Foster and Friends
Foster and Friends
Foster and Friends Vol 135 "Unscripted" Part 1 with Bud Foster
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The conversation I have wanted to have for quite sometime. It's a one-on-one with Bud. This episode takes a deep dive into Bud Foster's football life...from high school to Murray State to his move to Blacksburg.
Welcome to Foster and Friends. Send us a text message. Bud and I would love to hear from you.
My job at the end was just to keep our lead dogs of the board. Trust me, this guy just giving his face, giving his distance between us. We had a timeline. Our guys wanted a timeline because we had his timeline.
SPEAKER_01Foster and Friends is presented by Envision. Locations are in Christiansburg in Salem, Virginia. For the best in eye care and fashion, it's Envision. By the River City Distillery in Radford, makers of Win Vodka, it's a good day to enjoy a win. And by Brick House Pizza, visit our Radford location in the Brick House Garden featuring live music and the best in comfort food. Brick House Pizza means good times.
SPEAKER_05That's that's gonna be that's kind of the big issue, I think, is the where the dividing line is is who who gets what and who doesn't get anything.
SPEAKER_01Now, from the NSB Radio Network, Foster and Friends. Here's Bud and Mac.
SPEAKER_03Welcome in. It is Foster and Friends for another week. And uh I've labeled the show today unscripted. I will explain later why we are doing that. But Foster's here. Bud had a big night with his foundation. He's got truck issues and so has to hurry up to Manassas today. Hey, it's good to see you. And uh, you know, you've been uh you've been burning both ends, right? As my mom used to say, burning both ends of the candle.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, in a fun way. Yeah, we had uh my foundation, we had an event, uh Wynn Sheridan, who's a great friend of to me of the program, uh great hokey, uh, hosted an event for us. We had about 56 people there in Northern Virginia at uh Me is Italian Kitchen. If anybody's ever up there, I highly recommend that place. But we had a great turnout, raised about$200,000.
SPEAKER_03That's crazy. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that was by far our highest um net, you know, and uh and we we obviously raised a lot of money in the in the golf tournament, but we have a lot of you know payments we gotta make off of that. You know, we make about 50% of uh of the proceeds when we when when it's all said and done. But this was a great event. Coach Wit uh Wynn flew Coach Franklin up, and so it was some of our good friends uh that I've known for years, some of our top donors, but people that really um believe in what we're doing, you know, here locally and uh with the with the university and with the community, and uh and and we're making a those those folks are helping us make a big impact here locally, and and I'm really appreciate their support and and proud of our our my team, our you know, the um our board and and what their vision is and what we want to accomplish and and we're really doing good things, so I'm really proud of that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, it's great that uh uh and before we get really dive deep into today's show and I explain, it's great that you get still get the support from the school for your foundation. In other words, that the school and the program recognizes what you're doing in the community. I mean, I just I think that's outstanding that you have that relationship.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'm I'm I've been very fortunate. Uh, you know, the university's allowed me to uh have check presentations and do the variety of things to make people aware of what we're doing. But um, you know, the using the the game platforms. We've been on uh on the main field at at Lane Stadium a couple times. We've been on the in the you know in the in the basketball and castle coliseum floor a couple times, um, you know, talking about and being able to uh present checks to who we're supporting. And and people get to see that we're doing really good things. And so yeah, I'm I'm fortunate that the athletic department believes in it, uh the university more importantly believes in it, and then we're getting more and more support from the community. And that's um that sees that we're we're we're giving back to young people. You know, we're we're targeting education and and health care. That's really our main two focus points. And uh, but uh it is cool that people are identifying and then now supporting uh you know what we're doing. So I I'm really uh appreciate everybody being involved and their support. And uh yeah, we're doing good things and it's it's been fun. And I'm uh I appreciate the university uh supporting this as well.
SPEAKER_03Little did I know that four years ago I would uh I would find a teammate that I maybe enjoy more than than anything. Um it's a long story how Bud and I got uh connected, but it followed an interview and then an interruption, and I didn't want to leave our radio stations in the state of Virginia hanging or uh our podcast hanging. And so uh I asked Bud, and Bud had just stepped away from football. And I had asked Bud, I said, Hey Bud, what do you think about doing a show? Um, you know, I want to keep this show alive uh in not only in the state of Virginia, but in the podcast world. And uh Bud said, Well, yeah, let me think about it. And you know, so Bud talked to a couple of people and made sure and got clearance. And it was uh we are in our fourth year of being together. We've had countless, countless interviews with really, really good people. Everybody from Bruce Arians to Charlie Weiss to Ronde Barber. I could go on and on and on. Uh Tony Stewart, I could go on and on and on of all the really big interviews we've done, all the local interviews we've done. But it hit me. It hit me this weekend. I said, you know what? I've never taken the time, because we're in kind of a lull period, I've never taken the time to sit down and talk to Bud about his life. Like, hey, Bud Foster, this is your life. I don't have any family members calling in. We don't, you know, it's not like we're gonna bring in, you know, former players and all this stuff. I wanted to sit down and have a conversation with Bud about his football life. The, you know, the the beamer years and the dynasty in in Blacksburg and all of this stuff. I mean, we talk bits and pieces, and Bud and I, you know, we share stories and so on and so forth. But today, it's unscripted. I wanted to go as deep as I could and let Bud just literally take off about life, love, and football. With all that being said, I'm gonna go to break. I won't let Bud answer yet until we get into the next segment. This is Foster and Friends, NSB Radio Network, and today it is unscripted with Bud Foster. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER_05Hi, this is Bud Foster for Envision. For over 30 years, my good friends, Dr. Scott and Becky Mann, have built a practice that truly cares about their patients.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we just try to do everything with the patients in mind. Everything we do is from the patient's point of view, and we try to put them first and really have state-of-the-art equipment and technology and then old-fashioned personal care and attention.
SPEAKER_00Oh, well, I think it's mainly about the relationship and that we care. We care for them, and they become family. Women we've been in that office now for over 30 years, so it's it's more like a family environment in that we do care about providing the best vision care available.
SPEAKER_02Over 30 years ago, we started with one office, one staff member, one doctor, and we've just kind of grown from there. The community's been great in supporting us, and now we have two locations. Uh, we're getting ready to add our six and seven doctors and about twenty-five staff.
SPEAKER_05Go see your award-winning Envision team. They have two locations, Salem and Christiansburg. They will meet all your eye care needs.
SPEAKER_01Foster and Friends is brought to you in part by Envision, with locations in Christiansburg in Salem, Virginia. For the best in eye care, it's Envision.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back. It is Foster and Friends, NSB Radio Network, Bud Foster unscripted. Uh, we uh really gonna dive into Bud's life and and growing up, and and Bud is a a young man and uh where football came into his life, and so uh just in this in this world. And now, and and we were just talking during the break, and I know now that well, you you have really become kind of a medium ogul. You're doing a lot of interviews, you had a lot of people requesting interviews as they should. I know you were on Tech Sideline, and by the way, I want to give those guys props. Tech Sideline does a wonderful job. Uh, you're doing a lot of public speaking and everything. Um, you've just become good. You know, you don't you don't know that, but uh probably you never thought as you were you know coaching in in uh Blacksburg, you probably never thought that you'd be doing this much uh public public speaking.
SPEAKER_05No, you know, you do your interviews after after show after games and things of that nature. But sure, uh yeah, this in this new role is just really um opened things up for me. And I will say this, you know, when you and I got together, and when you asked me to be a part of this, I remember thinking, does he really want this? And does he really know what he's getting? I mean, you talk about a guy being rough around the edges and raw, and maybe not say, maybe say something something inappropriate, who knows? But you've taken a glob of clay and you've been molding it. You've been a great mentor, and and uh I appreciate that, man.
SPEAKER_03That makes me feel old. Yeah, yeah. Mentor.
SPEAKER_05This platform has allowed me to um, you know, talk about a variety of topics, to get more comfortable speaking, um, just in general, even though right now we're on radio and we're on podcasts, but it does prepare you for getting out in front of people. And as as you've seen, my role here at Virginia Tech has really kind of forced me to do that. I've always been a good people person and been um somebody that's approachable and treat all people the same. And this has just allowed me now. My new role has allowed me to just be out more and more. And uh, we were just in in uh on this past Monday, we were in Norfolk with a hokey club tour. Uh, we flew myself, James Franklin. We kind of did our same thing that we've been doing, uh, but we did it in front of several hundred hokies this time. Um like you said, we had the foundation event uh the previous week. And you know, you're just uh it's it just gives me an opportunity to to get in front of people and and uh but you're a big part of that, and I want to thank you. Thank you for that. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's been good. I own the lunch pail. I own a lunch pail, so that's good. All right, we're gonna so where did it start for you? Where did how did football enter your life?
SPEAKER_05You know, that's a great question. And I remember when I was talking, when I was talking to the players when I made my announcement that this would be my last season, I was 60 years old, having some health issues, but I reflected back when you know when I was gonna talk and and just what the game has meant to me and how long I've been in it. And I started when I was seven years old. I started playing uh youth football. And then that wasn't, we didn't have flag football back in the day. So I might have some issues with CTE coming on, you know, and that's uh but uh it's uh you know, I've I started at a young age, and I was in the era like you, Mac. We didn't have video games, right? And um, and so I was fortunate that I had a family, my mom and dad, who uh they're both gone, but I mean, just were extremely supportive of me and my my sisters and um whatever we wanted to do. And but they were also one of those folks that you get involved, you're gonna finish it to the end, you know. And uh, but uh I just was a gym rat. I mean, I I was outside from 8 a.m. after I ate a bowl of cereal in the morning or wherever my mom hooked us up with till dark. I was out playing either pickle, throwing the football, playing tackle football, shooting baskets, you know, doing something, rubbing or rubbing around, rolling around the dirt, playing tag, riding bikes. You know, it was just um, but I've always had um an affinity for football. I don't know what it was. My we were I grew up in St. Charles, Missouri, uh, which is a suburb of St. Louis. My dad was a corporate guy in St. Louis. His company um created uh, it was called Flexapack, was the name of the company, but they did saran wrap. And so uh, but his company, he was a top salesman and one of their top chief operating officers. And um uh, but they had season tickets like to Cardinal baseball games, and then the Cardinals were St. Louis football cardinals were there before they moved to Arizona. And so we had he had access to tickets. And so I remember going to one of my first football games when I was, you know, young like that, and I it just intrigued me. And then I started playing, like I said, youth football at seven years old, and uh was involved with the boys' club. Uh that was something that I was very fortunate to get involved with uh as a young uh and played football and basketball uh at the boys club. And then as we went a little a couple years later, they had what they formed what was called the JFL, which was the junior football league in the Metropolitan St. Louis area. And so, like we would play uh one of the famous boys clubs in the area was Matthews Dickey's Boys Club, and that was where the Sphinx brothers, you know, Leon and Michael Spinks. Uh and so I actually participated against uh I think it was Michael, and I saw Leon box in in a little back room that I was at in the boys club and knew I boxing probably wasn't my gig, even though I did try that out too a little bit, you know, I was gonna gymmer. I tried anything that would bloody your nose or you could, you know, win a battle, or you know, and yeah, and I learned real young that you have to have some thick skin, you know. And uh, but no, I it's football started for me then, and then I was just one of those guys, Mac. I'm serious. I used to because I we you had your you might had your little play sheet that the coaches would give you. And it wasn't like you, you know, you had run right, you know, quarterback sweep right, quarterback sweep left, you know, or your hand off left, hand off right. But you had diagrams, and I would take and I would diagram them myself like on a sheet of paper. And then you, I don't know if you you know you I know you do because you were that you're in this we're in that same age bracket, but um you the old um electric football game, you could put the players on, you and you turn it on and they'd vibrate around, you know. But I could I would put up a formation, but then I you know you realize that those guys didn't go the direction you wanted them to. Yeah. So I would actually a lot like freshmen.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, exactly. That's a good point. Uh, but I would actually take those players off the off the grid there and put them like on the couch. I'd put them where I had more space and then I would put up formations, I would have defensive alignments, and then I would have, you know, I would run plays. I'd have like a double team. It's crazy. I was, you know, of things of that nature. My mom found something that I wrote um uh years later that I kind of wrote, asked I I wish I had asked for larger. I asked God that I wanted to be 6'2, 185 pounds and be a starting strong safety in college. And you know what? That happened. Yeah, and now I go back and look. I wish I'd said, you know, I wanted to be 6'2, 225, a first-round draft pick, run four or five, make millions of dollars. We would have seen how that would have gone. But you know, that's but that's really where it started. And um, and just yeah, and my love for football, um, uh, you know, I played it all the way up, and but my second love, and and very people don't realize this, is baseball. I baseball is uh is a passion for me. I between baseball and football, those were my two, you know, go-to sports all the time. But uh but football just always was something. I like rough housing. I liked uh, you know, not it's not for everybody, you know, football is not for everybody. Um I didn't mind getting hit. I loved to hit. Um, I always played quarterback and like linebacker. Then when I went to high school, uh I played linebacker and running back. And uh when I went to college, I was a strong safety. And so I I I as a running back, I was one of those guys that I would hit you more than I, you know, I wasn't the most elusive guy. So I would just as have much fun and and um I enjoyed running over you as much as I did um getting hit, you know, so hitting somebody. But um, but that that which drove me to the defensive side of the ball a little bit. But uh um anyway, no, but it just started and then moving towards um high school, um we moved from St. Louis. My dad's uh company was bought out by a group in Boston, Massachusetts. And uh so he commuted back and forth for nine months to Boston from St. Louis, and uh company finally said, Hey, Bob, we need you to make a decision. And he said, I'm not moving my family to Boston, you know, and uh which was a good call as I look back. I mean, because now it's just where I am. But uh we moved, he bought a Western Auto store. People you and you remember Western Hardware. Younger, young young listeners may not even know what the hell Western Auto is, but that was like Ace Hardware and you know, true value, all those kind of things, but we had an automotive side. But he bought a he liquidated his stock and bought a western auto store about an hour for 50 minutes, you know, away from St. Louis across the river in Illinois. And uh little smaller town, um, but uh I was fortunate to go into a place that I'd I'd been experienced and exposed to a lot of numbers and some good young athletes. And I was a big fish in a small pond at uh when we moved to Illinois. But um, you know, I I was very fortunate to have in the high school level, and that was where my foundation really started. I had my I had great high school coaches. And uh my football coach, I love him to death. He's taught me so much. My my high school basketball, I had two high school basketball coaches, uh, both legendary coaches, both Hall of Fame coaches in the state of Illinois. We're very we were very successful in basketball, uh, just taught fundamentals. Our baseball coach, we we had great success in baseball. We just had a group of kids in it in a smaller school that were, we had about 30 boys between a class above me, my class, and a class below me that we did everything together, you know, and we kicked in bottom line, we we kicked butt and took names, you know, in everything that we did. And uh, but to this day, this is the cool thing. To this day, those are some of my best friends, you know, and have been to countless football games when I was at played at Murray State, coached at Murray State, my time here. I've got a buddy that's been to every bowl game, so he went to 27 bowl games.
SPEAKER_03All right, hold that thought right there. Hold that thought because I don't want to get, I don't want to I gotta get you to Murray State. So that's okay. All right. We'll go to break here and come back because the recruitment of Bud Foster is probably a great story. So, you know, where is Bud gonna go to school? So, anyway, this is Foster and Friends. It's Bud Foster today, unscripted. We'll come back after this. Stay with us. Here's what the visitors of the River City Distillery are saying. Good atmosphere. It's a fantastic place with a very knowledgeable owner. It's Radford's unique gem. Cheers to Charlie Cosmato. Well, Charlie, owner and master distiller, took his years of experience and began producing Wim vodka. It was then he knew he had something special. Gentlemen's Journey bourbon and rye whiskey followed, and not to mention Rusty Rabbit, a cinnamon-flavored vodka that deserves your attention. River City Distillery is the first legal distillery in the Radford City limits. Charlie and his staff welcome you for a tasting, a pre-dinner visit, or post-party celebration. There's often live music and plenty of good conversation. If you're traveling the Commonwealth, make a point to stop in Radford and visit River City Distillery, 94 Harvey Street, downtown.
SPEAKER_01Foster and Friends is presented by the River City Distillery in Radford, makers of Win Vodka in Gentleman's Journey bourbon. Once again, here's Bud and Mac.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back. It is Foster and Friends. Bud Foster unscripted today. Something that I've been thinking about for, I don't know, uh a while, and it just made sense today. I just told Bud I said, bud, just get ready because I was gonna drill him. All right. So from high school in Illinois, who recruited you? Uh was recruiting a big thing then. How did you wind up at Murray State? And then the third part of the equation is your first encounter with Frank Beamer and how that played out. So you have a lot to cover this segment.
SPEAKER_05No, I I got you. Now my recruiting, it won't take long. You know, it really, it really won't. Um you know, I was uh in a small school in um in South Central Illinois, and um it was a small conference. We were a really good football team. Like I said, I had a great high school football coach. I'm gonna throw his name out there, Bill Vangle, in case he's listening to the show. Uh Bill's still he's living in that St. Louis area. But um uh anyway, I was. I, you know, I had some uh some people that were interested. More of the the directional schools, like Eastern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois. Um I had uh I did visit University of Illinois, uh, but that they were looking at me as a preferred walk-on type, you know, and I went to a couple games there. And but then I had we had a friend that um they moved from uh Lake Worth, Florida, you know, and uh this gentleman he became he was a our minister at um at our local Methodist church that we were members of. And um he uh he went to Murray State University and his son played for me that and played with me the last two years. Now he didn't play football, Roy Marcus. Morey was one of the most athletic guys I've been around. He actually signed a full baseball scholarship to Southern Illinois, and that's kind of the group of guys we've had. When you have at this small school, I was fortunate to play with like four other guys that signed scholarships, and I was the first full football scholarship kid to ever sign. We had a guy that was, you know, I was my idol, this guy by the name of John Flowers, who was played at um southern Illinois and then ended up earning a scholarship and just really, you know, good football player. But I was the first full scholarship kid to come out of Nokoma's high school. And um so, but I was played with several other guys, and that we we were we were a talented group. But anyway, um long story short, this guy Vince Marcus, he played with uh uh a guy named Bill Ferguson, who was the head coach at Murray State at the time, and and there was a guy, Gary Crumb, uh, who was from the actual South Central Illinois area and recruited Illinois from Murray State. And um, I went down there on a visit and just fell in love with it. I fell it was good football, but I fell in love with the Southern Bells. Now, you know, I'm thinking I was born in Kentucky. I was born in Somerset, Kentucky. And so I kind of felt like that was maybe a calling a little bit, you know, that I need to go back to Kentucky. But um as it turned out, it was um, you know, great. I mean, it was a great decision. But um, but Bill was there for one year and then he retired. Um and uh but that's how I ended up at Murray was through uh uh through Vince Marcus and Bill Ferguson and Gary Crumb. Um and we went my first year, we went six and five. My first I I end up uh I'm in the two deep as strong safety going into the first game. We open up against southeast Missouri State. And uh the guy who's uh he's a fifth-year senior at the strong safety on behind, and I'm a here a true freshman. He tears his ACL in the first quarter of the game.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_05So so Bud Foster gets thrown into the mix. And uh so the rest is you know history after that, you know. I started and and then I'll say this though, I'm challenging. We got young listeners. I went, I'm so here I am. I'm a freshman at college. Uh I'm starting. I'm in love with all these blunt, beautiful Southern bells. Um, Murray was a dry county, but it was the wettest dry county that uh I've ever experienced. And uh so I was away from home and uh I was living life. You know, I thought I was the you know God's gift of football at the time, you know. I'm starting to get noticed by all these gals. And uh but school, school didn't wasn't the most important thing for me that first semester, I can tell you. But anyway, long story short, then uh coach uh Ferguson retires, and we bring in uh Mike Godfrey, and uh coaches you know, Mike came in, he was at the offensive coordinator at University of Arizona at the time. He'd been at Cincinnati under Tony Mason and was in Arizona under Tony Mason. But Mike um he played at Moorhead State, which is it was in our league in the Ohio Valley Conference at the time. And the OVC at the time was a really good football league. It was one of the top one double AA conferences in the country. But anyway, um Mike came in and uh basically tried to run everybody off, you know, and Mike had a lot of success. We won the OVC and played in the NCAA, you know, they only took four teams back then, but um uh he ran everybody off on from Coach uh Ferguson's group except for 30 guys. So he basically brought in like 90 new guys. You know, there was no portal at that time. We just he just brought in high school and and um transfer kids. We had a bunch of JC transfer kids, but we called ourselves the dirty 30 because we had you know, it was one of those you you remember Sports Illustrated did an article back in the day, like guys wrestling under chicken wire and doing all this craziness stuff. And that's what we did, man. It was one of those deals that was a survival of the fittest. And um, I seen guys crawl out of our weight room, you know, and crawl out of things that we were doing because they couldn't take anymore, you know. And I was one of those that survived. I mean, we were that that dirty 30, and we went on and went nine and nine and two and two years in a row my last two years, and and really had a great football team. But after my sophomore year, we really we went six and five my freshman year, and then I think we went four and seven my sophomore year. And coach and Ron Zook was my position coach. Ron Zook that's a University of Florida head coach and Illinois head coach. Ron was a young coach at the time, just coming out of Miami of Ohio. He was, I think it was a GA, and then kind of elevated. But um, I think Coach Godfrey was going to elevate Ron to be the defensive coordinator. But we went and wanted to change defense because they fired our defensive coordinator. And so Ron went to visit this guy named Frank Beamer, who was at the Citadel under Bobby Ross. And so the way the story goes is that Ron went out, spent a week with Frank, and uh came back to Coach Godfrey and was like, hey, you don't need to hire me. We need to hire Frank Beamer. We need to bring him in. And so that's where it started. And Frank was a young coach, you know, at the time, and probably was like a who knows, a restricted earnings guy. And then the Citadel wasn't the ideal place to be recruiting to and all those kind of things. And it was an FCS program as well, a one double AA. And um, so Frank comes to Marie State, and then that's where my association with Coach became. And he was my defensive coordinator, our defense coordinator, my junior and senior year. Coach Godfrey, after um our senior year, uh got offered the head coaching job at the University of Cincinnati. And uh he'd been there before and so knew people, and it was a great opportunity for him. And but then Coach Beamer was promoted as our head coach just because we were so good on defense. I mean, we coach was I mean, he could dial blitzes up, he could do, you know, that was back in the day, protections and things weren't great, and you know, our people probably didn't study it as well as they needed to, and coach really was ahead of the game at the time. But between defense and special teams, that's where I really saw that this guy was really unique and special and attention to detail in the special teams because we were blocking punts left and right, we were returning punts left and right. Um, you know, we were we were hitting the quarterback from the backside. Chaos. Oh my God. It was like this was it was fun. I mean, we had our band in our stadium side, like I think 18,000 people, and we we sold it out all the time. And our band, I remember what we were so good. I mean, it we we got used to the band used to play the Queen song, another one bites the dust right at the end. It was always at the end, man. And we it's just kind of like inner sand man for us, but it was at the end of the game, like everybody's going nuts. And but coach was a big, big part of that, and that's where my association with Coach Beamer came in. Then I um he is taking over as a head coach, he's hiring his staff. I've got a semester left to finish school. I don't know what I'm gonna do, you know. Um I'm contemplating, and actually, I'm I went around, like I said, I wasn't in my first couple years in school, or at least my first year, I was I I was school was secondary. Football and the co-eds were my uh my priorities at Murray State. I'll be honest with you.
SPEAKER_03I no, I'm gonna again, I'm gonna stop you right there to get ready to transition into Blacksburg. But I just want to tell you that while you were I've got the name of your book when you decide to write your book. We'll just call it Bourbon and Bells. And I think that just that that may, you know, Bud Bourbon and Bells, somewhere in there. We gotta we gotta get your name in there. All right. When we come back, uh Bud's gonna talk about the uh the move to Blacksburg, uh the you know, the invitation from Frank Beamer, and all of a sudden this little dynasty they built uh, you know, in the Big East and being an independent and then uh you know joining the ACC. So we got a lot to cover yet. It's uh Bud Foster, unscripted. And this is Foster and Friends, and this is the NSP Radio Network. When you walk into a restaurant, say your favorite pizza place, what's the first thing you notice? The way it smells, the vibe, maybe the party atmosphere. If you're traveling in Southwest Virginia or lucky enough to live in the Radford area, hopefully you have visited Brick House Pizza, a staple since 1972. Brickhouse Pizza has become a legendary stop. Jeff and Diane's Main Street attraction features artisanal wood-fired pizza with fresh ingredients prepped every day. Brickhouse's pizzas are made with flour imported from Italy. Throw in the recipe for their homemade brew, and you have the recipe for fun. Brickhouse Pizza is open Tuesday through Friday at 3:30, Saturdays at 11.30, and the Sunday brunch begins at 10. Fresh food, cold beer, great times. That's Brick House Pizza, 311 West Main Street in Radford.
SPEAKER_01Serving traditional wood fired favorites.
SPEAKER_03So for Murray State, uh you know, now that that Frank Beamer is coaching bud, and uh so you got that semester to go. Is it it at that time, is that when you start talking to Frank about maybe joining coaching ranks and uh actually, yeah, I was.
SPEAKER_05I was actually taking a uh an elective, a weightlifting class, you know, just to do an hour. And one of our new coaches, Reed May, who uh Reed played at Arizona and is had a great high school career in the in the Indiana area. Uh, but Reed was our receiver's coach, and he was coaching at those levels during the offseason. You coached an activity class. And he was asking me what I was interested to do. I said, Well, I'd like to probably get into coaching. And he said, Why don't you come in and talk to Coach Beamer? So I had a good relationship with Coach, and so I went in and talked to him, and they were needing an outside linebackers coach. And because they they had changed, we changed from like a four-three to that wide tackle six type deal. And I ended up kind of playing our like our whip linebacker. We called him a um, what would we call it? We called him an end at the time, but it was an we and we changed that because it was more attractive from recruiting to put them to outside backers because that's what they did. That's right. And uh, but anyway, I went and talked to him, and they needed and I ended up he I coached that spring, and I was I guess it was like a trial and error kind of deal for me, but I coached the guys that I played with, you know, and uh and that's where it all started. And coach saw something in me, and then he'd offered me a graduate assistant position, you know. And the cool thing was for me, and I had a good group of teammates. I mean, that uh, you know, those guys, I told them up front this is what I want to do, and you know, I'll and this probably helped me be who I am as far as how I treat my kids and the my players, because we were we were real. I was just very open with them.
SPEAKER_03I, you know, was it difficult to coach your peers? No.
SPEAKER_05No, I thought I thought it would be, but um because uh we had a great relationship and I was open, and I just told them, said, guys, I mean, you know, we'll have a beer together and all that, but also when it comes down to time when I've got to do my job, let's not take advantage of that. And I, you know, I'm I'm not gonna take advantage of our friendship, and you can't don't do that to me. Don't put me in a don't paint either one of us. Boundaries were set.
SPEAKER_03Boundaries were set.
SPEAKER_05And I had to do that, you know, but and um, but no, that's where it all started. And that's and then I could at least talk to them because my experiences, because some of those guys then were freshmen and sophomores, but my experiences as a young man, like I said, football wasn't a priority for me. So when I talked to the players, even to the when I walked out the door, when I was having meetings with the players, I was always, it wasn't coach speak that I wanted them to do this, that this certain things that you had to do the right way. I did it because spoke the the truth, because I was one of those guys that lived it. You know, we always had a meeting on Thursdays to talk about the problem children, so to speak, in the program. I was one of those guys because of my academics, because just I had a little edge about me, you know. And um, but that's from experience, you know. It's like uh the burner's hot, don't touch it, right? And that's kind of what I wanted to explain to the kids. You know, there's a certain way to do things. I want you to have fun. We're we respect each other, but when it's time to work, it's time to work, we've got to respect that. But anyway, I had a good group, and but we had success at Murray, and then um we were playing in 1986, coach our our last season at Murray State. So I coached from 1981 to 86, those six.
SPEAKER_03Five good years, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and uh so um I um we were playing at at Austin P and we had just won the Ohio Valley Conference Championship and with that win. And uh we're driving back from we were down in Clarksville, Tennessee, busting back, and coach said, Hey, I'm I got an opportunity to um get involved in this Virginia Tech job, and I'd love to have you join me.
SPEAKER_03So he makes the offer right away.
SPEAKER_05I mean Yeah, that I mean he didn't know he had the job yet, and then we're we're getting ready to go play uh then we win the game, and we're gonna play Eastern Illinois University in the one AA playoffs. Um Sean Payton was their quarterback.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_05Um, but anyway, um we get beat. They beat us in last you know two-minute drive at the end of the game, unfortunately. But we're riding back from uh Charleston, Illinois, and um coach says, Hey, I'm gonna get this job, and I want like I said, I want you to come with me. So that's where it started, you know. And uh I remember uh coming down to, you know, I hadn't I hadn't heard a whole lot about Virginia Tech or VPI.
SPEAKER_03But there was no trepidation from your part. In other words, okay, coach, I'm coming. I mean, there there was no even thinking about it.
SPEAKER_05What yeah, there was no hesitation whatsoever. And uh, you know, I was a newlywed. I'd been married for two years and had a six-month-old uh baby son and a two-year-old uh daughter. And uh so um I uh, you know, it was just uh we it was it was interesting. I went from making sixteen thousand dollars to twenty-four thousand dollars from 19 uh 80, 85 to 19 or 86 to 1987. I thought I died and went to heaven. Yeah, you know, but uh but that's where it started then for us, you know. And uh and then our first few years at at tech were tough. You know, we inherited a program under probation, some severe probation. We lost 30 scholarships a year for the first, I can't remember, three or four years, you know, and uh played the toughest schedule that we played. But that was, you know, uh people we hung in there with Coach and saw that he was doing it the right way. Uh 92, we had a rough year, we went two, eight, and one. Now, in between there, we kind of built it back. We had a couple years we went six and five, six, four, and one. We never got invited to a bowl game. Uh when we beat, like one year we beat four bowl teams. Um, you know, but we played a bunch of good people back in the day, but uh um, but we just never they were never invited. I don't know if that's part because of the sanctions and and some things, but uh we hung in there, then 92 was a nine and two or a two eight and one year, and coach let some guys go. And um, and that was uh we we lost we went two eight and one in seven of those eight games we were winning going in the fourth quarter. Oh we were a young football team. We had because of all of our sanctions and things, we didn't have a lot of upperclassmen. So we had a really young football team. And um I knew we had a chance to be really, really good. And uh we'd recruited really well. And was that the first year then?
SPEAKER_03But sorry to interrupt you, was that the first year then that the sanctions are lifted now? Are you on full full scholarship?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we kind of were off of that. So what is that? Yeah, about that, about 91, 92. Yes. Got it. And then um we hired Phil El Mation. Phil Phil came in from um uh Syracuse. You know him, he was at UVA for a little bit, maybe before your time a little bit. But anyway, Phil was our defense coordinator from 93, 94. We had success. I told Phil we're gonna have a chance to be pretty good. Um, you know, and I felt that way. Uh we made some adjustments position-wise with some players, and and we ended up going 9-3 and 8-4 in those 93 and 94. That that saved Frank's job, probably. And uh, and then uh Phil left to go to uh University of Washington because we'd basically taken Washington's defense. We went and visit with those guys and brought their defense to the East Coast. And um, but that's where it started. And then Phil left and went to Washington because he had a relationship with those guys, and that's when Coach promoted me as the coordinator. Now, my first year, I was co-coordinator with a guy by the name of Rod Sharpless. Rod, really good man, good football coach. Coach was associated with him at the University of Maryland at their times at some point in time. Uh, but I coach was like, I don't want to do this, but out of respect to Rod, you know, because he he you know had that respect for Rod, but he said, hey, look, only one of you can really be the coordinator. You're gonna you're gonna make the decisions, you know, make the adjustments, all those things. And Coach put that on me. So, which I, you know, that's where it all started. And then Rod got an opportunity. That was really back in the day. Rod was an you know, is a um is an African-American, uh, great football coach, better human being. But that was when the BCA was a big part, the Black Coaches Association. And Rutkers, he was from New Jersey area. Rutgers had a defensive coordinator's job, and he took that. And then so that's where the soul thing came over with me from '96. But really, I've been the coordinator since it was night since '95 on into nineteen.
SPEAKER_03So that's definitely the time then when I start to open about the tech program now. I mean, it's mid-90s, right? I mean, you guys are recruiting your fannies off in my, you know, by the way, we may have to do a part two of this, you know. Yeah. But but it was the mid-90s then that basically you could see this Virginia Tech dynasty starting to start to build.
SPEAKER_05Well, yeah, we went nine and three and eight and four. And then we had a good group coming back my first year, and then we go 10 and 2 and beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl my first year as the coordinator. Now we started out 0-2. That wasn't the most uh, you know, I I was uh, you know, and we lost two really tough football games, but we had a great group of seniors that after the we lost to Cincinnati and we're getting ready to play Miami, who we had never beaten. And they had uh Ray Lewis and group of guys, and we beat them 13 to 10 at in Lane Stadium, and we never looked back, you know. And that game right there, we needed a true hump game to get us to that next level. We had made strides, we beat a good Indiana team in the 93 Independence Bowl, which Tech had only won a couple bowl games prior to that. We lost to a good Tennessee team in Peyton Manning in in 1980, 19 uh 94. We jumpstarted a lot of quarterback's careers. Let me say Peyton was a freshman at that time. We jumped, we I need some finder speeds, I need some bonus money from all these uh these careers we jumpstarted. But um, you know, but then we just we had a chance to either go backwards again or go forward. And um and I just felt that was when the lunch pail kind of came into play. If we were gonna be different, how were we gonna do it? And uh we were making strides. We still weren't recruiting the elite guys, but we were recruiting good football players and attracting better and better football players. But what was gonna separate us? And that's where the lunch pail came in. That we then we were gonna be just out work, out prepare, out-tough, outdiscipline people, you know, uh, and just be more loyal and um, you know, and trustworthy than you know, our opponents. And that's how we we kind of got things going in that right direction. So, you know, for the next 25 years for me, um, and then luckily, you know, for I think it was for uh 21 of those years with Frank Bamer, you know, uh we had a great run.
SPEAKER_03Great stuff. All right, I tell you what, we're gonna we're gonna have to probably do a part two next week because that there's just there's too many things to cover, and I know I'm gonna leave some stuff out. So we'll go to break, we'll come back. Uh just great stuff. Bud Foster unscripted. Uh just a conversation I wanted to have for. Long, long time. We'll come back and wrap up right after this. Foster and Friends, NSB Radio Network.
SPEAKER_05Hi, this is Bud Foster for Envision. For over 30 years, my good friends, Dr. Scott and Becky Mann, have built a practice that truly cares about their patients.
SPEAKER_00I can just remember being pregnant with my first son over 30 years ago, and we bought the practice from Dr. Henry Stewart, who'd had it for 50 years. It was scary, but we moved forward and we're actually in the same location, and now we're up to seven doctors and over 25 staff in the two locations.
SPEAKER_02The technology is amazing. We used to take pictures on literally Polaroids, and now we went to digital, now we have widescreens, and we can do things today that 10 years ago were only images you could only generate maybe in a teaching hospital. And now we can do those chair side when our patients come in.
SPEAKER_03I think there's a lot we need to get into in next week. And so I got a long way to go yet, you know?
SPEAKER_05I mean, we're scratching the servers. I was just sitting here thinking, you know, it's hard to put into a 30-minute segment of a guy that's 67 years old and coached for 40 years in his life.
SPEAKER_03It is. We will do an unscripted part two. That's the great thing about having a show like this. We can be flexible. And because I wanted to get in more of your relationship with Frank and what some of the meetings were. I want to get in the hallways, I want to get in the in the you know, in the war rooms, and you know, where you're looking at kids and and you know the trials and tribulations of what was going on. And I ain't even gotten to the part where all right, Bud Foster has to step away now and how that developed and how that happened. I know you've told me that story in pieces. Uh, I've got so much to you know to uncover. So there's no problem with us doing unscripted part two. The book coming out, which I hope to write, Bourbon and Bells, with uh with with uh with Bud Foster. But anyway, we'll leave it there. Unscripted part two next week. So without you two breaths. All right, what do you got planned this weekend, real quick before we go?
SPEAKER_05You know, I don't think anything for a change. It's gonna be it's gonna be nice. Now, my next couple weekends are gonna be busy. We're we're Jesse and I are gonna do a little traveling, we're going to a wedding and going see some friends. But uh the this this weekend, it's just gonna be I'm on a little R and R. So I've been I've been doing a lot of peopling here lately. So I'm ready just to kind of sit and hang out with my lovely wife.
SPEAKER_03I totally get it. Well, you'll have a you'll have uh Jesse can listen to maybe she knows some of this, maybe she doesn't. So at least they'll be they'll be unscripted that uh and next week part two. I we got to get into the hokey thing, the Michael Vick thing, the the years, the Virginia rivalry, what was going on. I mean, I got a million questions yet. So you have a good couple days. I will see you next week for unscripted part two. Bourbon and Bells is the uh the name with uh with Bud Foster. We'll continue next week. This is Foster and Friends, and this is the NSB Radio Network. Have a good one, bud.
SPEAKER_05You too, Mac.
SPEAKER_01Foster and Friends is presented by Envision. Locations are in Christiansburg in Salem, Virginia. For the best in eye care and fashion, it's Envision. By the River City Distillery in Radford, makers of Win Vodka. It's a good day to enjoy a win. And by Brick House Pizza. Brick House Pizza means good times. Foster and Friends is a presentation of the NSB Radio Network and Mac McDonald Media.
