He Calmed the Seas

3/1/2024

Larry King, a longtime member of Collegiate’s housekeeping staff, came up with nicknames for pretty much everyone in the Cougar community.

He dubbed Charlie McFall, appropriately enough, Legend.

King was around during the glory days of McFall’s coaching career, the years (2003-2006) that the football teams he led won four consecutive VISAA championships, no small feat considering the talent level both in the Prep League and among independent schools throughout the state.

The first title came as something of a surprise. After a couple of down years and an 0-2 start in 2003, he (with senior quarterback Peyton Stinson as the linchpin) directed the Cougars to an 8-2 finish, which created much buzz around the program.

The next year, he installed a sophomore fresh off the JV at quarterback — his name is Russell Wilson. You might have heard of him — and for the next three years, McFall & Co. maintained the level of excellence that made Collegiate one of the top football programs in Virginia.

Through those years, McFall, Collegiate’s athletic director from 1987 until his retirement in 2013, truly became a legend, but those who knew him well or even tangentially know that the true measure of Charlie McFall wasn’t wins or championships accolades or Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks whom he coached.

Instead, it was his humility, unflappability, honor, fervent belief in doing everything the right way, and his it’s-always-about-the-kids mentality.

McFall slipped peacefully away this past Sept. 21 after a period of declining health. Throughout his illness and in the aftermath of his passing, family and his wide circle of friends have found solace and peace by sharing Charlie McFall stories.

There are many, and all attest to his strength of character, innate goodness, and ability to make everyone around him better.

One day recently, Karen Doxey, who for 25 years shared an office with him, first as assistant, then associate, and later co-athletic director, reflected upon their time leading Collegiate’s athletic program.

What are some of the lessons you learned from Charlie?

Probably one of the greatest things I learned is don’t sweat the small stuff. He did not sweat the small stuff. That was such a good lesson. It put balance in things. In some ways, we had oppositive personalities that worked well together. I was more of the let’s-get-it-done-now as opposed to later. He was the laid back, don’t-worry-about-it-so-much, it’ll-get-done. That’s definitely needed in some cases. Get-up-and-go is needed in some cases. To me, it was a nice match, but he really brought that other side that I loved about him. He had a way about him that calmed the seas.

The other thing that I noticed was that when we interviewed potential teacher/coaches, he had a way about him that would make that person walking in the door, whether they really wanted to coach or not, feel comfortable in three or four seconds. They didn’t feel like they were sitting in an interview. Just watching him go to work like that was really fun.

He always made people feel special, whether it was his co-workers or students in the cafeteria or the physical plant or the kids he coached. He cared about everybody and would do anything for any of them.

What did you talk about in the office when you weren’t talking business?

You always knew what his passions were. He loved to tell hunting stories and stories about things that happened in the past, especially coaching-wise. He talked about Petey Jacobs, Grover Jones, and Mac Pitt, the people who mentored him when he was the young coach.

So he connected you to Collegiate’s past?

Charlie could bind things together. People don’t always realize how much (Collegiate) history there is. To me, knowing history allows you to understand the present and keeps you going into the future and enables you to shape the future.

Charlie was the AD when you arrived from Norfolk Academy. In a year or two, you were sharing not just office space but administrative responsibilities. It seemed like the transition was seamless.

Exactly. He doesn’t have an ego. He could work together with anybody. When I came in, I was the outsider. A, that didn’t bother him, and, B, he was going to allow me to function like I’d been there for a long time because he wanted to get along with everybody.

Not having an ego went through every aspect of his personality. That’s the way he coached as well. He was willing to empower his assistants. It was the same with the way he coached in games. The games were his favorite part. He didn’t like practices. Did you know that? I thought that was funny, because I loved them both.

Charlie was true to his word when he preached sportsmanship.

When he coached, he felt no need to run up the score. He knows about kids. He knew what kids need. He wanted to keep the opponent’s dignity in place. He treated his opponents with respect. We beat them by 15. We beat them by 50. What’s the difference? You’ve won the game. As the coach, he got to know all his kids well. The kids really looked up to him because of their relationships with him. Relationships were the most important thing with Charlie.

Collegiate football had some lean years before that state title run. How did Charlie handle the challenging times?

He was always the same coach. In those down years, he was always so realistic. He knew what he was working with, and he made the best of what he had, even if he had to play guys who weighed 135 pounds soaking wet. He could always hold his head high even though there was some grumbling going on. He knew what he was doing.

The grumbling went away with success.

Charlie didn’t think he was anything special because he was winning those games. He knew what to do with the players we had here. Generally, we had pretty good skill guys, but we didn’t have the 300 pounders like some of the schools we played against. He was smart enough to put kids in positions where they could succeed and give them the tools to do that.

Any funny stories?

Charlie loved hunting. Everybody knew it. I got the version of hunting just like other people got the version of football with these little squares of paper writing out football plays and talking about it. He would come in in the morning, and if he had gone hunting, which many mornings he had, I got the play-by-play about how they got that deer. Then he started mapping it out on a little piece of paper like the football plays. Here’s the line of trees. Here’s where we sent the dogs. There’s where we got him. That’s how we did it.

Speak about Charlie’s friendship with Claud Whitley, who served Collegiate for 50 years as security guard, delivery man, and all-around goodwill ambassador.

Claud’s most favorite person on this whole campus was Charlie McFall. Claud was just incredible. Claud’s birthday is Nov. 1. Mine is May 10. Charlie’s is May 8. We’d always take him out for Claud’s birthday on May 9. It was our birthday treat to us. We always got cake for dessert. I’ve never seen even once Claud decline a dessert.

Charlie and Claud were like brothers who connected with each other instinctively.

That’s so true. One morning, Claud checked in to tell us something that had happened in another building, Charlie said, “About 6:30 tonight, could you please take the football uniforms out of the washing machine and put them in the dryer?” Claud said, “Yep.” I said, “Are you serious? I wouldn’t remember that if you gave me a million dollars.” Claud did it. If it was for Charlie, Claud was on it. If it was dark outside or getting close, Claud would always walk me to my car. Every night. Claud is so nice. Charlie probably asked him to do that.

And, like two brothers, there was a lot of friendly repartee.

Yes. All good natured. Both of them looked forward to it.

Anything else?

Charlie loved working behind the scenes. He talked about in the old days, it was a much smaller school. If a girl didn’t get invited to a dance, he’d talk to some of the guys, and the girl would get invited. He was proud of that. He never wanted to leave anyone out. He did the same with his athletes. When he saw that they were running into a problem, he’d pull kids aside and talk to them. He helped students help themselves in a lot of ways. I think he just saw the big picture.

We loved coming to work every day. Part of it was that we loved working with somebody that closely and that directly. We saw things similarly, but we went about things differently. Charlie just always showed a lot of grace. What a good guy.

~Weldon Bradshaw

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