Coaches, friends share wisdom, values taught by Darryl Drake

Darryl Drake was more than a football coach.

He was a husband, father and grandfather. He was a proud singer and occasional prankster. He was spiritual and loyal — to his family, friends and vocation.

Drake was 62 when he died last Sunday morning, passing away in his sleep a little more than 24 hours after coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers in their preseason opener.

Drake was beginning his second season with the Steelers, making his final stop a mere blip on his 36-year coaching radar. But he was beloved by the players he coached in those 18 months, which doesn’t surprise those who knew Drake when he was breaking into the profession.

“Darryl was so well liked,” said Mike Cassity, a longtime college assistant who spent six seasons working with Drake at Western Kentucky in the 1980s. “He was a great teacher, and he taught more than football. He taught life. He touched so many people, and I saw that when I heard about all of people from all over the country that were going to come to his funeral.”

Cassity worked under head coach Dave Roberts at Western Kentucky, where Bill Edwards served as the football program’s longtime trainer. Two decades later, Drake would be lured to the NFL and the Chicago Bears by Lovie Smith.

In the days after Drake’s passing, all four men — those who knew Drake at various stages of his life — eagerly returned phone calls to provide perspective on a large man who spent only a small part of his career with the Steelers.

“I needed him”

Drake earned an undergraduate degree in business management and a Master’s in counseling at Western Kentucky, but he also displayed adept carpentry skills when he joined Roberts’ staff full-time in 1985.

At WKU, located in rural Bowling Green, the budget was small and the facilities spartan for a program adjusting to the transition to Division I-AA football after being a Division II power in the 1970s.

Roberts asked Drake to pitch in and help construct the lockers where players stored their belongings.

“Nobody would believe it these days,” Roberts said. “He helped build the players lounge, the lockers. He got the community involved. He would take pizzas into the community. He did it all.”

The Hilltopper family and community is saddened to learn of the passing of Darryl Drake.https://t.co/7NHFIrlr7U

— WKU Football (@WKUFootball) August 11, 2019

When Drake was a freshman receiver in 1975, the Hilltoppers played in the D-II national championship game for the second year in a row. When Drake was a senior, he helped the Hilltoppers to an 8-2 record and Ohio Valley Conference title.

Drake spent two training camps with the Washington Redskins and Cincinnati Bengals with a stop in the Canadian Football League in between. By the time he returned to his alma mater as a graduate assistant in 1983, the program had fallen on hard times while playing in the higher football classification.

Jimmy Feix, the winningest coach in school history, retired after the 1983 season and was replaced by Roberts, whose first act was to convince Drake to join the staff full time.

“I told him, ‘You’ve got personality, and you know Bowling Green,’ ” Roberts said. “I came from Vanderbilt. I needed him.”

At the time, Drake was putting his business degree to use as a manager of a local Pizza Hut franchise.

“I saw the hours coaches put in and said no, that’s not what I want to do,” Drake said during an interview when he was with the Bears. “Finally, after a while, I thought, ‘I don’t have a job. I’m finished with school. I can do this for a little while.’”

Hitting the road

As wide receivers coach, Drake joined Cassity and Roberts on recruiting trips that took them all over the southeast.

“All we had was an Exxon credit card,” Roberts recalled. “We would stay 3-4 to a room at a Days Inn and go to the Exxon quick shop for potato chips and sandwiches. Darryl didn’t care. He said he would go everywhere for recruiting.”

Drake was known for gaining the trust of prospects — and, more importantly, their parents.

“It was his sincerity,” Cassity said. “You can see someone who is over the top, anxious and doing all the talking. Darryl was soft-spoken and gave the parents the time to talk. It wasn’t always ‘him.’ That’s a great trait. A lot of coaches don’t have that.”

One time, Drake pushed the limits of his recruiting diligence. Wife Sheila was pregnant with one of the couple’s three daughters and approaching her due date when Drake set off for Louisville, two hours away.

Drake was heading down the highway when a patrol car pulled up with lights flashing.

“I don’t think I was speeding,” Drake said, Cassity relaying the story. “No, your wife is in labor,” responded the policeman.

With that, the recruiting trip was on hold, and Drake received an escort back to the hospital in Bowling Green.

Uphill climb

Back then, the football practice field at WKU was contained on a parcel of sloped land. Roberts said the offense would go downhill Tuesdays with the defense getting the advantage Wednesdays.

“Darryl would always say, ‘How come on these Wednesday practices, we look so slow, and on Tuesdays, we look so fast,’ ” Roberts said, laughing.

Just like Wednesday’s on that hill, success on Saturdays slowly followed. On the heels of consecutive two-win seasons, WKU won four games in each of Drake’s first two full-time seasons, then improved to 7-4 in 1987 and 9-4 in 1988.

Roberts left to coach Northeast Louisiana and took Cassity with him, but he could not coax Drake to leave his alma mater. Drake remained on board when Jack Harbaugh — father of the Ravens’ John and Michigan’s Jim — took over the program. Drake remained at Western Kentucky for three more seasons before Georgia offered him to coach the team’s wide receivers.

“Jack told me that he really had to tell Darryl he had to leave and take that job,” Edwards said. “Darryl didn’t want to leave.”

Training days

Drake earned his Master’s degree in counseling when he returned to his alma mater in 1983 as a graduate coaching assistant. The counseling background would be put to use when Drake had to coach a mercurial player such as Antonio Brown last season.

But Drake learned how to resolve conflicts and get favorable results almost from the moment he stepped on WKU’s campus in 1975.

Edwards was in his final season as a grad assistant in athletic training when Drake was a freshman.

Water wasn’t permitted at practice in those days, Edwards said, but players could get ice for injuries. Drake would pester Edwards for some to help combat the heat.

“It became a daily occurrence,” Edwards said. “I would slip him a little bit here and there. We became friends that way.”

Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of former #WKU player and coach, Darryl Drake, who passed suddenly today aged 62.

Originally from Louisville, Drake played WR for the Tops from 1975-78, and coached on the Hill from 83-91. Picture courtesy of @WKUSports pic.twitter.com/eL31SW9oWz

— Red Towel Radio (@redtowelradio) August 11, 2019

Edwards also witnessed Drake’s mischievous side. Drake would turn off the lights to the training room while others were receiving treatment, and he playfully tried to circumvent protocol in which shorts had to be worn in the training area.

“Players used to come in with towels draped around them,” Edwards said. “We had to implement the rule. Darryl came in the next time with a towel draped around him. We would holler at him, and he would jerk his towel loose and have the shorts on underneath.”

After Drake left for the SEC in 1992, Edwards made sure to keep in touch during the stops that led the coach to Baylor, Texas and then the NFL. Edwards and his family planned to reconnect with Drake at a Steelers home game in October.

“He was locking that in for us,” Edwards said. “We had the reservations made and everything. We were really looking forward to that trip.”

As testimonials poured in after Drake’s death, Edwards was left in awe at the amount of relationships his friend had forged.

“So many people knew him,” he said. “I don’t know how he kept up with everybody, but he did. Gee whiz, he meant so much to a lot of people and kept up with so many of them.”

Carrying a tune

Smith remembers the voice. Not so much the one that barked out instructions to players or quietly began a prayer before positional meetings.

He remembers Drake breaking out into song without provocation.

“He would sing a spiritual hymn at any time,” said Smith, who has returned to the college ranks as coach at Illinois. “That’s just who he was. He would sing with the best of them.”

It didn’t matter where or when. Drake would show off his musical chops.

“Whenever you are a singer, you sing anytime,” Smith said. “When you would least expect it, Darryl would sing. He would sing whatever was on his mind.”

Drake was loved and had a positive impact on everyone that had contact with him! What a privilege to work with a friend for 9 years together! We lost one of the good guys today!

— Lovie Smith (@LovieSmith) August 12, 2019

Smith is best known as the longtime Chicago Bears coach who guided his team to an appearance in Super Bowl XLI, the year after the Steelers won “One for the Thumb.” Smith joined the Bears in 2004, and Drake was by his side for the next nine seasons.

“When I got the job, the first guy I called was Darryl,” Smith said.

Though they never had worked on the same college staff, Smith knew Drake from their time in the SEC. Smith was at Tennessee while Drake was at Georgia. Their paths crossed frequently on the recruiting trail.

“I needed real men that could help develop the football player and the man, too,” Smith said. “That’s what I knew I would be getting in Darryl.”

Other assistants came and went on Smith’s staff. Drake remained with the Bears until Smith was fired after the 2012 season. The pattern of loyalty to the head coach continued the next season. Bruce Arians was hired by the Arizona Cardinals and brought Drake on board to coach the receivers. Arians spent five seasons in the desert as did Drake.

When Arians retired after the 2017 season — he returned to coaching this season — Drake was quickly scooped up by Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

In all, Drake spent 36 years in the profession — and 62 enriching the lives of those who knew him well or even casually.

“He sure found his niche,” Edwards said. “He sure found what he should be doing because he was so good at it. He was so good with the players. He cared for them, loved on them.”

The feeling, as those who worked with and played for Drake would attest, was mutual.