as Madonna. When Pell left Gainesville he accepted the blame for all the violations, even those he didn't know much about, in order to shield his assistants. The guilt he felt and the doors shut in his face began to send him into a downward spiral. So it was that cancer succeeded where depression had failed. Seven years ago, Pell tried to relieve his pain once and for all. A meticulous planner as a coach, Pell used those skills to script his own death. He wrote out a game plan, scheduling the suicide so the funeral could be held on a Friday, the easiest day of the week for his coaching friends to attend. He listed pallbearers. He listed reserve pallbearers (a depth chart!). But he couldn't do enough film study of this opponent. Pell, lying in the backseat of his 1990 Buick, got impatient with the hose which was funneling carbon monoxide into his car, so he shoved it in his mouth. Carbon monoxide ingested directly causes you to vomit. A friend found Pell outside the Buick after he had thrown up. I met Pell a few months later and wrote a story about him for Newsday. By then he had begun to climb out of "the hole," as he called his depression. "Write this down," he said to me as he drove toward his comfortable home in Jacksonville. Pell, his lovely wife, Ward, and I had just eaten dinner at a seafood place in Jacksonville Beach. "It may not be powerful to you, but in real life it's powerful. So many people don't understand it. I never did. Sometimes we have to give in in order to win." Pell didn't give in. He was a junior guard on Bear Bryant's first national championship team at Alabama in 1961, the epitome of Bryant's belief that the best players were the ones who weren't talented and didn't know it. Pell took a perennially mediocre program at Clemson and went 18-3-1 in two years. He then moved on to Florida, which had never been a threat in the Southeastern Conference. After going 0-10-1 his first year, Pell's clubs compiled a 41-16-2 record over the next five seasons. Yes, he cheated. And, no, no one gave him a second chance on the football field. But Pell gave himself a second chance after his suicide attempt. He underwent psychotherapy and emerged as a stronger, warmer person. He coached high school football in Orlando for one year. He counseled other people suffering from depression. "It took me a long time to be a good teacher," Pell told me. "And I'm in a position to be a far better teacher than I ever was." Though he didn't have a team, he didn't stop coaching. In the last year of his life, the schools where he had coached reached out to him. Clemson invited him up for its spring game. He addressed Tommy Bowden's players for 30 minutes, telling them that the important things in life aren't all measured by four downs and 10 yards. At Florida, his former players are staging a golf tournament later this month to raise money for an endowed scholarship in Pell's name. The grant will be awarded annually to a child of a former Florida player. It's too bad that a university president didn't have the guts to give Pell a third chance. It would have been one hell of a show. Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel covers college football for the magazine and is a frequent contributor to CNNSI.com.
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