Sept. 4, 2009
Following is an excerpt from NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski's feature story on Tammy Walker from the Sept. 5, 2009, edition of The Den, the official game day magazine of Northwestern Athletics. To read the entire story, and to get a powerful ON THE RECORD with Chris Jeske detailing his decision to become a student coach along with an ON THE RECORD feature with Mark Woodsum, be sure to pick up your copy of The Den at Ryan Field on Saturday!
The Coach's Wife
His golf clubs, with great ceremony, were stowed away with August's arrival and now their lives unfolded once again at a familiar pace, to a familiar rhythm. He, the coach, would dive into practice and all those sundry plans needed to prepare for the season rushing toward him. She, the coach's wife, would limit her own trips to the course and instead spend her days readying their home for the many visitors soon to come.
She was often alone now, that is a curse that accompanies any coach's wife, but routinely, almost daily, she would gather up their dog Magic and wander with it over to the practice field near the end of the afternoon session. There, before he again disappeared to analyze more film or to lead another meeting, they would chat, laugh, catch up on the news and have a romp with their pet.
"This was always a very exciting time of the year. A new season. It was hard to see summer go, but it was always exciting," she now remembers. But then, on a July night in 2006, her husband, the Northwestern coach, the ebullient Randy Walker finished up some yard work, went upstairs to take a shower and suddenly, shockingly, tragically, dropped dead.
A good man was stolen away and now, for Tammy Walker, there would forever be a different pace, a different rhythm, a different feeling as fall approached and finally took up residence. "Sometimes it's hard. It's kind of bittersweet," she is saying now. "I still like football. I still follow (Northwestern), obviously. I still pay a lot of attention to what Northwestern's doing. But it's bittersweet.
"My life's changed a lot. It's hard. But at the same time, (in mid-August), there was a scrimmage and I think it was the first time in 10 years I didn't go to it. I went to the Solheim Cup instead. So, you know, it's a tradeoff. Obviously I'd rather have things the way they were. But I went with three friends and we had a great weekend. That's something I wouldn't have done before."
There is, hard by Ryan Field as a memorial to her late husband, a Walker Way and a Walker Terrace and, says Tammy Walker, "It's good. It's good. You want your loved ones to be remembered. So that's good. He would be happy. But he would think they were making too much of a fuss."
For the rest of the story, check out The Den at Ryan Field on Saturday!