High Hopes: Taking The Purple To Pasadena

4 Pages 931 Words

Gary Barnett is the Head football coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. In 1996 he wrote a book entitled “High Hopes: Taking the Purple to Pasadena” with the help of Vahe Gregorian. The first third of this book is an amalgam of experiences Barnett had as a child and his life leading up to taking the head coaching position with Northwestern. The second part of the story focuses on turning the Northwestern program around in his first few seasons. The last third of the book gives a chapter-by-chapter description of his teams amazing 1995 football season, which was caped off by a birth in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
Barnett’s book is not so much of a leadership or self-help book, but more along the lines of an autobiography of his life as a coach. I believe the central theses of Barnett’s story is having faith in yourself and your abilities, committing yourself to a plan of excellence, and to never accepting negative attitudes put upon you by others. Barnett’s theme for his football program is “Expect Victory”, though when he first began his tenure at Northwestern, the schools team had not been to the Rose bowl for over 40 years and had been known as the doormats of the Big 10 athletic conference. He describes his plan for turning around the program like that of a jigsaw puzzle: the goal was to reach the Rose Bowl (so that was the picture in his head), he slowly put the puzzle together piece by piece. He emphasizes the one-step at a time philosophy understanding that positive change often takes time.
Barnett first started coaching as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. He received a master’s degree in education there and went on to coach High School football in Colorado Springs, CO. After successfully turning around the high school program, Barnett was forced to change locations as the result schools student population being boken up into ...