Ever Onward Podcast

How Humility Builds Stronger Teams with Coach Wade Anderson | Ever Onward - Ep. 97

• Ahlquist. • Season 1 • Episode 97

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Leadership isn’t always loud—it’s earned through humility, consistency, and the kind of listening that makes people feel seen. As Tommy Ahlquist shares in his introduction, this conversation has been a long time coming. Coach Wade Anderson isn’t just another guest—he’s one of Tommy’s greatest mentors, a man he calls a legend, a hero, and a friend. “God broke the mold when he made Wade,” Tommy says—and by the end of this episode, you’ll understand why.

From the hayfields of Rupert to Madison Square Garden, Wade’s story bridges cowboy grit with timeless lessons on teaching, parenting, and leadership. Alongside his son Clay—himself an accomplished real estate professional—they reflect on the kind of character, humility, and faith that shape lives far beyond the game.

Wade shares how setbacks can forge resilience, how faith becomes practical wisdom, and why the best leaders care more about growth than glory. Through stories of small-town roots, college triumphs, and decades of coaching, he reminds us that titles fade but integrity endures. You’ll hear about the class ring that became a lesson in earned respect, the noon-hoops games that broke down hierarchies, and how a stack of Louis L’Amour books turned into a lifelong habit of reflection and perspective.

Wade’s philosophy—family first, encouragement over criticism, and the simple goal of “raising your best friends”—translates far beyond sports. It’s a masterclass in leadership that lasts, delivered by a man who’s spent a lifetime proving that the best mentors don’t just coach—they build people.

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SPEAKER_02:

Today on the Ever Onward Podcast, I've been waiting for this one for a long, long time. Uh, if you told me uh to list the top five mentors in my life I've ever had, uh Coach Wade Anderson would be uh right at the top of that list. Uh many, many, many years ago uh when I was playing college basketball, Coach Anderson was my coach. Um I've stayed in contact with him. Uh, he is a wonderful human being. There's there's one of one of Wade Anderson. Uh God broke the mold when he uh uh made Wade. Um I love this guy with all my heart. Uh his son Clay Anderson's been on before. He's uh a real estate professional here in the valley and an unbelievable guy. How can you not be when you're coach Wade's son? Uh but they're uh both on today. I can't wait to catch up with one of my mentors, uh, a legend, a hero, and friend, uh coach Wade Anderson. Coach Wade Anderson, this is awesome. We've been talking about this, Clay, for a while. When you came in, you said, Why me? That's the easiest answer I've ever given in my life. I I am so excited. You uh I was telling I had another guest on earlier today, uh Mike Valentine. Oh and I said, if you had to stack up top five people in my life that I look up to, you're you're up there, and I love you so much. I learned so much from you. So that's why. And we've stayed in good touch. And so I told Clay, I said, we got to get Coach Anderson on here to tell some stories and impart some wisdom.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's a little lofty on this pedestal you've placed me on. I might get dizzy.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, it's all true, it's all true. I uh uh so I was at Rick's College a long, long time ago uh and played basketball there, and you were my coach then. And um, from the moment I met you, you just have a way about you and a way you carried yourself that was it was uh it was something else, and uh had an immediate connection with you. Um you taught me a lot. You taught me taught me a lot about growing up, how to be a man, how to be accountable. Um, and I stayed in touch with you the whole time. And uh uh you probably don't remember a few of the notes you've sent me over the years or texts you've sent me. I've kept them all, or the Louis Lamore book you sent me. Uh so I can't wait for this today, coach. Good. It'll be fun. Uh and I got Clay Anderson here. Clay's been on the podcast before, he's one of our local uh real estate uh professionals, uh, Birkadia now. Um he's the multifamily expert for Idaho and the region. So, Clay, it's nice to have you back.

SPEAKER_04:

Glad to be here. I'm glad to be here with my dad. He's a good man.

SPEAKER_02:

Coach, uh, I I wanted I want to get a little bit about the man and who you are. So uh tell us a little bit about growing up and and uh about your upbringing.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Tommy, I grew up on a farm in Rupert, Idaho, and uh we had the cowboy culture, you know, where you did things on horseback if you could because you didn't want to walk, or you got a car because you didn't want to want to walk to the far end of the farm to chase the irrigation ditch, so you you drove the quarter of a mile in a car. Because walking was just we were in a cowboy culture, and it it was great. We played um sports. We um we had a junior a junior team in the church league that was as good as any team in the town. Met tour people and everybody, they all wanted us to play them. So we had that that uh theme mentality, just youngsters just playing on Sunday and playing on Monday, and we just played sports.

SPEAKER_02:

What were your what were your folks like? Tell us about your parents.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, my dad was an old cowboy with mentality, just kind of reserved, you know, not too he he loved us all, but he didn't display a lot of affection. And um my mother just believed in us, she was positive all the time, but she didn't compliment a lot because she thought that you'd get conceited if she complimented you. We talked about this a little bit about our growing up and how it affected us. And the things that when we got married, the things that we wanted to do a little bit different. We wanted to support our kids in everything they did and their sports and compliment them and tell them they were good looking even when they weren't.

SPEAKER_02:

Clay's pretty good looking, coach. Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, maybe I'd interject a little bit too on that topic of that the incredibly supportive parents, always there for us in every event. My mom would call the newspaper every week and say, Did you know my son? Got his Eagle Scout? And oh, here comes Maryland again, we better put it in the paper. But he the story that I mean, I may have shared a little bit of it before, but playing basketball and he wanted to play in high school, and his dad said, You know, you gotta work on the farm, we can't get you to practice. And so he didn't even make the high school team, goes and tries out at Rick's College, and the coach says, You're pretty good. Where'd you play high school ball? I didn't play, so then the coach said, Well, we're gonna have to cut you. We don't if you didn't play in high school. And then that year they had an intramural game or they had an intramural team, and the college team had the they had a visiting team come in that had to cancel for weather, and so they invited this intramural team in, and my dad lit him up and he said, I don't care if you didn't play in high school, we gotta have you on the team. So he played years at Riggs and then at Utah State on a on a nationally ranked team, played at Madison Square Garden. And I think your parents came to at least one of your games in college once they realized, hey, this is kind of a big deal.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, this guy made it.

SPEAKER_05:

I better go to a game. We've already hit a game.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, the neighbors had read about my participation on the team at Utah State, and so they dragged my parents from Rupert to Logan to watch a game. It just happened to be the BYU game. And we had had a little confrontation with BYU in Provo about two weeks earlier, and they had a grudge. So when they came to Logan, they retaliated and they ran our star player into the end zone and into this into the net at the end of the court, and uh then a big fight developed. I mean, cowboy culture.

SPEAKER_02:

Cowboy culture. But it's also, Coach, you're playing BYU. Come on. Those guys are dirty. They've they they've got dirty in their DNA, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Don't get me started.

SPEAKER_02:

Every once in a while on this podcast, we talk about our our our uh love for BYU or other things.

SPEAKER_01:

Or I support them when I watch them on TV, I cheer for BYU.

SPEAKER_02:

But when they play Utah State, it's a different deal, right?

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. And when we competed against them, you know, we used to compete with them on their when they had a freshman team and we were Riggs College. Yeah. And I we just didn't like them to compete against them.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. What was it like Madison Square Gardens? I hadn't heard that before. You got to play back there.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it was the first game of the season, and we had been ranked uh the preseason, the season before. So we went out and played at Madison Square Garden and we played against um New York University. And to come to find out, after the game, we got home and found out that the game had been influenced by the gamblers. And they were supposed, we were supposed to win by three and we won by two. And their star player was supposed to influence the score to the exact margin. I never heard that.

SPEAKER_02:

Gangster days. Wow. In New York.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that was the period of time when a lot of the major universities dropped sports. University of San Francisco, where Meryl Russell played, they dropped. Uh the Ivy League tampered down their participation in sports. And uh a lot of schools dropped sports because of that gambling scandal. And then over the years they brought them back. But uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

W was that uh had you been to New York before then?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, that's my first time flying. I was a country boy. I was gonna say that's a big trip.

SPEAKER_02:

We're on an airplane. So you get on an airplane and go to New York City, that's pretty, pretty great experience.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, no, it's a funny thing. We get off the bus for practice at the Medicine Square Garden the day before the game, and there's hundreds of little teenage girls just cheering for us. And we're getting off the bus and we say, What's going on? And uh one of our big players, he was 6'8, uh black guy, that uh he had taken ballet in the summertime at Utah State, and they had bussed out or flew out hundreds of little teenage girls to take a ballet course, and he took ballet with these girls from the state. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02:

And they made instant fans out of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, and so that when he showed up, they were did you win? Yeah, we did.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We beat by we won by three.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's right. You won by three, because they were supposed to win by two.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

That's great. Covered the spread, and the uh guy on the team on the other team made the money out of it, I guess, or something, huh?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. He took$700 just from the gamblers to to influence the score. What a story.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. What a story. Um did you get into coaching right after? Uh when when did you first get into coaching?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's a long story, but I'll tell it to you. Good. That's what we're here for. At Utah State, we had when I um finished my eligibility, I just stayed and did a uh work on master's degree and coached at the freshman team. Uh I was the assistant freshman coach. So then when we graduated, then I was ready to go teach school and coach, and then that's so I've been coaching since graduate days. Then high school, and then high school, and then then uh college.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's it's Did you always know you want to be a coach?

SPEAKER_01:

No. No, it's just that was what I did, and that's where I spent my spare time, and that's where I discovered that I excelled a little bit, so that's where I went.

SPEAKER_02:

What one of the things about you, and I've told Clay this before, um, I remember as a young kid coming to campus and meeting you, and uh the first time when you when you would talk to us, you were locked in. And I think your ability to connect with other people is pretty unique. Um the way you listen, uh, the way you look into your soul, the way you connect. I asked Clay, I said, it did that was that like that when you were his son? Did he like it? You just you have a commanding presence in a way that I want to listen to you, I want to follow you, I want to, I want to be like you.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you always have that way of connecting with your No, I'm just discovering these things right now. I teach Sunday school class sometimes, and I think, are you listening? And I have one neighbor that's a good friend, he keeps saying he can't hear a lick. The only person he can hear is himself.

SPEAKER_00:

And so he keeps saying, I can't hear you, I can't hear you. And he's talk louder, approject, move your mouth.

SPEAKER_02:

So thank you. Yeah. No, it was it was a unique uh uh uh like when when you ask what why why did you make such an impact on me? That was it. Your ability to like really connect with people, coach, was and everyone knew that. I mean, everyone on the team, uh Coach Anderson was our guy, um, because of that. Um I I I imagine how many years did you coach?

SPEAKER_01:

How many total?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh. I I went to third grade, so I did learn math. Um probably twenty-five, thirty, or more than that. It was early. Let me add them up. Two, two, nine, twelve, five, and one. What's that? Two, five, nine, clays, clays.

SPEAKER_05:

25. He he was one of the pioneering coaches. He coached at at Rigby High School, but then when he went to the to Rix, it was all hands on deck. So you were involved in baseball and football, and he knows a lot about every sport. It's amazing, and he's good at every sport. So you were involved in baseball and football and did you do track at all? Swimming, tennis.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I didn't do track.

SPEAKER_02:

How many, how many I I I think 25 is probably shy. When did you graduate? I mean, when did you retire? What year?

SPEAKER_01:

20 202, I think. Yeah. 22.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So my point is a lot of years. If you think back of how many people you influence that are like me, how many how many kids do you think you coached over over your career?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. When you you start talking about uh teams, it's a lot, and then when you talk about um summer camps, yeah, yeah. We'd have two or three hundred kids in summer camp every summer.

SPEAKER_05:

We um, you know, we took our kids to several camps growing up, BYU and other team camps and individual camps, and I don't I've never seen a better run camp than the Ricks College basketball camp. Yeah. And back in the day, they'd run, it's pretty much eight in the morning until nine o'clock at night. Hundreds of kids, yeah. Hundreds of kids. Yeah. But I one of the things we moved back to Idaho nearly 20 years ago, and everywhere you go, you run into somebody, oh Coach Anderson, I remember him, and he was such a good man.

SPEAKER_01:

This is recorded, I love a nice.

SPEAKER_05:

It is recorded, Coach. Yeah, something about that time we were walking the bridge at Twin Falls, and that old he was the guy that I think you you took the ring off.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, that wasn't the guy.

SPEAKER_05:

Wasn't the guy? Because he said you he said you had a lot of influence on me, and I want to thank you. And maybe you should tell him that story though.

SPEAKER_01:

But what? That guy that took the ring off?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

This is cowboy culture. This is back before. We're gonna get into cowboy culture, because I'm we're gonna get into Louis Lemour here in a minute, but tell us this story. It's okay. It's it's past the statute of limitations.

SPEAKER_01:

There's no I don't want to get sued, but I had a kid in class. This is high school. I had a kid in class that uh came to school in inebriated. He was drunk. And he just was sitting in the back and he would just yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, and he's interrupting and moving his chair and wrestling with classmates. And I said, um his name was Marty. I said, Marty, knock it off. He can't tell me what to do. I said, Marty, quit it. And he said, Okay. Acting up, so I walked back and I said, You're gonna sit by the window. And he said, I don't want him. So I grabbed him by the collar and I said, Marty, you're gonna sit by the window. So I drug him up by the window. And he was wrestling with me. I said, Marty, knock it off. And I gave him a little tug and it sounded like his shirt ripped a little bit. And then he got mad at me, he started cussing me, started calling me names. Will you rip my shirt? Will you rip my shirt? And so I said, Marty, we're going down to the principal's office. You're not gonna be in this classroom any longer. Let's go. So we're walking down the hall, and it's about 50 yards down the hall to the principal's office. On the way, he's uh, do I really need to tell this?

SPEAKER_05:

Yes, you need to finish it. Come on, coach. Come on, coach, finish drawing.

SPEAKER_01:

So he's still cussing me. So I have a big class ring, it's a heavy one, and I slip it off, put it in my pocket, and I go whack across this. I just smacked him. And he looked at me and he said, Coach, I'll behave now. So we went back to class and didn't go to the principal's office, and he was my buddy from that on. About ten years later, I saw him at a ball game, and he I'm coming out of the ball game, and he he yelled at me, Coach, coach, I said, Hey, how you doing, Marty? He says, Hey, coach, you're my favorite teacher. I says, Really? He says, Yeah. And he says, and I want to thank you for taking that ring off. He says, You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, what a great story. I can't believe he messed with you. Because you you were uh one of the things about you, coach, is um you have a presence, you had a presence about you and still do. Like when you talk to people, they listen. And I asked I asked Clay that too when he was on. I said, Hey, were you ever like in and it's not intimidated, but it was respect. Is that respect for you, the way you carried yourself, um, the way you talked, the way you interacted. So I'm surprised anybody needed to have the ring taken off because I think the rest of us were like, yes, coach, yes, coach. Maybe the uh inebriation impaired the guy's judgment. I don't know. That could be. That could be. Um, let's talk a little bit about uh cowboy culture. Um it sounds like uh you really connected with that with your father, and that's how you grew up. Um and then uh I remember when I was on the campaign trail, we talked a little bit about your love of Louis Lemour and that culture. Talk a little bit about that, just the culture, what it means and what it means in America today.

SPEAKER_01:

And well, we grew up in a neighborhood with the with the farm boys, and they all had horses, and we didn't, but my dad was a was a cowboy, but he didn't when he moved to the farm, he got horses for the kids, but he never rode the horses again. But he had that mentality, that that cowboy culture, you know, where you don't you don't get affectionate and you don't talk about love and and and you're you're on your own. You know, he was a great athlete, but he really never um showed us much about it's just you're on your own, you know. And so that's the kind of the attitudes that we grew up with. Just we're on our own, we're independent, and then we um I got started reading Louis Lemour, and I liked the philosophy that he expressed through through his novels. And then um I started collecting them. Started collecting the Louis Lemour novels and and their quotes, and I had a book of quotes that I sent to you. So I think one of the things that that that experience did for me is it it developed a a love of reading.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So that I could I could read a while and then uh put a book down and say, hey, I need to read something. So it actually made me it made it easier for me to read the scriptures, for example, because I I love to read. Not that I necessarily loved the scriptures at that time, but I just loved to read. And I'm like, okay. And that I think it developed that love to read by reading Louis Lemour books.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a great connection. Uh I I know it that book means a lot to me, and I have it sitting right in my office now. I've I keep it right there. It's right right front and center, uh, just so you know that. But it also gives me a connection to my grandfather, because my my grandfather was my other hero. And my fondest memories of him, uh, and there were there are a lot of them, but it's it's one particular. He had an old weeping willow tree that he that's where he put his old he had one of those old full folding lawn chairs. And um I would see him under that tree, and I'd go sit down and talk to him, and he was he always had a Louis Lemore book in his hand. And he was a he was one of the biggest fans. So another point of our connection is is I've always I've always had a deep love uh and rem memories of him and Louis Lemour, and and then there's Coach Wade Anderson, and it's it's this it's a big connection for me. Bigger than life for me, because it it it really connects the two of you and uh two of my heroes, and and uh it reminds me of him. Uh I don't think I've ever told you that, but that that's yeah, you did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

One of the things that's surprising to me is that if you talk about reading Louis Lemour books, it's amazing how many people say, Oh, I I read those two. And you had no idea that they because everybody kind of keeps it quiet. Oh, I'm reading a Louis Lemour book, you know, and then you get some um sophisticated literature people, and they say, Oh, those are like comic books.

SPEAKER_02:

He had he had an amazing simple way of of expressing the American West and ideals and morals, and I love them. They may be comic, that's probably why I like them so much. Easy, easy read, easy read for me. Yeah. Um that's great. Hey, uh coach, I I I just read in here um because I had you do this. Five kids, 23 grandkids, and uh three great-grandchildren. Talk about the importance of family uh in your life and and uh what what it means to have the family you have. I know I know a few of your kids and I know what they think of you too, but but what what does family mean to you?

SPEAKER_01:

Family is number one to me. You know, there's important things in your life. You know, your religion, your convictions, family's number one. Yeah. And um I we are very fortunate. We are blessed beyond our ability to deserve it. To have the family that we do. We have five children, and they're all just my wife would say they're all perfect. And they're they're great to get together. I mean, it when we sit around at a family reunion in a big room like this, and just swap stories, it's it's that's heaven right there.

SPEAKER_02:

What what's some of the secrets to having a having a family like that, a legacy like that? What what what what would you what advice would you give our listeners about uh the importance of being a a father and a grandfather and connecting uh these generations?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think you've got to encourage them to excel in school and their activities, support them in their games and in whatever they're doing, their courtship, you know, you're interested. And and I think um we talked about this a little bit. We uh we deviate from our culture that we grew up in, and we express our love for each other. We're always saying love you, and we always respond by saying, I love you more, and then the next response is I love you most, and and then we finish it by saying, I love you more than most people do. So I I it's just it's just great. Yeah, I I go and listen to some other people talk about their families, and I say, Oh my gosh, we're so blessed. We are so blessed.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, I may interject just a little bit. You know, they they did prioritize the family and being there for events, and I think they both not felt overly neglected, but that in their activities growing up, they didn't see a lot of that, and they they committed early on in their marriage, we're gonna support our kids and we're gonna be there for them. I remember kids in the neighborhood would ring on my doorbell and say, Hey, is your dad here to throw the ball to us and play catch? And like they knew he'd he'd be around, and when we'd go shoot hoops, he'd pass the ball and he'd just and he was such a good kind of talk about his presence. He was such a great listener. Even early on at Rick's College, I mean they had him on advisory boards because they knew he'd be honest, um, but that he'd listen and he understood where people were coming from. I think I shared this last time, but I one thing that always hit me hard, we were in the equipment room, kind of lower-paying employees that were there. And my dad would always stop in and check in on them and call them by name and how you doing, what's going on? And um, and then he'd left the room from it, and and I think it was Neil or Milt, I can't remember which one, and he said, Hey, come here. That's why your dad's special. He always takes time to talk to us. When not many people do, and uh, that was a had a big impact on me that everybody matters, and he's just uh he he's considerate of other people, but family was always a priority, and we feel that even now.

SPEAKER_02:

I I think when I talk about you, you just hit on some of the biggest things. I I don't know that I've ever been around a better listener because you're around people all the time, and when you talk to them, sometimes you're like, are they listening to me, right? I always felt coach, and everyone I know that knows you felt like he listens to me. And I don't know if it's something, I don't know if you're just born with that or what, but but when we talk to you or we came to you for advice, or we wanted whether it was about life or I remember I remember one time you gave me a talk about going on a mission. Uh, you might not even remember this, but I remember you sitting me down and just I thought, man, he just listened to me. And and then the second part of that, I think you just said too, Clay, is is you always got it straight from Coach Anderson. So so when you would listen, and then and then and then I think the ability to to listen and then give it give straight advice. I mean, it was clear, your ability to communicate, you knew. And I think it meant a lot, right? Because you knew that you listened, and then you said you were able to connect to your heart and say, hey, here's what you need to do. And and it meant a lot that way. Uh it just is, and then lastly, um the kindness, right? Just the ability to know that you got someone in your corner, whether you're the guy in the equipment room or you're the star of the team or you're the guy on the bench, um uh everyone uh that love was genuine and deep. Um was it intentional? Uh how much of this was help help us help us help us be better, help us be better people.

SPEAKER_01:

One of the things that um I really appreciated at Rick's College is that we used to play faculty noonhoop. If you had an hour off at lunchtime, you went to the gym and you played Noonhoop. It was faculty, but it was also custodians and bus drivers and carpenters and administrators and presidents. And because of that atmosphere, and because we were just in the game to play, it kind of broke down barriers between certain levels of administration and custodians played with presidents. And it just made the atmosphere tremendous. We all knew each other, we all played new new, at least at least from every every level. Not everybody played, you know, because not everybody plays. But it was great. And um I'll tell you the story. We were um we we played with the with uh our president at that time. Well, Henry Iring was our president, he played a little bit, and um Bruce Hafen was the president and he played a little bit, and and others played, but then they wrote a history about Rick's college, and they were talking about, they were quoting Bruce Hafen and how he appreciated playing Noonhoop and getting to know everybody at all levels, and he says, I used to think I was a superstar because I'd go to Noonhoop and I could score at any time I wanted. And he says, in the book, he says, and then I went to shoot one time when Wade Anderson checked my shot, and he says, Then I realized the rest of them were just letting me go. And because Wade Anderson checked my shot, I realized I was finally accepted.

SPEAKER_03:

And he can trust you because you weren't gonna give him a free pass of the lane, you're gonna shut it down.

SPEAKER_02:

You're not a guy that's gonna give people a free pass of the lane, coach. I know that about you. Hey, it was uh was Elder Iring? Was he uh could he play? Yeah, he played he played. Well could he play? Did he have some did he have game coach?

SPEAKER_01:

Um not bad. Not bad. Well, he was a high school player at East High. And you were talking about the University of Utah and didn't make it, but um he he he played.

SPEAKER_03:

Did you check his shots?

SPEAKER_01:

No. When it got it there were some people who didn't know how to tone it down and got too physical. And when they got physical with Henry, he said, This is distracting from my spirituality. And so he he he quit playing a bit.

SPEAKER_02:

He's a great, great man, great guy. Um advice you would give young leaders, young coaches, young businesses. Professionals, we've hit a lot of them. Uh, listen, um, honesty, kind of tell it like it is, I'm sure is one of them. But what what other kindness looking around you? Any any other any other suggestions you would give us that we could glean off of your wisdom?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. One of the things I discovered, and I'm still discovering, is that the more you know about something, the more you discover that you don't know. There's still plenty to learn. And so when I graduated from college, I thought, hey, I've played college ball, I know a lot. I didn't know very much at all. In fact, Gary Gardner, your coach, taught me a lot. He was he was kind of an offensive genius, really. Not so much on defense, but on offense, he he he knew schemes and strategies that were pretty good. And so I learned a lot. I thought I knew a lot, but I learned a lot. And because of that, my advice is if you have someone that has some experience, listen, they know some things that you haven't discovered yet. I've got kids in the neighborhood that play high school ball, and I say, Oh, I could help you with your shot. And they say, I don't need any help. I'm good. So my advice would be if someone who has had some experience offer some suggestions, put your ears on and listen. Yeah. That's the one thing I've learned, and one thing that I've discovered that is difficult for teenage kids to actually listen. In fact, my own grandkids have a hard time taking my suggestions.

SPEAKER_05:

But one thing I would say with principles and life and parenting and leading a business or anything else, is to have the security to be able to listen and take feedback. Um, but also I I was amazed and saw somewhat in my life, but especially in your grandkids' lives, you and mom are both so optimistic and encouraging. They see that they're more cheerleaders than critics. They see things and they're so whenever they'd come into town, they would see all the good that my kids were doing. When sometimes as a parent, you're like, Oh, I wish my son was doing better in school and that he was managing his diabetes better, or this. And they would see all these positives and they'd be so encouraging of, hey, you have a great voice, why don't you work on your singing? And but it was always uh cheerleading more than critic, criticism. And our kids felt that love, and when they feel loved, they they respond to you know, um, encouragement, anything else. And so I think they've I think as a coach, as a parent, and as a person, he's always and my mom have always been just very encouraging and seeing the good in people, and it makes you want to be better.

SPEAKER_01:

Clay's mother is very good at that, way better than I am. She's she's a cheerleader.

SPEAKER_02:

How many years have you been married now? Coach?

SPEAKER_01:

Sorry to get it right. Sorry to put you on the spot.

SPEAKER_02:

63? 63 years. Yeah. 63 years. Wow.

SPEAKER_05:

He's also, you know, with listening, he's a great storyteller. And um and that ties into a lot of tradition and culture and identity, too.

SPEAKER_02:

But what um so so the other thing, even today, when you came in today, humility. Um uh one of the greatest men I've I mean I've ever known, and you're just humble, coach. You're the how important is humility? Because I think that's the other thing you would preach and teach is humility. And I think your son, I think, you know, I think of Clay Anderson, anyone knows him, there's a you know, big physical presence, handsome guys, you know, could be very dominant cowboy culture, but there's a humility about you. How important is humility?

SPEAKER_01:

Pretty important. It's it is important. Without it, what could you go on learning? Could you go on encouraging? I mean, you know, if you're if you're overconfident and think you have the world by the tail and know all the answers, you don't.

SPEAKER_02:

Makes you more teachable, right? I mean, I think they go hand in hand, right? I mean, one of the things uh I think you preach is is being teachable and learning, and but it but it's humility has to be part of that.

SPEAKER_05:

Yep. I don't know what it is as think about this now. He had a great balance, and I think it comes a lot from listening and helping someone process their own, you know, feelings and thoughts. But if I had a really big game, he wasn't an overpromoter of it. You know, he'd hey, you did well, and he would but if I had a bad game, he was really good at listening and helping me process, hey, it wasn't that bad as you think. And so there was a lot of balance in him helping be grounded to what reality was, not overinflating and oh, you could do anything in the world, you could be Michael Jordan. It was encouraging, but but you know, in a in a balanced way that I think was always healthy.

SPEAKER_01:

If I listen to this podcast, I'm gonna get the big head, I think. Hey, coach, how how old are you now? I'm trying to add them up, 86.

SPEAKER_02:

86 years old, 86 years young. You can get a big head at 86, Coach. You can listen to these things because you've been so influential.

SPEAKER_01:

One of the favorite things I have to say in this life is have you ever been 86? And if you say no, then I get to say, well, pay attention then. I love that.

SPEAKER_02:

You use it a lot. I love that. Yeah, and then yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not that I have a lot of more wisdom, it's just that I have a different perspective from having been here, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. You brought up Gary Gardner, and um uh you were a good you were a good team because I think a lot of your strengths were his weak. He was he was he was a little bit of a hot head coach, as you as you know. Uh and I I just want to bring up one story. There's a couple great Gary Gardner stories, but we were playing North Idaho, and um it was a close game, and you know, we had some great guys on our team, Trent Shippen, and uh, you know, he he was he was kind of the star of the team, Gerald Reddick. If you remember Gerald Reddick and uh housekeeper, uh we had a great team, but we we lost at the last second of that game, and I think we blew a lead. Um and they were it was a tough environment to play in. We were ahead, we were gonna win, then we lost, and we went into the locker room and um he grabbed his, he took his tie and he threw it off, and he was screaming and yelling after the game was over, and then he grabbed his shirt. It's one of the best stories. I didn't know if this was possible to, but if you pull a dress shirt hard enough, you can pump all the buttons off it. So I remember him standing there and he popped his popped his buttons off his shirt and he threw his shirt down and then he went out in the and he went out in the hallway with his underwear and just went up and did his did his uh so if you remember we had that little Christmas party when we played down in Salt Lake and uh and we got him a shirt with the Velcro. He said, Coach, here's your here's your here, you know. That was his Christmas gift, was the was the Velcro shirt. And anyway, you were a great my point of bringing him up, he was a great guy, but but you were a great, you complimented each other so well. You probably have even better stories, but he was uh he could go off, right?

SPEAKER_01:

He could. We went out to your house, didn't we? Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We went out and had lunch or something.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, dinner or something. I can't remember. Yeah, it was great. It was great.

SPEAKER_01:

Taylorsville or somewhere out.

SPEAKER_02:

Magna. Yeah magna, yeah. Um a lot of great memories, a lot of great teams over the years. Uh a lot of a lot of people that I'm sure are still in contact uh with you, a lot of great stories. Have you written all this down?

SPEAKER_01:

No. I'm humble.

SPEAKER_02:

Coach, we need a we need a book. We need a collection. We need it down because I think uh it just uh is amazing. A couple other things I wanted to get to, uh uh, coach, is you 86, um uh the importance of God in your life, the importance of um moral codes and kind of living uh to your potential. Uh another thing you taught me, uh, how important that is. How important is that as you as now you look back on your life?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, as I mentioned, family's number one, and religion is right there with a but uh it's amazing to me, this is an amazing to me, that people cannot apply logic and reasoning and observation more into their life, and they cling to these false narratives and concepts. Look around. Who's happiest? Who's most successful? Who is healthier? What are they doing? Whatever they're doing, you need to follow a suit and do some of the same things. And um that's how I feel about religion. It's a major influence for good in your life, and it influences your family, your presence, and of course, the hereafter. And you better be thinking about those things with not just blind faith, but with insert a little bit of logical thinking and reasoning power. It's a gift that God gave us all.

SPEAKER_02:

And and and in our experiences, we have those those things that happen over time, and with God involved in those, uh, it it it uh man, it just uh it'd be tough to live if you didn't have that faith in in your in your day-to-day and with your family and as you raise kids and 23 grandkids and three great grandkids now, right, Coach. What are some of your memories, uh uh Clay, that that uh that just uh I mean the good the I mean have him on, but to to have a relationship and friendship with you as long as I've had I asked you when you were on how is it being Coach Anderson's son? I mean it's what what a special time for you.

SPEAKER_05:

It's it's been awesome. Yeah, I the connection of uh me being the ball boy for years at Rick's College with Tommy and then and then playing at Rick's, and so my dad being in a role as my father and um and as a leader in church as well at different times, and then as my coach, and um it's been a great blessing for me. It's been a lot of fun. We we followed the same concept with our kids as we're raising our best friends, and I think that's what they did. We we played a lot at the parks, and it was if we had interest in tennis, we were at the tennis courts, and he he also did a good job at helping me see um my direction in life. I remember like junior high, I was a pretty good basketball player and pretty competitive, but I also got into skateboarding. I had this skateboarding crowd of friends, and then I had my basketball group of friends, and and he would never criticize, but he would ask me questions, just thought-provoking questions about hey, what did you do tonight and how did that go? And well, where what are those kids, you know, not like those kids are losers, but where are they heading in life? What are they, you know, what and it just he did it in a way that caused me to think about where my where I was going in life without me saying, Oh my dad's telling what I need to do in my life. And that's been a great thing. We um and yeah, just the the the traditions of of being together, they they always seem to take time to to be around and and be with us. And I think humor plays a lot in.

SPEAKER_02:

I think you just said something that I I never had I never heard it put that way. Um that if you're you're you're raising your best friends, um that's uh that that's probably how we all ought to look at every day with our own kids and our own grandkids. You're raising your best friends, right? Well, and nothing's more true than that. I think as you get older too, coach, right? I mean, the circle kind of gets smaller, but the family connections and your best friends that are the ones that are there every day in, day out, or I mean that's that's just so critical, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I I love that statement too. That's exactly true. Yeah, I think of this. We're raising our best friends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

We just had our union this summer and siblings around and grandkids, and there's no better testament to that than just observation, right? You can preach things, but they see us interacting together and they see my parents being encouraging in the relationship they have with the kids, and and so that's been our motto is we're raising our best friends, and um, it's a great it's a it's a thing that's perpetually moves forward and and and goes on and on.

SPEAKER_02:

But well, coach, that hour went really, really fast. I uh I knew it would. Um, but I I want to end with uh you know, when Clay was on, I said, You think your dad could come over again on this thing? I this is a highlight for me. Thank you for making the time and being here.

SPEAKER_01:

And well, I'm gonna leave here thinking I'm way special. I'm gonna I'm gonna shed my humility.

SPEAKER_02:

You can shed it, shed it for a while. I I I I speak on behalf of uh I don't know how many thousands of people that you've influenced in a significant way. There are people all over this country like me that have on their top of their list that Wade Anderson's their mentor, their friend. Their so thank you for uh living a life that's so incredible. And teaching, um, you never stop teaching. And I hope that you know whoever listens to this podcast and can understand the value of listening, speaking with truth, and and and and then and then leading the way you've led, uh living a life that that people wanted to be like you. Uh, thank you, coach.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you, Tommy. That's a great compliment. Thank you, too.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for being my dad. Thanks, coach. We love you so much. Thanks for coming over and doing this. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Adam.