Roger Reid is the winningest coach in the history of BYU, but some people (including his boss) think he is image impaired, which accounts for the soon-to-be-aired TV commercial.
Scene 1, take 1, ready . . . action: Reid is sitting in a barber chair, while the barber - played by Athletic Director Rondo Fehlberg - gives him a New Look. We watch as Reid undergoes a series of makeovers - first, he is an Elvis look-alike, then he is bald and biting a towel (Jerry Tarkanian), and then he is sporting gray hair and a red sweater (Bob Knight)."No, that's not me," Reid says after each new look.
Finally, Reid - the original Reid - announces, "I kind of like me the way I am."
In other words, Reid will continue to be himself, however difficult that might be for both him and his critics. It isn't an easy job, being Reid. Never has been. He wins basketball games, but not fans' hearts. His players check in and out of the program like it's the Holiday Inn. He literally limps through each season, carrying more pain than anyone will know.
With another season about to begin, the hoops crowd is mourning the loss of senior star Bryon Ruffner, as if adversity were a stranger to Reid. Adversity is Reid's M.O. What was it that Fehlberg said the other day? "Roger Reid has made a career out of dealing with adversity, both in his personal life and on the basketball court. Roger will come out of this all right. I don't know how, but I know he will."
After all, Reid has always known setbacks. He was cut by the BYU basketball team as a freshman. He made it all the way to Triple A baseball but couldn't crack the majors. As an assistant for 11 years at BYU, he was passed over for the head job once, finally getting position through sheer persistence.
Reid, who is to intensity what Rush Limbaugh is to conservatism, still works like he's one stop away from being cut or demoted or passed over. Even if his body doesn't want to. Reid is 49 going on 79. Osteo-arthritis, it's called. It attacks the tissue in the joints, leaving bone grinding on bone. Seven years ago he had double-hip replacement. Every step is agony. Some of the simplest movements - putting on a coat, bending over to put on shoes - can be impossible. For years his wife has had to help him dress in the morning.
In the coaches' dressing room, assistants put Reid's shoes on his feet and tie the laces for him. If a player happens to barge in on the scene, Reid quickly nudges his assistant away, embarrassed by his need for help.
He coached for two years in a wheelchair. He's doing better these days, but the disease will continue to worsen. Already one of the hips is loose. Last summer he had an ankle fused. Unable to exercise, his waistline balloons, which is difficult to accept for a fine former athlete. But Reid quietly goes about his business, ignoring the pain and insults of insensitive fans, who call him "Penguin," referring to the way he walks.
Unfortunately, none of this is the worst that has happened to Reid. He lost a child a few years back. No wonder he says things like, "Basketball is not my life. There are more important things, like my family and church. You have to keep perspective."
This is more than lip service. Not long ago, BYU's star players didn't go on missions. That includes Danny Ainge, Fred Roberts, Steve Trumbo and Greg Kite. Under Reid, only one LDS player has not served a mission. If they waiver, he talks them into it.
At times, it seems that even if Reid didn't have adversity, he would invite it. Shawn Bradley, the 7-foot-6-once-in-a-coach's-lifetime center, came to Reid after his freshman year and said he wasn't going to serve a mission; he would play basketball instead. Reid spent the next 21/2 hours convincing him to go on a mission even though he would suffer for it professionally.
"That's my religion," Reid says. "I support it. I talked (Bradley) into going on a mission. How many coaches would do that? It's dumb! Then he came back and didn't play for us."
Bradley isn't the first star player Reid has lost. He has rarely had a bona fide star since he became head coach. He lost Bradley. He lost Ryan Cuff. He lost Ruffner. His best team this season is actually in the mission field - Robbie Reid in Greece, Bret Jepsen in Nashville, Todd Christensen and David Nielsen in Chile, Nathan Cooper in Portugal. As for the team in Provo, it will be built around eight freshmen.
This is a regular occurrence for Reid, yet somehow, despite all the obstacles, he has won three conference titles (two of them with different 6-foot-7 centers), finished second twice and taken BYU to post-season play six times in seven years.
Reid says his record speaks for itself, but, given the need for a new image, you wonder if it speaks loudly enough. Meanwhile, he'll keep working. He'll make do with what he has to work with this year and deal with more adversity. He'll outhustle everyone, he says. He'll hustle like the freshman who was once cut from the team.