Story About Bobby Chase

[ponyboy]

It’s well documented that Bobby Chase is a class act and at least as good a guy as he is a football player. Let me tell you a story I’ve been waiting a while to tell.

My oldest son, Hank, has few heroes. But one of them is Bobby. After reading the feature story on here a few years back (webbie, can you dig that one up?) and then watching his game winning catch at UAB in 2005, Hank decided that he was a wide receiver too.

For Halloween 2006, Hank decided he was going to dress up as Chase. So I located a #82 jersey and arranged to have Bobby sign it via Phil Bennett's secretary -- which of course he graciously did. Not only did Hank get his picture on the front page of ponyfans.com that day wearing the signed jersey and full uniform, he wore it to the game that night and got to wave at Bobby as he exited the tunnel to come onto the field. Hank thought he was on top of the world at that point. But not yet.

A couple of days letter I get a call on my cell phone. It’s Bobby – a guy I’d never spoken to in my life -- and he wants to take Hank and his younger brother out for a day of fun. But I’m not supposed to tell them; Bobby wants it to be a surprise.

You should have seen the look on Hank’s face when Bobby Chase pulled up in his pickup truck! Priceless.

They went by and picked up Bobby’s youngest brother, who’s Hank’s age, and went Dave and Busters and a couple of other places. We all ended the day at my in-laws house in Irving playing touch football on the Las Colinas CC golf course.

Like I said, a class act and a hero to a certain kid.

[smupony94]

That's great - and I am not talking about raplh

[GrapevineMustang]

There are certain people out there who just "get it," for lack of a better term. Doesn't matter if they're great players or marginal talents who suit up just for practice. Doesn't matter if they're Rhodes Scholars or just getting by. Doesn't matter where they're from or where they're headed - they just get it. They understand that dancing in the end zone or standing over a player you just hit makes you look like an a-hole, not a hero. They understand you don't need to draw attention to yourself to be remembered.

Bobby Chase is one of those guys who gets it. Signing that jersey, and then taking the boys out for a day of fun - that's something those guys will never forget as long as they live.

Yet another reason we could all use more guys like Bobby Chase. Thanks for sharing, PonyBoy.

[Bergermeister]

Terrific story. I wish Bobby Chase had just one more year of eligibility so he could play in this new regime. He was fun to watch.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I have had the opportunity to get to know Bobby over the last several years, and he is a great young man, that loves the Lord, his family, and SMU!

[LakeHighlandsPony]

I too wish we had Bobby one more year. Does he have any interest in coaching? Need more guys like him coaching.

[ponyboy]

Here's the story:

Driven to succeed
Extra work leads to success for sophomore WR
Posted on 11/20/2004 by PonyFans.com

Wide receivers Bobby Chase and Zack Sledge went into the SMU coaches' offices Monday and watched film for about a half an hour, before heading to the practice fields for more than three hours ... on a day off.

To the casual observer, it might appear that Chase and Sledge were being punished ... for missing class, dropping balls in practice or maybe for being late to meetings. That's not the case.

Monday's two-man workout was yet another in a long series of self-assigned extra work sessions for Chase and Sledge. In addition to working out for hours on days off, the pair also can be found throwing
balls to each other before the rest of the team takes the field for pregame warm-ups. And more often than not, the pair takes part in extra work after practice during the week with a handful of other Mustangs.

The primary beneficiary, at least so far, is Chase, the sophomore who transferred to SMU in January from Blinn Junior College. During spring practices, Chase struggled a little in picking up the new offense, and he asked Sledge to stick around after practice and throw some extra balls with him. That extra session has become routine.

At least one of the Mustangs' quarterbacks usually stays after practice with a slew of receivers, and sometimes defensive backs. The extra works consists of countless pass patterns, with players requesting certain formations or defensive looks, depending on what they might expect from each week's opponent.

While there are several players who take part in the sessions, the player who started it all is Chase.

"It was pretty much my idea," Chase said of the practice sessions. "I'm
a Christian, and I realize that I'm really growing in spirit. I realize that
I'm no different from the guy in a wheelchair, or the person in Africa who's looking for food every day. God has blessed me with the talent to play football ... which I really don't deserve. But this is my platform to spread the word. I'm giving my life to him, 110 percent, and I want to be the best."

Wide receivers coach Larry Edmondson isn't surprised by the extra hours Chase and his teammates put in.

"He's always in here, bugging me about 'What can I do better?' 'How can I run this route better?' " Edmondson said. "Bobby's always trying to improve. He's one of the hardest-working kids I've ever coached. There's no quit in him, and it's paid off. He's catching the ball so much better now than when he got here. He's real good about getting his arms out and catching with his hands, and pulling it in, rather than catching with his body.

"Other guys are drawn to him. They see how he busts his butt, how much he's improved, and now there's more of them out there with him. He's kind of a throwback."

As passionately as Chase wants to improve, he wants just as much to see his teammates improve. Last week, at one of the after-practice workouts, he ran a post route with freshman cornerback Jonathan Lindley hot on his heels. Quarterback Tony Eckert threw a perfect strike to Chase, who caught the ball without breaking stride ... but then stopped on a dime and whirled around toward Lindley. Chase scolded the freshman cornerback for not laying out to knock down the pass, but also offered words of
encouragement ... after which they lined up and ran the same play again.

Chase, whose genuine team-first attitude will prevent him from ever being thought of as one of today's look-at-me athletes, will try to convince observers that he barked at Lindley for purely selfish reasons.

"I don't like DBs who slack," Chase said. "It doesn't help me get better. Jonathan is a good DB, a real good DB. He's got a lot of talent in him. With his talent, he can do some amazing things. So that's why I want
him out there with me -- he's a big DB, who presents a physical challenge for me, but I want to challenge him, too. That's why I talk to the other guys out there, and encourage them."

Whether it's through natural talent, instruction from his coaches or the extra hours he puts in, Chase has become one of the top targets for quarterbacks Eckert and Jerad Romo. Entering Saturday's game at UTEP, Chase's 27 receptions this year trail only Chris Foster's 30, but his 450 receiving yards are tops among all SMU receivers. Eckert won't say Chase is always his first option, but admits the post-practice sessions have allowed him to reach a high level of confidence and trust in the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Chase.

"We talk in meetings about what might work against the team we're playing each week," Eckert said. "We work on those in practice, but then we also work on them after practice. We'll work on plays until we're
more comfortable with them, and that carries over on Saturdays. Bobby's definitely a guy I look for, because I feel like I know where he's going to be, where he wants the ball."

For Chase, repetition is key, according to Edmondson.

"Bobby's definitely a 'reps' guy," Edmondson said. "We'll put something in, a specific play or route. On Tuesday, he might bust it a few times.
Wednesday, he might bust it a little less. By Friday, he's not making many busts at all. With all the work he does, we feel good that he's going to be in the right place at the right time on Saturday."

SMU offensive coordinator Rusty Burns said it's Chase's inner drive that
makes him work so hard, and subsequently makes him successful on the field.

"Bobby has an extremely high motor, and he has a great desire to be a great player," Burns said. "He's the hardest worker on the team, and I think the example he sets helps make everyone step up the tempo and work even harder."

The teammate who perhaps has taken the extra work to heart the most is Sledge, a redshirt freshman from Midland whose spring was cut short by a torn medial collateral ligament in his knee. But before his injury, he and Chase had begun the ritual they continue every day.

"We do '10-10-10,' where we throw balls to each other -- 10 high, 10
medium, 10 low," Sledge said. "That's every day ... before practice,
before games ... we also run across the field, throwing the ball back and forth -- things like that. That's before everyone even comes out to stretch."

But Sledge insists that what he and Chase and the other players who have increased their own workload with extra sorkouts are doing isn't the kind of thing that deserves attention. It's simply working hard to reach a desired goal.

"Everything we work on is based on what's said in meetings," Sledge
said. "We watch the film, see how a team's corners are going to play, how
they line up in certain situations, and what routes might work against them. That's what we work on, and it's paying off."

Although Sledge hasn't been a regular in the Ponies' receiver rotation,
Chase said that's sure to change. "Sledge has been a blessing to me," Chase said. "Everything that I've wanted to do extra -- he's always there. Always. He's helped me out so much, I can't even really explain it. Ad his time is coming. He's going to show big things on the field. He'll be an extra example of good things happening to good people."

This isn't the first time Chase has kept working after practice was over, having held periodic post-practice workouts with "a couple of teammates" at Irving High School. He gives the impression that the last thing he wants is attention -- like, say, having a story written -- simply for putting in a little extra work.

"More than anything, I'm trying to become a better player," Chase said. "You can improve, even on just little things, by putting in another 10-15 minutes after practice. A lot of teams talk about how good they want to be, but there's no action. What we're doing is just trying to win. We're willing to do extra stuff, whatever it takes."

_________________
Where Mustang fans congregate: PonyFans.com ... is really the premier place for Mustang talk on the Web.
— New York Times

[giacfsp]

I'd forgotten about that.
Great story about a great Mustang.
Thanks, webguys, for doing that, and thanks, ponyboy, for digging it up!

[MrMustang1965]

It’s well documented that Bobby Chase is a class act and at least as good a guy as he is a football player. Let me tell you a story I’ve been waiting a while to tell.

My oldest son, Hank, has few heroes. But one of them is Bobby. After reading the feature story on here a few years back (webbie, can you dig that one up?) and then watching his game winning catch at UAB in 2005, Hank decided that he was a wide receiver too.

For Halloween 2006, Hank decided he was going to dress up as Chase. So I located a #82 jersey and arranged to have Bobby sign it via Phil Bennett's secretary -- which of course he graciously did. Not only did Hank get his picture on the front page of ponyfans.com that day wearing the signed jersey and full uniform, he wore it to the game that night and got to wave at Bobby as he exited the tunnel to come onto the field. Hank thought he was on top of the world at that point. But not yet.

A couple of days letter I get a call on my cell phone. It’s Bobby – a guy I’d never spoken to in my life -- and he wants to take Hank and his younger brother out for a day of fun. But I’m not supposed to tell them; Bobby wants it to be a surprise.

You should have seen the look on Hank’s face when Bobby Chase pulled up in his pickup truck! Priceless.

They went by and picked up Bobby’s youngest brother, who’s Hank’s age, and went Dave and Busters and a couple of other places. We all ended the day at my in-laws house in Irving playing touch football on the Las Colinas CC golf course.

Like I said, a class act and a hero to a certain kid.

Class act, all the way. I had the pleasure of meeting Bobby and sitting with him and the Special Delivery gang at a game last year. Bobby is the kind of young man that represents SMU both on and off the field with the highest caliber of classiness. Thank God he's a Mustang!

[Lotus]

I'd say that's TWO terrific stories about Bobby Chase - the first by PonyFans.com, and the second by ponyboy himself.

[ponyboy]

Thanks man. Truth is, Chase made the story. I just told it.