OGDEN — It's a question Ron McBride gets asked all too often.
"How long are you going to keep doing this?"
The answer is always the same.
"As soon as I stop getting excited to come to work, as soon as it's not fun anymore," McBride said, "I guess that's when I'll say it's time to stop."
Though the question is asked annually by plenty of friends and fans, it came a little more seriously this year — especially after McBride was rushed to LDS Hospital after nearly passing out while playing golf at Jeremy Ranch.
The soon-to-be 68-year-old coach himself questioned how long he'd be patrolling a football sideline after the episode left him with a stent placed in his heart. He'd also had bypass surgery a few years earlier.
"That was a pretty tough week," McBride said. "We were just getting ready to go, and there I was in the hospital."
Fortunately, the incident that was attributed to heat, altitude and fatigue after long days of traveling was relatively minor. Doctors ordered McBride to rest for a week or two after that day on the golf course during the Big Sky Conference kickoff meetings — his foursome won the event, by the way — but said he was good to go when fall camp opened up.
And so it is. McBride returns to Weber State for his third season. The former University of Utah coach, it seems, has been barking out orders and charming observers forever.
His 15 years as a head coach in the state have left him with 98 wins and 75 losses. Sometime this season — early, rather than late, Wildcat fans hope — the popular coach will pass the century mark in coaching victories.
He's been coaching football since 1965, when he took a job at San Jose State with the freshman team. That journey has taken him from San Jose to high schools, junior colleges, Division II schools, the Big Ten, Pac 10 and to Utah three different times.
With more than four decades of coaching experience, it's no surprise McBride has developed friendships and strong loyalties. After McBride was suspended last season for saying he thought an official made a mistake, longtime assistant Alex Gerke was reluctant to take over for even a game as acting head coach.
"Coach Mac is the man. Period. That's the bottom line," Gerke said after Weber State beat Eastern Washington. "When you don't have your captain of the ship, that's a big deal."
When McBride finally does decide to hang up his clipboard and walk away from football, it will truly be a big deal. He's entering the final year of the three-year contract he signed in 2005.
If this is it, McBride isn't letting anyone in on the secret.
"I still wake up excited about coaching football," he said after a practice this fall. "Look at this. It really doesn't get any better for a guy like me than to come out and coach football. Someday, maybe, I'll be ready to stop. But not right now. This is too much fun."
E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com