Trying to ignore the heat like coach did cold

Phone | 903-885-8663

Email | don@ssnewstelegram.com

It's hard to ignore the heat, but I'm going to give it a try.

Instead of constantly griping of the daily triple digit temperature, I'm having cooler vibes.

Like of Canada or even Minnesota.

Take Bud Grant for example, the Wisconsin native coached in both the Canadian Football League and the NFL, I remember him when he led the Minnesota Vikings for decades.

I was a closet Vikings' NFL football fan back during some of the lean years for the Cowboys as a youngster. Before Roger Staubach.

I rooted, quietly for guys like Joe Kapp, Carl Eller and Alan Page. I even drew a Vikings' horn on my plastic helmet with a black magic marker.

One of Grant's famous lines is "Cold is a state-of-mind." He also said no player ever froze to death playing football. He didn't like heaters on the sidelines back when his team played outdoors in frigid Minnesota. He was tough and ignored the weather and wanted his players to do the same.

Grant is now 95 years old and still going strong. I saw him not too long ago on an outdoor show he was outside in -10 temperatures with just a t-shirt, ski pants and windbreaker.

If Bud can ignore the cold, I'm going to try to ignore the Texas heat. Maybe not focus on it so much.

It's Texas, I know it gets hot every summer, but it seems like it usually waits until August.

I recall the record-setting summer of 1980.

Depending on who you listen to records were set all over the state including a sizzling 113 degree temperature mark at DFW airport. In North Texas folks suffered through 69 days of consecutive triple digit temps.

I was a young "cub" reporter coming back from an assignment while working in Jacksonville.

Then the rotten luck struck, a flat. It was at least 103 in the heat and in the thick pine trees of Cherokee County, not a breeze could be felt anywhere.

But I was young and kind of tough, I pulled over to the shoulder of the road to change my flat tire.

Then I found out how hot it really was, my jack stand sank down into the hot asphalt.

Being a good scout, I found a piece of wood, a fragment from a pallet in a nearby ditch and placed it under my jack stand. It held, barely, long enough for me to get the flat changed. I would not recommend this technique, but desperate, hot times required it.

I've been studying how survive the heat and I'm going to use the examples from the animal kingdom.

The mighty Lion does not go out in the heat of the day. When it's 103 at noon, the Lion is in the shade. They're cunning and smart, they do all their hunting either early in the morning or late in the evening.

That's the way to handle the Texas heat, be smart like a Lion and stay in the shade drinking plenty of fluids. Think a few cool thoughts about Bud and the old school Vikings.