There would be no Memorial Day picnic, no round of golf, no hanging out by a swimming pool with friends and family for the most revered of all former Kansas University football coaches.
There also would be no complaining from Don Fambrough, who suffered a fractured hip in a fall at his home last Tuesday and has been staying at Lawrence Memorial Hospital ever since.
Instead, he wanted to make sure his visitors on a quiet Monday night knew that he had the world’s best nurse’s aide helping him out and without her he’d be miserable, but with her he’s doing just fine.
He also wanted his visitors to know that more than medical personnel are responsible for keeping him around to entertain his friends with embellished stories about his playing days, coaching days and best of all his nights of recruiting in living rooms across the state. Credit man’s best friend with an assist as well.
When Coach Fam told me not long ago that he had a dog, I wondered whether that was such a good idea, wondered why a man well into his 80s would want to take on such a big responsibility. No need to wonder anymore. His dog Bo came into his life for a reason.
“That Bo is something else,” Fambrough said from his hospital bed on the rehabilitation floor, where he expects to spend several more days. “I slipped in my bathroom and cracked my hip. I experienced pain playing football, but never anything like that. Bo kept licking my face, making sure I stayed awake.”
Fambrough was able to crawl across the floor to reach a phone to call his son. He underwent surgery Tuesday night.
Neighbors are taking care of his dog Bo and have brought the old football coach pictures of the dog.
“I hope they’re not spoiling him,” he said.
The pills Fambrough has taken haven’t helped him get over the pain he feels every time he reads about or thinks about the KU ticket scandal that has brought national embarrassment to the university.
“Terrible,” he said, wincing. “Just terrible.”
A big backer of ousted football coach Mark Mangino, who recently moved to Naples, Fla., Fambrough has not let that taint the optimism he feels about Mangino’s successor, Turner Gill.
“He’s going to recruit good players here,” he said. “He’s from Fort Worth, so he has all sorts of contacts down there. He has contacts back East from coaching there and he’s got them in Florida.”
Fambrough was happy to hear that every assistant coach is responsible for recruiting an area of Kansas.
He then rattled off talented Kansas boys he played in Lawrence, names like Nolan Cromwell, John Hadl, David Jaynes, John Riggins, John Zook and others.
Fambrough went 26-49-5 in two stints as KU’s head football coach. A better measure of his success: The close relationships he has with so many former players, who are by his side in body or spirit during his hospital stay.
