MIT's Basketball Coach: "Those Nerds Can Only Handle One Play"

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Sponsor a child at WorldVision.org slash water for kids and help ensure access to life-changing essentials like clean water. This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories and we tell stories about everything here on this show. From the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between including your stories send them to OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. And it's time for our on leadership series where we hear from coaches, leaders in the military, leaders in business and leaders in communities across this great country.

And this edition is with Bill Koch whose company Oxbow Carbon has over 1200 employees and 4 billion dollars in annual revenue. Bill has also led America to a victory in the world's premier sailing competition the America's Cup and did it on his first try. But today he brings us some formational leadership stories from his younger days starting at his high school Culver Academy. At Culver you know my first year I you know I got beat up a lot and rassed a lot and when I was at Culver some of the advisors told me that I couldn't get into MIT and then when I got into MIT I said well you know you're at the bottom of the class you know I don't think you'll make it. And then I found out that if I wanted to do well mainly to impress my father as well as mentally to develop my own skills and my own accomplishments so I just would work very very hard.

You know if I had to go to the bathroom I'd take a book with me. So I worked really hard and then I graduated with top honors and then got my doctor's degree from it and I've always been seemed to be told that I can't do something you know being harassed and told I was dumb an idiot some other things so that has become a big challenge for me. I mean it can have two effects either you stay a nerd the rest of your life or an idiot the rest of your life or you take advantage of it. In fact you know I probably have a little OCD and I looked at it and said well that could either kill me or I could use it to an advantage or I could use it to an advantage. So I used it to work very hard and surprisingly I got more honors than all my brothers put together.

We just made a couple of them pissed. But I wanted to play basketball. I thought the sport was terrific but in our freshman year the varsity won one game but we as freshmen couldn't play on the varsity in those days.

Now they can't. Then you couldn't and we were a bunch of nerds and MIT went out and got this one coach from Methuen High School. It was a northern mill town that was dying in that was dying in northern Massachusetts and he had the longest winning record of any high school in the country. So MIT recruited him and when we became sophomores and were playing on the varsity we also won only one game and the coach you know took a while to learn out the MIT system to learn what nerds we are and what how clumsy and awkward we were. So I wanted to play more on the varsity so I went up and went to a summer camp that he had so I could practice all summer and also that avoided me going out and working on the ranch and I could possibly chase girls even though it was in Methuen. But anyway he told me he had a new plan and he came up with a new play but he came up with only one play because he said we weren't smart enough to learn more than one.

These nerds from MIT. And he was also afraid that if we all had different plays we'd get too confused and then he just drilled us over and over and over in that same play so we could do it in our sleep. So it was you know habitual. Then he started giving us variations off the play which was great but the most powerful thing he did was that he put people in the right spots to minimize their weakness and maximize their strengths and he defined jobs and he said okay your your job is to bring up the ball and dribble it and dribble it up and set up a play and then your job is to get rebounds and block shots and put up pivots and then he said to another guy all right your job is to go after the best shooter on the other side and rough him up a little bit. But he made it very succinct. Well anyway in our junior year we won over half our games. Our senior year we had the longest winning streak in the country and the least points scored against us.

And and so I looked at that and said that's a you know and I sat on the damn bench but it was terrific. I learned it because that was one of the best lessons I made, ever learned at MIT. How important teamwork is and focus and well the guy also told us you guys are winners. You know if you think you're going to lose you will lose.

You know if you think you're going to win at least you have a 50-50 chance of winning. And I said that's terrific. You know and he said you work all work together. I mean it's remarkable because not one of us could have even joined God and any other college.

I mean it's remarkable and any other college. In fact we probably wouldn't even made intramural teams. And and rely upon your teammates you know and not be a star. I think uh Ren Arbuck says any of you guys on the pro team if you want to be a superstar any one of you can score 30 points a night.

But if you do we're going to lose. And instead we got to work as a team and if we win then we're all heroes. And that's so true and Red Auerbach is one of my heroes, one of my dad's heroes. My dad was my coach. I was a point guard on an all-state team and my goodness learned a lot of these lessons about knowing your job, being accountable to the job too. If your job is to rebound and block out that guy, rebound and block out that guy.

And your teammates are depending on you. And what lessons learned. Bill Koch's story, his leadership story and a coach's story and the impact that man had on those boys who turned into men here on Our American Stories. Folks if you love the great American Stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country please make a donation. A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American Stories coming.

That's OurAmericanStories.com. The Unshakable's podcast is kicking off season two with an episode you won't want to miss. Join host Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business as he welcomes a very special guest, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon. Hear about the challenges facing small businesses and some of the uh-oh moments Jamie has overcome.

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See PayPal app. This card is issued by the Bancorp Bank NA pursuant to license by MasterCard International Inc. Clean water access helps kids soak up childhood. Girls can be in class instead of walking hours for water. Kids can be climbing trees and skinning knees instead of being sick with waterborne diseases. Sponsor a child at worldvision.org slash water for kids and help ensure access to life-changing essentials like clean water.