They talked and talked and talked and talked. Doug Single wouldring Francis Peay at 3 a.m. and start in, "What do you think about .. ."
Peay would mumble, "I'm thinking about the off-tackle playagainst Illinois," and try to go back to sleep.
For six weeks, Northwestern's lame-duck interim football coachand his athletic director would talk. No offers, no contracts, justtalk. "He is relentless," Peay says.
Peay had announced Oct. 18 he wouldn't be a candidate to fillthe job on a permanent basis "under present conditions." And therewere hints from president Arnold Weber that the conditions Peaywanted changed wouldn't change.
As ever, there was Northwestern's historic retreat to thebunkers, waving the flag of academic integrity.
So let it be said again: This coaching muddle was not aboutacademics and it wasn't about money in a coach's paycheck.
What Peay wanted was some commitment that would give Wildcatplayers a chance to win some football games on the way tograduation.
And Peay and Single talked some more.
"Sure, you feel pressure from the public and the press," saysSingle. "But the real pressure was I couldn't give up on a situationa lot of people had given up on. That's not my nature."
"When I said `under present conditions,' I was leaving the dooropen," says Peay. "All problems are solvable. But I had to take astand. It was the issues, not the man. I might have become acasualty and walked away from my dream (of becoming a head coach)." Players complained Players added to the pressures on Single andNU's administration by upsetting Michigan State.
And the players talked.
Of restricted tutoring hours. Of the guaranteed dormitory spaceat other schools but not at Northwestern. Of limited menus and timeas they rushed from practice to training table dinner. Of newtraining facilities promised them on recruiting visits and still notseen. Of a weight room that was dreary as well as half the sizeneeded.
They said they just wanted a gesture that somebody understoodthe six hours of daily labor they gave the school in return for theirscholarships. They wondered if anybody cared.
Long-suffering Old Purples got their cards and letters in themail to the president's office. ("I'm responsible for education,"Weber would say at the team banquet last Monday. "If you write to mein the future, write about education.")
After the Wildcats won at Illinois to end the season 4-7, theirbest record since 1973, it was no longer only Peay and Singletalking. Late last Monday morning, Peay and Weber met. This was nota regularly schedule meeting of a mutual admiration society.
But two strong-willed men who had agreed to disagree found a wayto agree.
The heart of the conversation, an interested NU loyalist says,"was that the president told Francis he hoped they were on the samepage of the hymnal on academic excellence and Northwestern's being afair and honest university that doesn't violate the rules.
"Francis assured him they were on the same page, and Weber saidif it could be worked out, he'd love to have him as his footballcoach."
Single, who has hustled more than $20 million from donars in sixyears, said Northwestern's football commitment was there.
Peay had worked five NU seasons under Dennis Green listening toDennis grumble he had heard that same song. Peay wanted the writtenwords added to the tune. So they had a deal, and they didn't have adeal. Lynn to rescue It was Dick Lynn, president of the lettermen's NClub, says Peay, who got the words on paper.
"Not as my attorney," Peay says of Lynn's work, "but as a friendand a friend of Northwestern. It wasn't adversarial. He wasn'tfunctioning on my behalf or the administration's behalf. He came inat the end with Northwestern's interests at heart."
Good intentions on both sides aside, "at 5 o'clock we didn'thave a deal," says Lynn. "I didn't know if we were going to thebanquet (that night) for a celebration or a eulogy."
They settled in time for a standing celebration when Single toldthe banquet crowd between the appetizer and the salad that Peay wouldbe their coach "for at least the next five years."
Everybody involved calls the terms of the agreement"classified."
But certainly the players' complaints aired in the Sun-Times 10days ago are covered in detail. There will be administrative andrecruiting aides added to the football office.
On the walls outside the banquet hall were drawings of the firstphase of a $7 million facility that will house a weight room, meetingrooms, football offices, locker rooms, equipment and training roomsand a dining hall. Ground-breaking is next spring.
Now strong and agile high school youths must be impressed."Recruiting," says Peay, "is in the best shape it has been in adecade."
At last, Northwestern has moved to go at football the right way- with players made competitive, not out-manned, sacrificial,educated gentleman losers to bring home checks from Big Ten arenasand the conference television pot.
