Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
A Butterfly and the Texas Tornado 		19
CHAPTER 2
What We Can Learn From a Small College Coach 		27
CHAPTER 3
Be Courageous and Contagious 		45
CHAPTER 4
Building a Better House 		67
CHAPTER 5
Action Heroes 		83
CHAPTER 6
15-and-3 Leadership 		101
CHAPTER 7
Teaching Others to Teach 		143
CHAPTER 8
Mistakes and the Four F Words 		155
CHAPTER 9
Recipe for Revolution 		163
EPILOGUE
A Celebration of Life 		175
EPILOGUE II
Dr. Charles Sydnor Remembers		 205
It is my sincere hope this book explains who and what Fred Selfe is and what he can be to our world. You did not have to know Fred Selfe, or of Emory and Henry College, to understand what his passing means to our entire culture: the loss of a good man, caring father, mentoring coach, guiding teacher; the loss of a true hero—one fewer of a quickly disappearing breed. It is my wish you find here the tools you need to become one of those real next-door heroes.

I also want to explain, if you did not attend Emory and Henry, it is not like your school. It is not the University of Virginia, Notre Dame, Duke or Michigan. It is not Rice, Tulane, Brown or Harvard. It is not Washington and Lee, Wake Forest, or Colby. Emory and Henry is a unique, small, beautiful, rural college where supernatural roots run deep into the ancient Appalachians anchoring it to the place it is built.

Those who go there share those roots—they grow in us, entangling us with the campus, its history and each other. They draw us back when the leaves of the hardwoods change to honey, fire and cumquat and sunlight passes through them like antique amber. The smells of mown grass, buttermilk fried chicken and Kentucky Bourbon drift along on the crisp midday air. Cedar-stored wools, charcoal-colored flannels and worn earthen corduroy fold into the quilted backdrop of bright navy and golden flags shimmering in a pale washed sky. They remind us it is time for football and we are called to join our family at the great reunion.

Football season, the glorious autumn of the mountain empire of Southwestern Virginia, is the best time to learn this story; a time when bright colors envelope us and God’s hand sweeps across the newly upturned fields bringing change to the world. A bold time is the best time to learn of Fred Selfe. He was the uncle in the Emory and Henry family—to some a father. His commanding presence on the football field and around campus, as he strode along in blue shorts and gray t-shirts, reassured us the college and its strength—of which we are a product—marched forward. He stood heads above others as the vintage–some might say old-fashioned—example of the solid, unwavering moral value of the institution. He was the things we need to be. If that is old fashioned, I say we need to slow down and find it again.

Enjoy this book and may you find in the life of Fred Selfe the lessons and tools you need to change your life and the world around you.

Dale McGlothlin
Greensboro, North Carolina

©2004, Fred Selfe. Site by Atlantic Webworks.