Remembering Randy Walker

For seven seasons Randy Walker had been quietly establishing Northwestern University football into a solid and consistent program in the Big Ten.
(photo courtesy Northwestern University Sports Information)

An apparent heart-attack ripped his life and season number eight away Thursday night.

At 52-years old, he leaves behind his wife, two children, three bowl appearances at Northwestern and thousands of lives touched as a coach and friend.

As I reflect on the sad and sudden news, I can't help but be reminded by the simple truth. We all will have the same destiny. We all will lose our lives. Some of us choose to live life, some choose to endure it, some don't even have a clue.

I don't know if Randy was prepared for his death, I suspect he was. Coaches are the types who prepare for everything. I stop and wonder about my own immortality. I wonder about the goals I've reached, the lives I've impacted. It's pretty scary. I am not sure I like the few answers I find.

I do know this. We have a choice to give or keep. We have a choice to be couragous or frightened. To protect ourselves, or to pour ourselves into things that make others better, that change lives and change the world.

Some say Randy Walker lost his life. I say no, he gave his life. So he never lost it, he invested it in something bigger then himself.

Recently a unheralded movie hit the big screen - End of the Spear. It's the story of Christian missionaries who literally gave their life to invest in men, women and children of a brutal native tribe in the jungles of the Amazon in Ecuador. One of the men who was killed, Jim Elliott penned a quote years before:

"He is no fool that gives up what he can not keep,

to gain what he can never lose."

Randy Walker literally gave up his heart and life for the game of football and for the men who played it.
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