'You've got to teach them all that you can'

SPRINGFIELD — Dave Maurer wondered how this would all come together.

"How are you going to make anything out of this interview?" he asked.

Our conversation rambled to say the least — but don't all good conversations do that?

Maurer sat down with the News-Sun and Wittenberg sports information director Ryan Maurer on Aug. 26 in his room at Eaglewood Village in Springfield. The university will honor Maurer before the Nov. 1 game against Denison. It will be Dave Maurer Day at Edwards-Maurer Field.

In advance of that, we sat down with Maurer to revisit his 15-year career as head coach — he was an assistant to Bill Edwards for 14 years before that — in which he went 129-23-3 with two NCAA Division III championships and two runner-up finishes.

Here are the highlights of that conversation:

On winning:

"You've got to teach them all that you can and try to prepare them. When the time comes, if you're going to win, you're going to win together. That was always our theme. That was always the last thing we said before guys took the field.

"I'd say, 'We're going to get it done. How are we going to get it done?' Guys would respond, 'Together!' I'd say, 'How?' They'd say, 'Together!' I'd say, 'One more time!' And they'd say, 'Together!'

"And away we'd go."

On the biggest change in football:

"Back then, you had to use your feet to be a good offensive lineman. Today you don't have to. You just move them around with your hands and get in between them. That's why you have 300-pounders playing not only in college, but in high school all over. When (the rules) changed, they said it's tough to rush the passer. So what happens? You're throwing the football, and you have all of your new offenses — the spread offense and all that kind of stuff. It's beautiful to watch, but just entirely different than in my day."

On rivalries:

"The best competition over a number of years was Wittenberg-Baldwin Wallace. That was Ohio State-Michigan. Wittenberg-BW, we can go back through the record books and look at all of those years, and a lot of times we were playing each other twice a year because we had divisional games back then. Invariably, we were the leaders in our division, but we didn't want to not play each other on the schedule, so sometimes, we'd play each other twice a year. Those games were absolutely terrific."

On his wife Nancy:

"She took care of my kids while I was running around playing funny games. One of the players said, 'When we lost a game, we kind of wanted to stay clear of coach after the game. But win or lose, we always got a hug from Mrs. Maurer. She was our mom away from home.' She was very, very proud of that."

On coaching swimming:

"I was the worst swimmer in the world. I couldn't even talk about it. I had no idea. ... As dumb as I am, Bill (Edwards) hires me as football coach, and at the end of the football season, he says we've got to find a swimming coach. I'm sitting in the office with Bill and Red Maurer. (Bill) said, 'I think you ought to handle that.' I said, 'I don't know anything about swimming.' He said, 'What's there to know.? Just tell them to get out in front and improve their positions.' "

On going into the College Football Hall of Fame:

"That's the epitome. When your profession recognizes you, it's just the result of your success. That was a great day. It was held at the Waldorf in New York (in 1991). We had a pretty good crowd there."

On changing the mascot:

"Bill said, 'This has gotta change. How do we get kids excited to come to Wittenberg if they're going to play for the Fighting Lutherans.' The cardinal and cream wasn't so bad. But it just didn't sit right — the Fighting Lutherans. Tigers, I think that's something else. Tigers, that'd be better."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or djablonski@coxohio.com.

[Reprinted with permission from the "Springfield News-Sun"]