The Bob Elliott Show Ep. 33 - Coach Brennan

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The following content provided in this show belongs solely to the host and guests, and does not represent the opinions of Live The Dream Media. The content provided in The Bob Elliott Show is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

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In a world of titles, positions, and unfiltered city noise, we forget that people make the job. The job doesn't make the person. Before the success lies an unwritten story. From Wildcats legend and NBA veteran to Tucson community leader, Bob Elliott goes beyond the resume to uncover the heart, grit, and real unedited stories shaping Southern Arizona.

Welcome to The Bob Elliott Show, Exclusively on the Live The Dream Media Streamverse Network.

Bob Elliott (1:03)

Welcome to another edition of The Bob Elliott Show, where we try to do things a little differently. We're talking about people and who they are. Well, this past week, we did something different. We went on a road trip. The Live The Dream Media Network folks, we took a road trip down to the U of A football stadium and the U of A football offices, where we had a tour that was guided by Courtney Deflitson, who's the Director of Football Operations. And we had, to say it was a great time is an understatement. So, Tony, roll the intro clip, so people can get a feel for what went down.

This is what Arizona is all about.

The bust of John Button Salmon. This is where the saying, bear down, came from. John Button Salmon, if you see this here, was student body president, he was the quarterback on the football team, got in a major car accident, and on his deathbed, told the coach, Pop McHale, tell them to bear down. That started it. Then in 1952, got in Jack Lee, as he was going to interview for the band director job, looked on top of the gym and said bear down, and he wrote Bear Down Arizona. So everybody, do you ever talk about Bear Down? This is where it started. John Button Salmon. When you're walking to the first floor of the Arizona Football Stadium, this is what you're greeted with, a couple of life-size U of A football players.

This is what it's about. Saw it a second ago with John Button Salmon outside, that every football player has to walk by. And that's why we say those magical words, Bear Down.

You know, in that one clip, you saw a young lady escorting me through the football offices. That was Courtney. And again, a big shout out to Courtney, who helped put everything together. But the highlight of our time up there in the football offices was a chance to go into the football media room and get to do an interview with the head football coach at the University of Arizona, Brent Brennan. Tony, run that clip. Welcome to The Bob Elliott Show, where my guest today is the head football coach at the University of Arizona, Brent Brennan. Coach, welcome to The Bird's Nest.

Brent Brennan (4:19)

It's good to be here. Thank you.

Bob Elliott (4:20)

And the thing that we love to do, as we talked about earlier, when you have a high-profile person and people see you on the sidelines, they see you on TV, but they don't know you. They think they know you.

So I'd like to go back, take the DVD, let's go back to when Brent Brennan was born. Talk us through what it was like as a kid.

Brent Brennan (4:44)

I was one of those kids that grew up with great parents. I was born in California, Northern California, and spent all my childhood growing up there. I'm the oldest of four, so I've got a sister and two brothers. Mom and dad were awesome people. Grew up on the west side of the bay there, on the peninsula. Went to St. Francis High School there.

That time, the head coach of St. Francis was a guy named Ron Calcogno. He's a legendary high school coach.

He was one of the guys. That was the first time I thought that I might want to be a coach. It was just being around him.

Bob Elliott (5:25)

You watched him and you said, I think I might want to do that.

Brent Brennan (5:28)

Yeah. I was lucky. I had good coaches all growing up from little league to high school and then in college too. So I think mom and dad were really supportive of it. It was funny because I coached high school football for two years when I got out of school, and then I was making my way as a graduate assistant.