Post by fwp on May 18, 2009 18:56:43 GMT -5
www.standard.net/live/sports/173539/
OGDEN -- The most painful moments in Mike Mink's life have not been forgotten. But a tragic event in 2004 set him in a long, winding path that eventually led him here and brought professional indoor football to the Top of Utah.
"We're here to bring something that's positive," said Mink, the Ogden Knight's owner/coach.
Coming off their first win of the season, the Knights (1-6) will go for a second tonight at the Golden Spike Events Center when they play host to the Wyoming Cavalry (7-1).
Going up in Tampa, Fla., Mink said he was involved in playing football and baseball from the time he was about 4-years-old. However, until 2004 his involvement had been mostly through on-the-field activity.
But in September of that year, Mink learned his mother had been murdered in her Tampa home.
Days earlier, during a dinner conversation, Dorothy Mink told her son he needed to be involved in coaching. Although he hadn't given it much thought to that point, Mike got the chance to form a semi-pro team after he received $60,000 from his mother's life insurance policy.
"To me it was blood money and I didn't want to spend it on me," he said. "I didn't want to just give it to a charity. My mom wanted me to be a head coach (but) I had no resume to be a head coach.
"I could go to a local high school or somewhere and coach, but I felt like with playing in college and playing pro ball, with the experience I had I could just go out and do it."
Nearly six years later, his life isn't the same.
That semi-pro team led Mink into the world of indoor football and eventually to the founding of the American Indoor Football Association, which he co-owns with a business partner.
Owning part of the league as well as the Knights -- plus coaching them, too -- has been a unique challenge for Mink.
"I'm a blue collar guy," he said. "I'm not going to just sit in the stands and watch. I might as well get down there and help and teach and develop these young guys."
Mink said some of his players have noticed something interesting on the balls the AIFA uses: His signature.
"My players say, 'Your name's on the football,'" he said. "But none of that really matters to me. I don't know if that makes any sense or not, but what matters, right now to me, is that the league has played every game, no postponements, no cancellations."
OGDEN -- The most painful moments in Mike Mink's life have not been forgotten. But a tragic event in 2004 set him in a long, winding path that eventually led him here and brought professional indoor football to the Top of Utah.
"We're here to bring something that's positive," said Mink, the Ogden Knight's owner/coach.
Coming off their first win of the season, the Knights (1-6) will go for a second tonight at the Golden Spike Events Center when they play host to the Wyoming Cavalry (7-1).
Going up in Tampa, Fla., Mink said he was involved in playing football and baseball from the time he was about 4-years-old. However, until 2004 his involvement had been mostly through on-the-field activity.
But in September of that year, Mink learned his mother had been murdered in her Tampa home.
Days earlier, during a dinner conversation, Dorothy Mink told her son he needed to be involved in coaching. Although he hadn't given it much thought to that point, Mike got the chance to form a semi-pro team after he received $60,000 from his mother's life insurance policy.
"To me it was blood money and I didn't want to spend it on me," he said. "I didn't want to just give it to a charity. My mom wanted me to be a head coach (but) I had no resume to be a head coach.
"I could go to a local high school or somewhere and coach, but I felt like with playing in college and playing pro ball, with the experience I had I could just go out and do it."
Nearly six years later, his life isn't the same.
That semi-pro team led Mink into the world of indoor football and eventually to the founding of the American Indoor Football Association, which he co-owns with a business partner.
Owning part of the league as well as the Knights -- plus coaching them, too -- has been a unique challenge for Mink.
"I'm a blue collar guy," he said. "I'm not going to just sit in the stands and watch. I might as well get down there and help and teach and develop these young guys."
Mink said some of his players have noticed something interesting on the balls the AIFA uses: His signature.
"My players say, 'Your name's on the football,'" he said. "But none of that really matters to me. I don't know if that makes any sense or not, but what matters, right now to me, is that the league has played every game, no postponements, no cancellations."