WHEN TONY INGLE got the bad news on Monday night - when BYU told him the Night Watch was finished and he could go home now, thank you - it wasn't the best day of his life, as he is fond of saying every day of his life. It probably wasn't even the second best day of his life. First, he packed up his office belongings, then he packed up his family and fled town, checking into a hotel where no one could find him and he could soothe his family's anguish.
It's tough on the kids to see Daddy cry, he says.Especially when he's someone who can always be counted on for a smile or a joke. Especially when he's someone who has a terminal case of Sunny Disposition. This is a man who, when asked how he is doing, always responds the same way: Today's the best day of my life. If you found him in the middle of a burning house, he'd tell you it was the best day of his life.
But then they took his dream job away from him and gave it to someone else this week. Today's the best day of my life, he drawled when reached at his house on Wednesday, but his heart wasn't in it. It was a real stretch. When in doubt, kid yourself.
Every day for six months he has coached BYU basketball players, and just like that it's all gone. He wanders the house. He can't sleep. Can't eat. He doesn't even want to breathe. Welcome to another kind of March Madness.
Ingle knows how Roger Reid felt three months ago. He knows how Ladell Andersen felt. And Frank Arnold. And Glenn Potter. One thing Steve Cleveland should know going in: The last guy to leave this job with a smile on his face was Stan Watts in 1972.
Ingle never really got a chance. Even the BYU brass said that. The worst of it is, three months on the job could cost him his career. The Cougars were 1-6 when they fired Reid and gave Ingle the helm of the Titantic. He lost all 19 games as interim head coach. It wasn't his team, but it is his record.
"Who's going to hire me?" asks Ingle. "In this business, they look at your won-loss record. They're going to look at oh and 19. I don't get any credit for wins as an assistant, but I get all the credit for the losses."
Is this fair? The Cougars asked Ingle to rescue the Cougars from a burning house, and he wound up getting burned and discarded. He believes he is damaged goods, branded with an 0-19 record, never mind that he inherited a team of walkons and freshmen. At 45, he is starting over.
Ingle is using his newly found free time to return the 150 phone calls of condolence he has received this week. Many of them are calls from friends in the business who tell him that, with that 0-19 record, he will never get another head coaching job (what are friends for?). Congratulations, you've committed professional suicide.
But Ingle says he will not be an assistant coach again. "I was always successful when I was in charge," he says. " I was an assistant for 71/2 years (at BYU). I stayed in the background. I was loyal. No one knew me. Then all of a sudden, people are saying, `Who is this guy, I sort of like him.' I was climbing the ladder till I came here. I came here so I could become a Division I coach. Then I found out no assistant has ever left BYU to become a Division I coach."
Ingle wants to negotiate a severance package with BYU to get by until he can land another job. If he must, he will return to Division II or the junior college ranks to begin again.
"I will be a Division I coach before I die," he vows. "I made that commitment to myself. I came so close. I want a chance. I want to be in a position where I can help other people. And, you know, I haven't done anything wrong."
It just feels like it somehow.
Ingle is already beginning his sales pitch, as if he is practicing. He's improved every program he has overseen, he is saying. If only someone can have the wisdom to see past his record, to look into his past, or his heart. If only someone out there who knows Tony Ingle will tell someone who can give him a chance.
"Someone who hires me won't regret it," he says.
For now, he bides his time, waiting, plotting, recovering, gathering strength for the next 20-year bid for a Division I job. How is Tony Ingle? "Today's the best day of my life," he says, and he manages a wry chuckle. "They ain't going to knock me down. They can't take away my desire, my heart, my soul. There's no way. I'm going to make this the best thing that ever happened to me in my life."