Coach, pal diagram a winning play

For two solid hours Monday morning, Coach told stories.

His audience of three was on the edge of their seats, clinging to every word - more than a few of them adjectives of the decorative, single syllable variety.

The star of Monday's show was longtime NFL Coach Jim Hanifan, who at 81 is as sharp as a Conrad Dobler elbow to the ribs. For the full 120 minutes, Hanifan answered questions from two journalists and from his host, Dale Nosworthy, at Nosworthy's Hall of Fame restaurant on Government Way in Coeur d'Alene.

If you're a football fan, it's a pity you couldn't have listened in. From 18-foot-long alligators and poisonous snakes to cheating coaches and Hall of Fame players, Coach covered a lot of ground. Maybe you'll read some of the milder stuff on Thursday, if Press Sports Editor Mark Nelke can stop laughing and start writing.

This isn't an editorial about Coach's storytelling anyway. In fact, it's not even really about Coach. It's about two timeless themes: Friendship and loyalty.

As Nelke noted in a column three Junes ago, Hanifan and Nosworthy go back a long way. Dale was a Parade All-American high school football player, and Hanifan was a coach at University of Utah who recruited Nosworthy to the Utes. Despite - or maybe because of - a rough start, Hanifan showed the wild young receiver some tough love even while they traversed the recruiting trail together. The two have remained fast friends for half a century.

And if you're looking for loyalty, you should just see these two guys together, sticking up not just for each other, but for everyone in their wide, wide circle of friends. In fact, Hanifan made the trip to Coeur d'Alene last weekend to help raise money in Nosworthy's annual golf tournament for Saundra Dorosh, another friend who was paralyzed after suffering a broken neck in a pool accident more than a decade ago.

Nosworthy reported on Monday that a lot of money was raised, and that Hanifan "was the hit of the tourney." We find that exceedingly easy to imagine. And we applaud these men not just for doing something good in our community, but for reminding us that loyalty and friendship are among our greatest gifts if we choose to embrace them.