September 23, 2025 • 33 mins
Sparky Reardon worked in student services for 36 years at Ole Miss, including his final 14 years as the Dean of Students. His stories span the hilarious to the tragic and he is a one-of-a-kind leader who thousands call a mentor and a friend, including Coach Bill Courtney.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army and normal folks.
And we continue now with part two of our conversation
with Sparky Reardon right after these brief messages from our
generous sponsors.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Our show is an army and normal folks, and our.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Thesis is that people wearing really nice clothes, using big
words that nobody ever really uses in conversation on CNN
and Fox are not fixing anything. That there's division surrounding us,
which we're going to talk about later, that aren't doing anything.
(00:52):
And so the proverbial question is what's going to fix it?
What's going to fix it? And our argument is an
army of normal folks, just normal people, not the smart
people in DC and Silicon Valley and with the Twitter
and the Facebook and the CNN and there not fixing anything.
(01:15):
What's going to fix it is just people employing their
passion and their discipline and that colliding at an area
of need and then that's where magic happens. And you
don't have to be part of some big organization or
five oh one C three, just servant leadership. And if
we had millions of these people in this army of
(01:37):
normal folks, we could genuinely change culture and change so
much of what's ailing us right now. And as such,
you're just a normal guy, sparky at.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
The end of it.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Despite all of the accolades and all of the love
and everything else, you're just like the rest of us.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
You're a normal guy.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And I think what people oftentimes forget is normal will
deal with financial troubles, with kid troubles, with spout troubles,
with tragedies in their own life. And when they're in
a position of leadership, they're supposed to have this this
approach and everybody coming to them constantly, but they're dealing
(02:17):
with their own normal person crap like we all do
with Because life is tough and you've had and you
talk about them. You've had some personal tragedies to working
within your own life while all your world was going on,
and you've lost both your siblings.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
You lost Vicki, your sister, and your brother Speedy. Speedy
was murdered and Vicky was lost in a car run.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
How do you balance all your personal trauma while putting
on this brave, fun, funny, mentoring creative face. How does
as a leader? How does is the Denis students? How
does this a guy that's trying to be there for
everybody else deal with that kind of trauma. That's a
(03:12):
tough question.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
You know. I go back to faith and family.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I come from a very large family, extended cousins and
all who have been very supportive, was supportive of me,
And when I lost my brother and sister within two
years of each other, it was my faith and my
family that sustained me. I think it was the family
of Old miss that and my faith that sustained me
(03:39):
through the things that happened there, and lessons that I
learned from my own experience. There were people who would
come in and say to me, don't cry, You've got
to be strong, and I just want to tell them
to go to hell. I mean, and I know you
can't tell people how to feel and what to do.
There are no normal feelings in an abnormal situation, and
(04:00):
you've just got to deal with the people and you
got to hug them and love them and help them
get to where they want to be.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But it's a job. Everybody has a job.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Everybody has issues, and I don't really think mine was
that different than anybody else's.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
You talked about the day you returned to teaching after
Vicki's death, and you tell.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Us about that, yeah, because it speaks to vulnerability. I
think she was killed.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
She was killed on December twenty ninth, and I was
teaching in Clarksdale and I had a seventh grade class
at eight o'clock in the morning, and so it was
after the holidays. It was the first class, and I
walked back in and I started teaching and talking about
just mundane things, you know, centence, structure, whatever it was.
(04:48):
And I could just look at them and they were
looking at me. They were wanting to say something. These
are seventh graders. They didn't know what to say, and
I didn't really feel like a say anything to them.
And I was absolutely miserable. And I came out of
that class. In the next class, I went in and
I said, Hey, I know y'all all knew VICKI. I
(05:11):
know y'all all liked Vicky. She was your friend, she
was your teammate. And I want you to know that
I've been sad and I appreciate all of your love,
and don't ever feel like.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
You can't talk to me about her, because you can.
And it kind of freed me.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
To get that out and to talk about that, and
it was a tough time, but I grew from that
and I learned from it.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
We did a podcast in front of a very large
law of audience with the director of the movie about
bonn Offer and your point about being vulnerable and saying, hey,
I appreciate the help, even as in a leadership position,
to allow yourself to be vulnerable and human. It reminds
(06:01):
me of something Dietrich Bonhaeffer said about how we need
to be vulnerable about our sins. But I think you
could make the exact point about the challenges we face
as human. Bonheiffer wrote, he who is alone without sin
is utterly alone. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not
(06:24):
come because though they have fellowship with one another's believers
and it's devout people, they do not have fellowship as
the undeveloped the sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one
to be a sinner, so everybody must conceal his sin
from himself and from the fellowship. Many Christians are unthinkably
(06:46):
horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous.
So we remain alone with our sin, living and lie
and hypocrisy. The fact is all our sinners or we
all face problems together, so would we talk about them
(07:06):
with one another and not be alone. Ultimately, vulnerability is cleansing,
and I think you can jump from what Bonheiffer was
saying about son to tragedy and how we handle it right.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
If I could make a point, I think.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That you're here, I'll shut up gwhead.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
If I could teach college students anything, I would teach
them to be empathetic, to try to understand other people,
to understand where they are. I mean, you know, I
look at these guys over here and think they're freshmen,
what they're going through, and you know, they're bringing with
(07:51):
them their pain from home, They're bringing with them their joy,
they're bringing them with.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Their successes, their worries.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And when I would deal with them on campus, I'd
always try to understand what's going through this guy's head
or what's going through this woman's head in.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Terms of where are they? You know?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
And and also you know, a kid come in and
he'd missed a class because he was hungover, and the
professor knew it and everything, and hell, I could empathize
with that. I knew exactly where he was coming from
and so so I think that if we could, just
if we had a class in teaching how to people
(08:29):
people how to empathize, I think we'd be a whole
lot better office of society.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I think a normal folks needed to learn how to
do that.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Amen, I've got some stats on the region. I want
you to give me the sparks answer. It'll be your
own personal sparks plug. Okay, sparks plug.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
There's a story behind that that you're about to learn.
Where we first met was I wrote for the Daily Mississippian.
As you'll remember, Coach Brewer and I were pretty close,
and I wrote a column that said we need to
quit waving the Confederate flag and playing Dixie.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Of football games. And now I grew up.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
From my junior year in high school on mixing my
bourbon and coke at the ball games with a stick
from Anfederate flag. Anybody in here done that? Yeah, come on, oh,
I know you did. You're just not telling everybody. And
I waved that Confederate flag with gusto and I loved
when Dixie played, and I never once had an ounce
(09:45):
of my body think of that as anything racial. I
was cheering on my football team and joining in my
fellow fans having a big time with the ballgame until
I came to understand and that people in the Northeast
and people on the West coast, they didn't understand that they.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Just saw the flag and they just saw Heard.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Dixie being played, and they equated that to this backwards
racial notion. And I also listened to coach Brewer pontificate
more than one time about how frustrated he was in
recruiting because he would develop great relationships on the butter
(10:32):
players around the southeast and have them ready to come
to Old miss. But all Jackie Sheryl from Mississippi State
had to do was walk in and tell that boy's grandmama,
do you.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
See what they do on Saturdays? You see what they're
waving and playing?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You really want your son or your grandson to go
down there to Old miss be subject to that. So
I wrote a comment about it, and for the young
folks in here, you don't understand how deep the ties were.
It's a lesson that maybe all tradition is in good tradition.
(11:07):
And I wrote a column about that and put it
out into the Mississippian, and I had death threats. I
had my car tore up, I had my windows broke,
and I literally had letters of death threats, and you
sent me a.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
One line handwritten.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Note told me to come see at your office.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
You remember that, I do. We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
It was something that had to happen, and you know,
you can make it happen in many ways. But I
always felt like that when we as administrators were.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Trying to do it, that we weren't. It wasn't going
to happen.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
But when students stepped up and we could create an
organic movement among the students.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
To see what was happening, that it would happen. And so.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I never had a real role in dealing with the
actual policies or anything like that, but I did advise
the students in it. Had students like yourself, and I
was always trying to encourage them to do the thing.
And you know, for I think that when we talk
about that, and you can't talk about old miss without
(12:46):
talking about how we just beat up on ourselves with
these kind of things. But anybody who looks at where
we are today with our enrollment, with our development on Campampus,
with the leadership of Glen Boyce with baseball, basketball.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Football, women's basketball.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Women's basketball, what's happening in Oxford. Anybody that doesn't appreciate
where we are with that is crazy, and we would
not be where we are today had we held.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
On to those traditions. That's the reason I choked up
is I was thinking about dropping out of this place.
I was that scared, and you stood by me, and.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
There never would have been a Charity Bow. Well, I
have to I'm gonna do some revision on history here.
He started the Charity Bowl after Chucky Mullens. That went forever,
but the real Charity Bowl was started by Chip Pickering
a couple of years earlier. Four years earlier was a
(14:00):
Sigma Kai and he started the game and the Sigma
Kay has lost the first two games, so they quit
doing it.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It's true. And then Chucky got hurt.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
In that same year, there was a young man in
Lord of Mississippi named Alan Moore who had the high
school or junior who had the exact same injury that
Chucky did. Same vertebrates, same everything, same paralysis, and they
had no insurance and they didn't even have enough money
to buy the kid a wheelchair and millions are pouring
(14:34):
in for Chucky in his care So I went up
to Baptist in Memphis and I told him, no disrespect.
We all want to support you, but I'd like to
do this for this kid, but do it in your honor.
But I wouldn't ever do it if you felt like
it'd take away from you. And I just like your blessings.
And he was through his respirator, whispered to his caretaker.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And it was ish.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Chucky's big thing that year for the football team was
he told the team it's time. And that's what he
said to me. And so I came back, taught Coach
Brewer begged him for the equipment. He thought I was
half out of my mind. And then I came and
talked to you, and you can both poot Coach Brewer
to give us the bads. And that's how the charity
ball started. And it never starts without you either.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Smart well, you're nice to say that. It's true. So
as a leader, you deal with.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Discipline, you deal with hard times, you deal with overcoming
you own personal things as a normal person and still
finding humor and laughter and inspiration.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You taught the leadership class.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
You somehow knew the names of about eighty percent of
everybody walking around campus.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
I want to correct that I do not know the
names of every student. It sure felt like it. We
called everybody my name.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Well, I used to get the freshman directory and I
would study that, and then when Facebook came out, it
was piece of cake to learn names. But there was
a student who came up to Well, this was only
about six or seven years I'd already been retired. Student
came up to me in the grove and he was drunk.
He was about thirty former student, he was about thirty
(16:22):
seven thirty eight years old, and he said, you're supposed
to remember everybody's name.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
What was my name? And I just.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I said, you know, I always did my best to
remember the names of those students that I cared about.
Now what's your name again?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
So you deal with discipline, you deal it with humor,
You deal with your own things, You deal with the
toughest things. You deal with people like brother Jim that
we can't get into. But read the book and look
them up. You deal my best story, Oh well, go
for it. Brother Jim.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Was how many of you remember Brother Jim? Okay, Brother
Jim would come to campus. He was a street preacher
hell fire and Brimstone, and he would stand he was
nice looking guy, blonde hair, war suit. He would stand
out in front of the Union and he would he
would just antagonize students and just take.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
His beat up Bible and look at girls the sorority
shirts on and say you are a whore.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's what he would do, yes, ma'am. He would.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
He would absolutely do, which means their boy. All the
stet up all the steps of the union. And they
didn't take him doing that. For about five minutes that
there'd be four hundred people gathered around knowing what was
going on.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
He drew a Crowdsmarky, Yeah, he was saved at the
Van Halen concert and he tells that story. But the
funniest thing was he and I got to We were
on a first name basis. But Brian Hall is right
next to the Big Catapatry and the theater students were
in there at the time, and on the third floor
(18:05):
was a studio and there's a round kind of room
with the window there and Jim was just preaching hell
fire and Brimstone, going on and on and having sword
drills with the people back and forth and theater students
put a speaker in the window and one of them
got on. He went, Jim, Jim, this is God. Cut
(18:31):
that down. Great story.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
All right, after this next question answer, we're going to
open up to you, guys. But here's something that with
all of your experience and your knowledge and excise.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Leading young men, leading people helping lead this university, I
got to ask you this question.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
US News and World Report just released a new public
opinion survey. This one's probably not going to surprise you,
but it's stark numbers.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You need to hear.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
The articles titled Americans say the US is in a
leadership crisis. More than four out of five adults, that's
eighty five percent of American surveys say government officials and
other community leaders care more about their own power and influence.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Than what's best for the people they represent.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
We talk about this lot on the show, and we
always talk about the politician stuff. That's been that way
for a long time. What's new about this is listen
to the line. Four out of five, eighty five percent
say government officials, and this is the new part. Other
(19:54):
community leaders care more about their own power and influence
than what's better for people, they report their distrust and
disenchantment permeates major sectors of society as well. Seventy three
percent don't trust healthcare leaders, seventy two percent are disappointed
(20:16):
in business leaders, and sixty eight percent don't trust education leaders.
Politicians overwhelming come in mind when first when Americans are
asked about political leaders, fifty six percent, but those survey
had little positive say. The public rated political leaders trustworthiness
(20:37):
among the lowest of any leader group at only thirty
one percent, and seventy five percent say they have too
much power. That may not be that shocking and new,
but again, seventy two percent don't trust business leaders, seventy
three don't trust healthcare leaders doctors administrators, sixty eight percent
(21:00):
don't trust the profession you came from smoking. The leadership
void doesn't help by the fact that most Americans don't
aspire to follow in the leaders footsteps.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's scary.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Most Americans don't want to be business leaders, or politicians
or educational leaders because they don't trust them. Three and
five say they don't see leaders today in any sector
whom they aspire to emulate.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
We'll be right back, Sparky, You're a beloved leader. You've
(21:53):
touched lives.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You've certainly touched mine, and I know everybody else has
stories like mine.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
What do you think is going on?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
And how do we reverse thus before we lose our
very culture.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
I think the the most endangered thing in our nation
right now is the truth. Uh that that there's so
many attacks on the truth. And you know, when you
when you think about education, really all education is is
(22:30):
a search for truth, whether it's in the laboratory, whether
it's in the meaning of a poem or a book.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Of people look for truth. Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
There's attacks on law firms now, and really lawyers are
in the really in the business of getting to the
truth that the press. You know, at one point the
press was the truth. And there's so many attacks on
on those entities right now. And I think that we
(23:01):
have so much information coming at us, whether it's the Internet,
the TV, podcast, whatever, that it's kind of like drinking
out of a fire hose. You know, you really can't
you really don't know what's there. And I tell these
young people who are here right now that the most
(23:23):
important thing that you can do while you're here is
to find out what your truth is, you know, and
where you find it, whether it's in education, whether it's
in conversation with other people, whatever it is, find your truth.
Polonius told his son Laertes and Hamlet, he said, and
(23:43):
this as he was going to college. He said, in
this above all, as the night follow us the day,
to thine own self be true, And as the night
follow us the day, thou canst not then be false
to any man. So I would encourage all of you
to put your phones up to listen to You might
(24:04):
your parents might get mad at me for saying this,
But you don't have to come up here with their values.
I'm not asking you to throw them away, but make
sure that they're going to end up being yours in
the long run. You don't have to come up here
with your hometown values. You have your own values, find you.
You don't have to come up here with old missus values.
(24:24):
What you need to do is find your value and
figure out where it is. And you do that by searching.
And really, all you're doing right now is is trying
to get to the truth if it's what you if
you really want an education.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
So that's that's my take on that. I love that.
All right, we're about to go to Q and A.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
But I want to I want to say one thing
about an army in normal folks.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
We are.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
This little idea that started kind of on a wing
and a prayer and honestly was supported by some of
the very people in this room who I want to
say to you. I won't call you out to embarrass you,
but thank you so much for helping Alex get this
thing going. We're about to start local chapters of the
Army in six cities across the country Lana and some others.
(25:20):
The chapters will do occasional service days together that we'll
call Army activations, and we're going to launch a giving circle,
which is a really cold concept that's missing from most places.
One of our past guests is the founder of Impact
one hundred, where one hundred women each donate one thousand
(25:40):
dollars and then that one hundred women with one thousand
dollars each make one one hundred thousand dollars gift together,
empowering normal folks to do transformational philanthropy that they couldn't
do on their own, and they can make a real
impact of that kind of money. Given our normal folks
ethos that were setting the minimum even lower to ten
(26:02):
bucks a month, so folks can still donate up to
a million dollars if they want to, and you should
have caned but ten bucks a month. So our producer,
Alex Cortez is going to start one of our inaugural chapters.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Right here in Oxford.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
If you're interested, Alex is around, go to normal Folks
dot us and sign up to join the army, and
we'd love to have your contact information. You can talk
to Alex after the event. He's the ugly guy I
wanted to wear a jacket like me, but he doesn't
pull it off as well as I do.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
You'll find him.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And much like the old Optimist clubs and things like that,
we're starting Army of Normal Folks chapters that meet once
a month and hopefully take the content inspiration from our
guests and put it into action in communities. So that
opportunity is going to exist right here in Oxford. If
any of you are interested, go to normal Folks dot
(26:55):
us with that Alex.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
How are we going to do this? We're going to
pass around the microphone that Okay, ad the ties.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You have fifteen minutes to ask Sparky anything you want
to ask.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And I mean I don't know if you want to
ask me. That's what you got one up here. Thank you, sir.
My name is JT.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Cunningham and I'm from Pennsylvania, so I really appreciate what
you said about the importance of both having good values
and finding truth in life. In all of your life,
has there ever been a time that you adhered to
something as the truth or you had something as a
very close value, but over time you've decided that that's
not the truth, or that's not a value that you
(27:34):
hold dear anymore.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I came from the Mississippi Delta.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
I guess race was a part of I accepted what race,
how people were viewed there, and I used their words
and as When I came up here, I actually had
a paternity brother who pulled me aside and talked to
me and said, you know, we're better than this.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
And so I think just my association with.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
A good man who was a good friend changed me
in the regard about how I felt about race.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I think that could be said about any number of things.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
A thinking be careful with us.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
When I say liberal, I don't get into politics on
the show very much. When I say liberal, I don't
mean in a political sense.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I mean an.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Open minded, liberal minded person who is always seeking the truth,
which is what a liberal mind does. I think as
you grow older and you open yourselves up to more
and more truths, I think we evolve as human beings,
and that evolution simply makes us fuller and better. Come on,
(28:53):
test me. There's one way back there, and there's one here.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Test me. Hazard's bunny was Mississippi. How did you go
from seventh grade teacher to students?
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Well, I told you that I wanted to be on
the path to become the denist students, and my dad said, well,
let's uh, before you go back to college, I want
you to see if you really like education, And.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
So I ended up.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I taught junior high school coach junior high football, sponsored
the newspaper directed to senior play, advise a student counsel,
which was really training for kind of what I did
when I got here.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
The only thing I refused to do was to learn
how to drive the bus.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
And then doctor Trott left me with the cheerleaders, and
I was just totally unprepared for that.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
They were egos that could tumble, egos that couldn't tumble.
I'm in trouble now.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
So after I did that, I got my master's, going
to night school at Delta State, came back here, thought
I had a job at Old Miss, but they didn't
hire me, and a wonderful woman named Jeene Jones hired
me in the counseling center as a graduate assistant, and
the next year I got hired in admissions, and so
(30:23):
it was just putting myself in the.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Right place at the right time. Good question, though, thank you.
I hate to be the last one with a stupid question.
But how did you and Speedy get your names? And
who was oldest?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Well, you know, I've never done a session where people
did not ask that question. My brother Speedy was expected
in October, but he didn't get here till November. So
my mother's first cousin said old Speedy finally got here.
And then when that same cousin found out that she
(30:58):
was pregnant with me, he said, well, the next one's
going to be sparky.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
So it was pre natal, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
And and it's good in some sense, but.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Some senses. You know, it's easy to.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Write on a bathroom wall, as a lot of guys
did in college.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I want to thank the Miss Women's counsel. I want
to thank all of you for being here.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Sparky.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I want to thank you for this time, for joining
us on the show. Most importantly, I want.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
To thank you for the impact you've had all my life.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
It's profound, from everything you did all the way to
the lessons I learned in your leadership class that are
actually some of which are in my book from things
you taught me. And I think I speak on behalf
of so many people in Oxford and so much of
the alumni. You, my friend, are a living icon and
(31:54):
we are lucky to have had you in our lives.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I'll say this and I don't.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
This is not false humility.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
I learn more from the students and my colleagues than
I ever taught.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Them, So that's that's the truth.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Appreciate it one last time, everybody, Sparky Rearding.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Thank you. I love help me out there you go,
Thank you all and thank you about it. Appreciate it
and thank you for joining us this week.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
If Sparky Reardon has inspired you in general, or better yet,
to take action by working with students, mentoring, leading, or
buying this book The Dean or something else, entirely.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Please let me know I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
You can write me anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot
us and you'll hear back from me. If you enjoyed
this episode, please share it with friends that are on
social Subscribe to our podcast, rate it, review it, Join
the army at normalfolks dot us, any and all of
these things that will help us grow an army of
normal folks.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, do it you can
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army and normal folks.
And we continue now with part two of our conversation
with Sparky Reardon right after these brief messages from our
generous sponsors.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Our show is an army and normal folks, and our.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Thesis is that people wearing really nice clothes, using big
words that nobody ever really uses in conversation on CNN
and Fox are not fixing anything. That there's division surrounding us,
which we're going to talk about later, that aren't doing anything.
(00:52):
And so the proverbial question is what's going to fix it?
What's going to fix it? And our argument is an
army of normal folks, just normal people, not the smart
people in DC and Silicon Valley and with the Twitter
and the Facebook and the CNN and there not fixing anything.
(01:15):
What's going to fix it is just people employing their
passion and their discipline and that colliding at an area
of need and then that's where magic happens. And you
don't have to be part of some big organization or
five oh one C three, just servant leadership. And if
we had millions of these people in this army of
(01:37):
normal folks, we could genuinely change culture and change so
much of what's ailing us right now. And as such,
you're just a normal guy, sparky at.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
The end of it.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Despite all of the accolades and all of the love
and everything else, you're just like the rest of us.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
You're a normal guy.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And I think what people oftentimes forget is normal will
deal with financial troubles, with kid troubles, with spout troubles,
with tragedies in their own life. And when they're in
a position of leadership, they're supposed to have this this
approach and everybody coming to them constantly, but they're dealing
(02:17):
with their own normal person crap like we all do
with Because life is tough and you've had and you
talk about them. You've had some personal tragedies to working
within your own life while all your world was going on,
and you've lost both your siblings.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
You lost Vicki, your sister, and your brother Speedy. Speedy
was murdered and Vicky was lost in a car run.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
How do you balance all your personal trauma while putting
on this brave, fun, funny, mentoring creative face. How does
as a leader? How does is the Denis students? How
does this a guy that's trying to be there for
everybody else deal with that kind of trauma. That's a
(03:12):
tough question.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
You know. I go back to faith and family.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I come from a very large family, extended cousins and
all who have been very supportive, was supportive of me,
And when I lost my brother and sister within two
years of each other, it was my faith and my
family that sustained me. I think it was the family
of Old miss that and my faith that sustained me
(03:39):
through the things that happened there, and lessons that I
learned from my own experience. There were people who would
come in and say to me, don't cry, You've got
to be strong, and I just want to tell them
to go to hell. I mean, and I know you
can't tell people how to feel and what to do.
There are no normal feelings in an abnormal situation, and
(04:00):
you've just got to deal with the people and you
got to hug them and love them and help them
get to where they want to be.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But it's a job. Everybody has a job.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Everybody has issues, and I don't really think mine was
that different than anybody else's.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
You talked about the day you returned to teaching after
Vicki's death, and you tell.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Us about that, yeah, because it speaks to vulnerability. I
think she was killed.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
She was killed on December twenty ninth, and I was
teaching in Clarksdale and I had a seventh grade class
at eight o'clock in the morning, and so it was
after the holidays. It was the first class, and I
walked back in and I started teaching and talking about
just mundane things, you know, centence, structure, whatever it was.
(04:48):
And I could just look at them and they were
looking at me. They were wanting to say something. These
are seventh graders. They didn't know what to say, and
I didn't really feel like a say anything to them.
And I was absolutely miserable. And I came out of
that class. In the next class, I went in and
I said, Hey, I know y'all all knew VICKI. I
(05:11):
know y'all all liked Vicky. She was your friend, she
was your teammate. And I want you to know that
I've been sad and I appreciate all of your love,
and don't ever feel like.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
You can't talk to me about her, because you can.
And it kind of freed me.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
To get that out and to talk about that, and
it was a tough time, but I grew from that
and I learned from it.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
We did a podcast in front of a very large
law of audience with the director of the movie about
bonn Offer and your point about being vulnerable and saying, hey,
I appreciate the help, even as in a leadership position,
to allow yourself to be vulnerable and human. It reminds
(06:01):
me of something Dietrich Bonhaeffer said about how we need
to be vulnerable about our sins. But I think you
could make the exact point about the challenges we face
as human. Bonheiffer wrote, he who is alone without sin
is utterly alone. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not
(06:24):
come because though they have fellowship with one another's believers
and it's devout people, they do not have fellowship as
the undeveloped the sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one
to be a sinner, so everybody must conceal his sin
from himself and from the fellowship. Many Christians are unthinkably
(06:46):
horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous.
So we remain alone with our sin, living and lie
and hypocrisy. The fact is all our sinners or we
all face problems together, so would we talk about them
(07:06):
with one another and not be alone. Ultimately, vulnerability is cleansing,
and I think you can jump from what Bonheiffer was
saying about son to tragedy and how we handle it right.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
If I could make a point, I think.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That you're here, I'll shut up gwhead.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
If I could teach college students anything, I would teach
them to be empathetic, to try to understand other people,
to understand where they are. I mean, you know, I
look at these guys over here and think they're freshmen,
what they're going through, and you know, they're bringing with
(07:51):
them their pain from home, They're bringing with them their joy,
they're bringing them with.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Their successes, their worries.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And when I would deal with them on campus, I'd
always try to understand what's going through this guy's head
or what's going through this woman's head in.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Terms of where are they? You know?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
And and also you know, a kid come in and
he'd missed a class because he was hungover, and the
professor knew it and everything, and hell, I could empathize
with that. I knew exactly where he was coming from
and so so I think that if we could, just
if we had a class in teaching how to people
(08:29):
people how to empathize, I think we'd be a whole
lot better office of society.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I think a normal folks needed to learn how to
do that.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Amen, I've got some stats on the region. I want
you to give me the sparks answer. It'll be your
own personal sparks plug. Okay, sparks plug.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
There's a story behind that that you're about to learn.
Where we first met was I wrote for the Daily Mississippian.
As you'll remember, Coach Brewer and I were pretty close,
and I wrote a column that said we need to
quit waving the Confederate flag and playing Dixie.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Of football games. And now I grew up.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
From my junior year in high school on mixing my
bourbon and coke at the ball games with a stick
from Anfederate flag. Anybody in here done that? Yeah, come on, oh,
I know you did. You're just not telling everybody. And
I waved that Confederate flag with gusto and I loved
when Dixie played, and I never once had an ounce
(09:45):
of my body think of that as anything racial. I
was cheering on my football team and joining in my
fellow fans having a big time with the ballgame until
I came to understand and that people in the Northeast
and people on the West coast, they didn't understand that they.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Just saw the flag and they just saw Heard.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Dixie being played, and they equated that to this backwards
racial notion. And I also listened to coach Brewer pontificate
more than one time about how frustrated he was in
recruiting because he would develop great relationships on the butter
(10:32):
players around the southeast and have them ready to come
to Old miss. But all Jackie Sheryl from Mississippi State
had to do was walk in and tell that boy's grandmama,
do you.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
See what they do on Saturdays? You see what they're
waving and playing?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You really want your son or your grandson to go
down there to Old miss be subject to that. So
I wrote a comment about it, and for the young
folks in here, you don't understand how deep the ties were.
It's a lesson that maybe all tradition is in good tradition.
(11:07):
And I wrote a column about that and put it
out into the Mississippian, and I had death threats. I
had my car tore up, I had my windows broke,
and I literally had letters of death threats, and you
sent me a.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
One line handwritten.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Note told me to come see at your office.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
You remember that, I do. We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
It was something that had to happen, and you know,
you can make it happen in many ways. But I
always felt like that when we as administrators were.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Trying to do it, that we weren't. It wasn't going
to happen.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
But when students stepped up and we could create an
organic movement among the students.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
To see what was happening, that it would happen. And so.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I never had a real role in dealing with the
actual policies or anything like that, but I did advise
the students in it. Had students like yourself, and I
was always trying to encourage them to do the thing.
And you know, for I think that when we talk
about that, and you can't talk about old miss without
(12:46):
talking about how we just beat up on ourselves with
these kind of things. But anybody who looks at where
we are today with our enrollment, with our development on Campampus,
with the leadership of Glen Boyce with baseball, basketball.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Football, women's basketball.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Women's basketball, what's happening in Oxford. Anybody that doesn't appreciate
where we are with that is crazy, and we would
not be where we are today had we held.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
On to those traditions. That's the reason I choked up
is I was thinking about dropping out of this place.
I was that scared, and you stood by me, and.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
There never would have been a Charity Bow. Well, I
have to I'm gonna do some revision on history here.
He started the Charity Bowl after Chucky Mullens. That went forever,
but the real Charity Bowl was started by Chip Pickering
a couple of years earlier. Four years earlier was a
(14:00):
Sigma Kai and he started the game and the Sigma
Kay has lost the first two games, so they quit
doing it.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It's true. And then Chucky got hurt.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
In that same year, there was a young man in
Lord of Mississippi named Alan Moore who had the high
school or junior who had the exact same injury that
Chucky did. Same vertebrates, same everything, same paralysis, and they
had no insurance and they didn't even have enough money
to buy the kid a wheelchair and millions are pouring
(14:34):
in for Chucky in his care So I went up
to Baptist in Memphis and I told him, no disrespect.
We all want to support you, but I'd like to
do this for this kid, but do it in your honor.
But I wouldn't ever do it if you felt like
it'd take away from you. And I just like your blessings.
And he was through his respirator, whispered to his caretaker.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
And it was ish.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Chucky's big thing that year for the football team was
he told the team it's time. And that's what he
said to me. And so I came back, taught Coach
Brewer begged him for the equipment. He thought I was
half out of my mind. And then I came and
talked to you, and you can both poot Coach Brewer
to give us the bads. And that's how the charity
ball started. And it never starts without you either.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Smart well, you're nice to say that. It's true. So
as a leader, you deal with.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Discipline, you deal with hard times, you deal with overcoming
you own personal things as a normal person and still
finding humor and laughter and inspiration.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You taught the leadership class.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
You somehow knew the names of about eighty percent of
everybody walking around campus.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
I want to correct that I do not know the
names of every student. It sure felt like it. We
called everybody my name.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Well, I used to get the freshman directory and I
would study that, and then when Facebook came out, it
was piece of cake to learn names. But there was
a student who came up to Well, this was only
about six or seven years I'd already been retired. Student
came up to me in the grove and he was drunk.
He was about thirty former student, he was about thirty
(16:22):
seven thirty eight years old, and he said, you're supposed
to remember everybody's name.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
What was my name? And I just.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I said, you know, I always did my best to
remember the names of those students that I cared about.
Now what's your name again?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
So you deal with discipline, you deal it with humor,
You deal with your own things, You deal with the
toughest things. You deal with people like brother Jim that
we can't get into. But read the book and look
them up. You deal my best story, Oh well, go
for it. Brother Jim.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Was how many of you remember Brother Jim? Okay, Brother
Jim would come to campus. He was a street preacher
hell fire and Brimstone, and he would stand he was
nice looking guy, blonde hair, war suit. He would stand
out in front of the Union and he would he
would just antagonize students and just take.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
His beat up Bible and look at girls the sorority
shirts on and say you are a whore.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's what he would do, yes, ma'am. He would.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
He would absolutely do, which means their boy. All the
stet up all the steps of the union. And they
didn't take him doing that. For about five minutes that
there'd be four hundred people gathered around knowing what was
going on.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
He drew a Crowdsmarky, Yeah, he was saved at the
Van Halen concert and he tells that story. But the
funniest thing was he and I got to We were
on a first name basis. But Brian Hall is right
next to the Big Catapatry and the theater students were
in there at the time, and on the third floor
(18:05):
was a studio and there's a round kind of room
with the window there and Jim was just preaching hell
fire and Brimstone, going on and on and having sword
drills with the people back and forth and theater students
put a speaker in the window and one of them
got on. He went, Jim, Jim, this is God. Cut
(18:31):
that down. Great story.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
All right, after this next question answer, we're going to
open up to you, guys. But here's something that with
all of your experience and your knowledge and excise.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Leading young men, leading people helping lead this university, I
got to ask you this question.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
US News and World Report just released a new public
opinion survey. This one's probably not going to surprise you,
but it's stark numbers.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You need to hear.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
The articles titled Americans say the US is in a
leadership crisis. More than four out of five adults, that's
eighty five percent of American surveys say government officials and
other community leaders care more about their own power and influence.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Than what's best for the people they represent.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
We talk about this lot on the show, and we
always talk about the politician stuff. That's been that way
for a long time. What's new about this is listen
to the line. Four out of five, eighty five percent
say government officials, and this is the new part. Other
(19:54):
community leaders care more about their own power and influence
than what's better for people, they report their distrust and
disenchantment permeates major sectors of society as well. Seventy three
percent don't trust healthcare leaders, seventy two percent are disappointed
(20:16):
in business leaders, and sixty eight percent don't trust education leaders.
Politicians overwhelming come in mind when first when Americans are
asked about political leaders, fifty six percent, but those survey
had little positive say. The public rated political leaders trustworthiness
(20:37):
among the lowest of any leader group at only thirty
one percent, and seventy five percent say they have too
much power. That may not be that shocking and new,
but again, seventy two percent don't trust business leaders, seventy
three don't trust healthcare leaders doctors administrators, sixty eight percent
(21:00):
don't trust the profession you came from smoking. The leadership
void doesn't help by the fact that most Americans don't
aspire to follow in the leaders footsteps.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's scary.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Most Americans don't want to be business leaders, or politicians
or educational leaders because they don't trust them. Three and
five say they don't see leaders today in any sector
whom they aspire to emulate.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
We'll be right back, Sparky, You're a beloved leader. You've
(21:53):
touched lives.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
You've certainly touched mine, and I know everybody else has
stories like mine.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
What do you think is going on?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
And how do we reverse thus before we lose our
very culture.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
I think the the most endangered thing in our nation
right now is the truth. Uh that that there's so
many attacks on the truth. And you know, when you
when you think about education, really all education is is
(22:30):
a search for truth, whether it's in the laboratory, whether
it's in the meaning of a poem or a book.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Of people look for truth. Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
There's attacks on law firms now, and really lawyers are
in the really in the business of getting to the
truth that the press. You know, at one point the
press was the truth. And there's so many attacks on
on those entities right now. And I think that we
(23:01):
have so much information coming at us, whether it's the Internet,
the TV, podcast, whatever, that it's kind of like drinking
out of a fire hose. You know, you really can't
you really don't know what's there. And I tell these
young people who are here right now that the most
(23:23):
important thing that you can do while you're here is
to find out what your truth is, you know, and
where you find it, whether it's in education, whether it's
in conversation with other people, whatever it is, find your truth.
Polonius told his son Laertes and Hamlet, he said, and
(23:43):
this as he was going to college. He said, in
this above all, as the night follow us the day,
to thine own self be true, And as the night
follow us the day, thou canst not then be false
to any man. So I would encourage all of you
to put your phones up to listen to You might
(24:04):
your parents might get mad at me for saying this,
But you don't have to come up here with their values.
I'm not asking you to throw them away, but make
sure that they're going to end up being yours in
the long run. You don't have to come up here
with your hometown values. You have your own values, find you.
You don't have to come up here with old missus values.
(24:24):
What you need to do is find your value and
figure out where it is. And you do that by searching.
And really, all you're doing right now is is trying
to get to the truth if it's what you if
you really want an education.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
So that's that's my take on that. I love that.
All right, we're about to go to Q and A.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
But I want to I want to say one thing
about an army in normal folks.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
We are.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
This little idea that started kind of on a wing
and a prayer and honestly was supported by some of
the very people in this room who I want to
say to you. I won't call you out to embarrass you,
but thank you so much for helping Alex get this
thing going. We're about to start local chapters of the
Army in six cities across the country Lana and some others.
(25:20):
The chapters will do occasional service days together that we'll
call Army activations, and we're going to launch a giving circle,
which is a really cold concept that's missing from most places.
One of our past guests is the founder of Impact
one hundred, where one hundred women each donate one thousand
(25:40):
dollars and then that one hundred women with one thousand
dollars each make one one hundred thousand dollars gift together,
empowering normal folks to do transformational philanthropy that they couldn't
do on their own, and they can make a real
impact of that kind of money. Given our normal folks
ethos that were setting the minimum even lower to ten
(26:02):
bucks a month, so folks can still donate up to
a million dollars if they want to, and you should
have caned but ten bucks a month. So our producer,
Alex Cortez is going to start one of our inaugural chapters.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Right here in Oxford.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
If you're interested, Alex is around, go to normal Folks
dot us and sign up to join the army, and
we'd love to have your contact information. You can talk
to Alex after the event. He's the ugly guy I
wanted to wear a jacket like me, but he doesn't
pull it off as well as I do.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
You'll find him.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And much like the old Optimist clubs and things like that,
we're starting Army of Normal Folks chapters that meet once
a month and hopefully take the content inspiration from our
guests and put it into action in communities. So that
opportunity is going to exist right here in Oxford. If
any of you are interested, go to normal Folks dot
(26:55):
us with that Alex.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
How are we going to do this? We're going to
pass around the microphone that Okay, ad the ties.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You have fifteen minutes to ask Sparky anything you want
to ask.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And I mean I don't know if you want to
ask me. That's what you got one up here. Thank you, sir.
My name is JT.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Cunningham and I'm from Pennsylvania, so I really appreciate what
you said about the importance of both having good values
and finding truth in life. In all of your life,
has there ever been a time that you adhered to
something as the truth or you had something as a
very close value, but over time you've decided that that's
not the truth, or that's not a value that you
(27:34):
hold dear anymore.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I came from the Mississippi Delta.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
I guess race was a part of I accepted what race,
how people were viewed there, and I used their words
and as When I came up here, I actually had
a paternity brother who pulled me aside and talked to
me and said, you know, we're better than this.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
And so I think just my association with.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
A good man who was a good friend changed me
in the regard about how I felt about race.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I think that could be said about any number of things.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
A thinking be careful with us.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
When I say liberal, I don't get into politics on
the show very much. When I say liberal, I don't
mean in a political sense.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I mean an.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Open minded, liberal minded person who is always seeking the truth,
which is what a liberal mind does. I think as
you grow older and you open yourselves up to more
and more truths, I think we evolve as human beings,
and that evolution simply makes us fuller and better. Come on,
(28:53):
test me. There's one way back there, and there's one here.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Test me. Hazard's bunny was Mississippi. How did you go
from seventh grade teacher to students?
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Well, I told you that I wanted to be on
the path to become the denist students, and my dad said, well,
let's uh, before you go back to college, I want
you to see if you really like education, And.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
So I ended up.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I taught junior high school coach junior high football, sponsored
the newspaper directed to senior play, advise a student counsel,
which was really training for kind of what I did
when I got here.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
The only thing I refused to do was to learn
how to drive the bus.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
And then doctor Trott left me with the cheerleaders, and
I was just totally unprepared for that.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
They were egos that could tumble, egos that couldn't tumble.
I'm in trouble now.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
So after I did that, I got my master's, going
to night school at Delta State, came back here, thought
I had a job at Old Miss, but they didn't
hire me, and a wonderful woman named Jeene Jones hired
me in the counseling center as a graduate assistant, and
the next year I got hired in admissions, and so
(30:23):
it was just putting myself in the.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Right place at the right time. Good question, though, thank you.
I hate to be the last one with a stupid question.
But how did you and Speedy get your names? And
who was oldest?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Well, you know, I've never done a session where people
did not ask that question. My brother Speedy was expected
in October, but he didn't get here till November. So
my mother's first cousin said old Speedy finally got here.
And then when that same cousin found out that she
(30:58):
was pregnant with me, he said, well, the next one's
going to be sparky.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
So it was pre natal, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
And and it's good in some sense, but.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Some senses. You know, it's easy to.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Write on a bathroom wall, as a lot of guys
did in college.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I want to thank the Miss Women's counsel. I want
to thank all of you for being here.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Sparky.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I want to thank you for this time, for joining
us on the show. Most importantly, I want.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
To thank you for the impact you've had all my life.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
It's profound, from everything you did all the way to
the lessons I learned in your leadership class that are
actually some of which are in my book from things
you taught me. And I think I speak on behalf
of so many people in Oxford and so much of
the alumni. You, my friend, are a living icon and
(31:54):
we are lucky to have had you in our lives.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
I'll say this and I don't.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
This is not false humility.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
I learn more from the students and my colleagues than
I ever taught.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Them, So that's that's the truth.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Appreciate it one last time, everybody, Sparky Rearding.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Thank you. I love help me out there you go,
Thank you all and thank you about it. Appreciate it
and thank you for joining us this week.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
If Sparky Reardon has inspired you in general, or better yet,
to take action by working with students, mentoring, leading, or
buying this book The Dean or something else, entirely.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Please let me know I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
You can write me anytime at Bill at normalfolks dot
us and you'll hear back from me. If you enjoyed
this episode, please share it with friends that are on
social Subscribe to our podcast, rate it, review it, Join
the army at normalfolks dot us, any and all of
these things that will help us grow an army of
normal folks.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, do it you can
Host
Bill Courtney
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