While training on the campus of nearby Canyon High School during those months, McInally came to know a junior at the school named Michael Jacobs. Jacobs, like Mcinally, was a star athlete, but little else about the two men was the same.
That spring, Jacobs found himself without a home when his mother left the area to look for better employment. The previous year, Jacobs had not only been forced to live with a teammate on his football team, but also struggled to keep up with school and athletics.
In the span of a few months, McInally and Jacobs built an unlikely but deep friendship as the two practiced football.
The bond between the men grew so strong, that, 40 years later, Jacobs was the first outside of McInally’s immediate family to hear from him when he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
By that time, Jacobs had long since turned his life around. After attending Harvard on McInally’s recommendation and earning all Ivy-League honors on the football field, he became a senior medical officer with the title of Commander in the Navy. All of it, he credits to the man he met his senior year of high school.
“He [McInally] was helping me go through a list of vocabulary words in my senior year literature class one afternoon,” Jacobs said. “He knew about my interest in getting a football scholarship to go to college, but a sudden, he brought up the idea of going to Harvard. I took it as a joke at first, but it was probably the best piece of advice anyone ever gave me.”
Now, even with Jacobs well into his fifties and McInally his sixties, the two men still talk almost every week. For McInally, Jacobs is a constant reminder of how impactful youth sports can be.
A NEW CAUSE
McInally continues to work tirelessly at the intersection of sports and youth.
In addition to coaching a local high school team, he is a working on a book that compiles lengthy interviews he has had over the years with star athletes across various sports. The interviews, and the book in general, focus on how coaches, parents, and other important adults in each child’s life can bring out the most in him or her.
“I talked with a lot of the NBA guys from the 80’s, and 90’s, all very smart men who had a lot to say,” McInally recalled. “Pat Reilly, Charles Barkley, they all remembered how things came together early in their lives, and that’s something I want to share with others.”
For the perfect example of what sports can mean for a young, struggling teen, however, McInally need look no further than his close friend, Michael Jacobs. With Jacobs as his main inspiration, McInally remains at the forefront of advocating for youth sports.
At this rate, it is just a matter of time before someone, either directly or indirectly inspired by McInally, joins him in the College Football Hall of Fame.
—Staff writer George Hu can be reached at yianshenhu@college.harvard.edu.