Retired Colorado St. coach Sonny Lubick finds faith and football all part of his life

DENVER, CO (Denver Catholic Register) - "Perhaps I'm a habitual Catholic," said Sonny Lubick, 71, the winningest football coach in Colorado State University history. "My religion was engrained in me by my parents and my grandmother."

Sonny grew up in a small suburb of Butte, Mont., which supported nine Catholic elementary schools and 12 Catholic churches. Even so, with his father a copper mine laborer and his mother a waitress, a Catholic education seemed impossible. His mother talked an elementary school into accepting Sonny at $2.50 a month rather than the normal $5 monthly tuition.

He chose, against his father's wishes, the smaller Catholic high school over the 2,000-student public school. Of the 80 graduates in his class, "at least 10 became priests or brothers. Many others were doctors. The dumb guys became coaches," Sonny teased.

As a football coach, Sunday Mass attendance wasn't always easy. He admits he occasionally missed, "Although I feel Sundays are empty without Mass."

Practicing his faith and setting a faith-based example for his players came naturally. He also had good role models.

"A few years ago I was honored to be one of the many coaches for the East/West Shrine game. I went to a daily Mass to reflect and pray before the game. There on the front row knelt the head coach of the West team."

Monday with the chaplain

In his 15 years as CSU coach, Sonny met every Monday morning at 7 a.m. during the season, rain, snow or sun, with the team chaplain. They discussed any problems and then prayed together.

On Wednesday mornings at 7 a.m. Sonny, the chaplain and six or seven of his 15 coaches got together for Bible study. The coaches took turns providing their homes for Thursday evening non-denominational chapel time. Usually 20 to 30 players of the 60-member squad chose to participate. The coaches' wives provided cookies or other goodies.

"I'm not sure if the cookies are the reason they came," lamented Sonny.

Another chapel time, held before boarding the bus for the field on game day, enlisted many more players. "The bigger the game, the larger the number of players," said Sonny. "I guess they thought they could handle the smaller games on their own."

"But," Sonny insisted, "we never prayed for victory. We asked for safety -- that no one would be hurt."

Sonny feels the chapel meetings were the "glue that held the team together whether we won or lost." The attitudes of those players who attended spread over onto players who didn't participate.

Sundays involved hard work for both team and coaches. Sonny arranged schedules to coincide with religious services. If a player couldn't get to practice on time because of church, the player came later with no consequences.

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Character counts

Sonny's coaching concentrated on getting the best from a player. "Talent is important but so is character. If given the choice of a recruit with good character over the recruit with little character but better talent, I'd choose the one with character." He taught team play -- "look out for the guy next to you." He also stressed academics. "Very seldom have I lost a player because of poor grades." And that was without the academic helpers most universities employ.

Sonny visited each recruit's home. He tells the players, "I promised your parents I'd take care of you." Taking care meant he tried to eliminate problems before they occurred. "Coaching can be fun, but not if you have to monitor drug use or bail a player out of jail."

Not only did Sonny take care of his players, he set an example by his life of faith, character, academics and football, in that order.

The 2007 season was Sonny's final heading CSU's program. He won more than 100 games at Colorado State, won or shared six conference titles and led the program to nine bowl games. In 1994 he was named National Coach of the Year by Sports Illustrated.

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This story was made available to Catholic Online by permission of the Denver Catholic Register (www.archden.org), official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Denver, Colo.