An Ode to Chubby Knuckles

October 27th, 2017 would have been my old friend and mentor Dick Mattson's (RIP) 74th birthday.
I'm using this occasion to post this piece that I wrote last spring on my blog site now.
I apologize for re-running it here, but back in the days when Matty and I worked together A LOT of the work we did was fairly repetitious, but never routine. I don't think Matts would mind a rerun.

Posting this now serves a few purposes for me.
It marks Matts' birthday,
It's now on my blog, and,
I can mention to any and all to take a minute to thank those that have helped you along the way.
Parents, teachers, colleagues and mentors.
Someone helped get you where you're at today.
Contact them and let them know that you appreciate the help they gave you.
Call, email, or write.

I wish it could be that simple for me to thank Matty again for all he did for me.

An Ode to Chubby Knuckles
I first shook this hand 40 years ago on a beautiful spring day just like today.

I gave up playing football in seventh grade when everyone else grew to regulation size but I lagged behind. I stayed connected to the sport though and became a student manager at Bloomington Lincoln High School. Our Head Coach, Stan “The Man” Skjei, unbeknownst to me, had played football at the UofM while Matts was cutting his teeth in the equipment room.

Coach Skjei asked me one day whether I was considering the UofM for college, and whether or not I wanted to continue working in the football equipment game. The answer was “Yes” on both counts.
He made a call and arranged my very first “job interview”. I drove to campus, parked the Pacer at the Bierman Building, asked the largest human being I’d ever seen (I believe it was former Gopher, at the time San Francisco 49er, Keith Fahnhorst, back on campus to workout) where I could find the equipment room. I looked in the screened window, knocked and was buzzed in.

Matts grabbed my hand to shake it, began talking a mile a minute, and showing me around the equipment room. I did catch a few points he was making along the way;
“Good enough for Stan Skjei means good enough for me!”
“August 18 we kick off three-a-days!”
“Buckle it up and start payin’ yer dues!”
After about 15 minutes I was headed home having just completed the easiest job interview known to man. Thanks Coach Skjei.

The rest, as they say, is history.

I worked for Matts for 5 years during my student stint under coaches Cal Stoll, and Joe Salem.
I came back later to work with Matts under coaches Gutekunst, Wacker, and Mason.

During my second stint we had a fairly irreverent student staff that liked to pull both Matty’s and my chains. During the season Wednesdays nights were facemask nights whereby we would change out the hardware that holds the masks to the helmets. Better to do so on Wednesday night in a warm dry equipment room than on a sideline, in a driving rain, inside “The Old Horse Shoe on the Banks of the Olentangy” in Columbus Ohio, on a Saturday afternoon, during a game. Invariably, about 45 minutes in to the chore, after we’d each changed 4 or 5 masks, someone would shout, over their shoulder,
“Matts? You still workin’ on that first one? You need a hand?”
The joke being that the old guy couldn’t keep up with the young bucks. He may not have been as nimble as the kids, but he’d already changed thousands of facemasks more over his career than any of us ever could.

On Thursdays before road games we were issued meal money per diems, per UofM policy, since we were traveling out of town and did not have access to any of the meals that were provided for the athletes and coaches. Matts distributed the meal money after the work for the day was done and the student help wanted to be on their way to study, party, or just hang out. I don’t know whether Matty hated to part with all of that cash, or whether he just was not good with money but it took him a while to distribute the funds. One anxious student manager or another asked that he, “Get those chubby knuckles moving!” and a new recurring laugh line was born.
Each and EVERY time Matts handled money some reference to chubby knuckles HAD to be made.
Equipment Room Law.
It can’t be changed.
It shouldn’t be changed.
We still laugh about it every time we assemble all these years later.

Today, with a few of those student employees in the room with us, I held those chubby knuckles in my hand, perhaps for the last time, as the final medical devices were removed from Matts’ earthly body. I was proud to be there, with his son Keith holding his other hand, to offer strength and provide support to Matts, Keith, and Mary Ellen, through the pain and heartache in whatever way I could.

When he is gone I’ll fondly remember those chubby knuckles and all the good times we’ve had together over 40 pretty remarkable years.

Please continue to remember the Mattsons in your prayers.