Kevin Skladinski penned this great piece on one of Pat Dye's DC's. I was at Auburn when he was the coordinator and he was a big part of helping Dye put AU back on the map. Now, he's battling ALS.
You want to smile? You want to be inspired? You want to hear great football stories and personal stories and walk away feeling better than you did when you arrived?
Do what I'm glad I did Wednesday afternoon. Spend an hour visiting with Frank Orgel.
You'll be better for it.
You'll definitely laugh because the 77-year-old former defensive coordinator may be the best storyteller in Auburn history. You'll probably get a little choked up when he tells you this story.
After Will Muschamp left Auburn in December to become the South Carolina head coach, Gus Malzahn needed a new defensive coordinator. He playfully said to Orgel, "Have you got three years left in you?"
He meant as a coach. Orgel replied, "Coach, I might have three years left in my life."
Orgel tells the story with eyes twinkling, which is a habit. He's joking, but he's also not kidding. His relationships with Malzahn and other coaches and players present and past help keep him going in the toughest fight of his life.
He's suffered with symptoms for a decade and a half, but about five years ago, Orgel was diagnosed with ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The Alabama chapter of the ALS Association describes it as "a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord."
If you suffer from ALS, you eventually lose control of your muscles. Your mind stays sharp as your body fades.
"I know there's no cure for this disease," Orgel said in a moment of serious reflection. "I know eventually this disease will win, but I just want to fight it as long as I can."
Giving himself a fighting chance
Orgel doesn't act or sound like anything but a winner. He contributed to the fight Wednesday by traveling from Auburn to Birmingham with his wife Sarah for the second annual Changing the Game event for the Alabama chapter of the ALS Association. At the inaugural event a year ago, Orgel and former Alabama fullback Kevin Turner, another ex-football player suffering from ALS, were honored.
Former Alabama and NFL fullback Kevin Turner served as a panelist at a legislative briefing on the long-term consequences of sports-related brain injuries and concussions for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force. Turner said only a few words on Wednesday in Washington - not because he didn't have plenty he wanted to say, but because the disease that's taking his life bit by bit makes it hard for him to be understood.
A year later, Frank and Sarah Orgel served on the event's committee, and Frank spoke as only he can. Before the dinner, at their hotel, she listened and offered a timely comment or two while he held court.
Orgel's lost much of the use of his left arm and leg, but he does physical therapy several days a week. Part of his therapy is swimming, and he travels three-quarters of a lap under water to start, powered by his right side.
He called swimming "the best thing I do."
"Being in the pool and keeping my muscles active gives me a fighting chance," he said. "I'm not getting any worse real fast. Some patients, this disease moves faster on some than it does others. I think it's not moving as fast because I'm working against it."
His own special support group
He also has so many people working for him, starting with Sarah. Her energy and enthusiasm fill a room. She attends a weekly support group meeting in Montgomery, and he accompanied her a time or two, but nothing picks him up like a different weekly meeting.
Most Tuesdays during football season, he's one of the rare invited visitors to Malzahn's Auburn practices, along with Pat Dye, his old Georgia teammate and Auburn boss.
Orgel was Auburn's defensive coordinator under Dye from 1981-85.
"My support group is being there among those players," Orgel said. "I talk to the players, and I talk to the coaches."
Former players and colleagues from his different coaching stops come by the Orgel house so often, Sarah said, "it's like open house."
You never know who might stop by. It could be Rusty and Sallie Deen, who used to oversee the Auburn athletic dorm, Sewell Hall. Or former Auburn trainer Hub Waldrop. Or Jack Smith, director of strategic communications for the Auburn Athletics Department, who Sarah said has become "like our son."
Smith wrote a touching profile of Orgel before Christmas for AuburnTigers.com.
A long-time bond with Bo Jackson
And then there's Bo Jackson. He and Orgel developed a bond while Jackson played at Auburn that continues to this day.
Orgel described a three-on-three drill the running backs kept cutting to the back side, against the rules of the drill, at the mischievous urging of their position coach, Bud Casey. Orgel threatened to knock down the next running back who hit the wrong hole.
"Well, they handed it off and the man cut it back and I ran over there and saw it was 34," Orgel said. "I said, 'I'm gonna let him pass.' Bo came by and said, 'I'll buy you the biggest steak in town if you go over there and whip (Casey).' We had a good time at practice."
Jackson once sent Orgel a note calling him the best coach to come through Auburn.
Not long ago, on a quail hunt in south Georgia, Orgel planned to watch TV at the lodge while Jackson and the rest of their party went out to take some birds.
"Bo said, 'No, no. You're going on the hunt, too.' I said, 'I can't go. I can't get in that Jeep.' He said, 'Yes, you can.' He picked me up like I was a sack of potatoes, carried me over to the Jeep, sat me in the front seat and said, 'You're going to watch this.' I said, 'Sure, I will now.'
"I rode and watched them. He never ceases to amaze me. I can't remember him missing a bird. My son-in-law, I can't remember him hitting many, but Bo, every time we got a rise, he had something fall. We just had a ball."
Jackson was there as a speaker at Wednesday night's event at Orgel's request, and his presence in Orgel's life tells you something special about the old coach. He may need help to get out of the bed and into his wheelchair, but he still moves people in powerful ways.
Sarah said, "We've been lucky."
Spend some time with them, and you're the fortunate one.
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