Urban Meyer was scheduled to speak at the University of Findlay last week, but was unable to due say thanks to an uncooperative appendix.
That event — hosted by ESPN's Tom Rinaldi — went down last night, and Ohio State's championship-winning coach detailed just how far he's come within the coaching ranks.
After a graduate assistant stint at Ohio State, Urban wound up accepting the only job he could find: OLB coach at Illinois State. The starting pay was $6,000, which was a paltry salary even in 1988.
"I lived in the back of my car for a year-and-a-half. My fiancée (Shelley) then became my wife, and she supported me for about four years," Urban said, according to TheCourier.com's Dave Hanneman.
That meant Urban couldn't afford to come home every weekend, sometimes going up to six weeks without seeing his family while out on the recruiting trail.
“One weekend I got home," Urban added, "and the next morning I got up and went to take a shower. We had two little girls at the time and the one, GiGi, says, ‘Mommy, is that daddy?”
Urban also retold the story of his hiring at Bowling Green, the first school to offer him a head coaching job. We knew Lou Holtz had told him, "Of course it's a bad job. Why do you think they want you?" But Urban also added the fact Earle Bruce, Urban's other mentor, cussed him out when Urban told him about his plans to turn down the job.
Obviously, it all worked out for Urban Meyer. Gone are the $6,000 salaries, instead replaced with a seven-figured one. But Urban had to grind to get there, and it his success has come thanks to his (and his family's) sacrifices.
Urban Meyer is basically the American Dream personified.
