Bears<\/a> coach Ben Johnson? Yeah, fine, him, too.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s been really exciting,\u201d the 87-year-old Williams shared in a phone call a couple of days before Cubs Convention got underway. \u201cI\u2019m really enjoying the connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
As all Bears fans know, Johnson brought \u201cgood, better, best\u201d to his team and it has become a postgame staple, the coach calling out lines and his players repeating them in celebration of every win. All season, the Bears\u2019 social-media team has shared these scenes in one viral video after another. If there\u2019s one thing the 39-year-old rookie coach is known for even more than F-bombing the Packers, it\u2019s his 17-word crash course in Bears culture.<\/p>\n
Johnson proudly pilfered the mantra from his own coach at A.C. Reynolds High School in Asheville, N.C., Bobby Poss, for whom Johnson played quarterback and won a state championship in 2002. Those Rockets chanted all the way to Kenan Stadium at the University of North Carolina, where they knocked off the Northern Nash team from Rocky Mount 14-7 for the title. Johnson completed all of two passes for 16 yards in that game, but who was counting? As a team, they had something special.<\/p>\n
But Poss had nothing on Lillie Dixon. More than 50 years before Johnson chanted along with his coach, Williams did so with the principal of Whistler (Ala.) Elementary School. Every Wednesday, in fact, Dixon held a school assembly that concluded with those very words.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can still hear her saying it, you know,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt was a positive chant for me my whole life, just like it\u2019s a positive chant for the Chicago Bears. I\u2019m telling you, it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams repeated the words in his head as he blossomed into a star athlete at Mobile County Training School, which he attended from seventh through 12th grades, and continued to repeat them throughout a brilliant 18-year major league career.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the chant didn\u2019t get the 1969 Cubs over the top against the Miracle Mets, who \u2014 in a truly grand coincidence \u2014 had a pair of starting outfielders, Tommie Agee and Cleon Jones, who\u2019d gone to Mobile County Training School, too, four years behind Williams. The school didn\u2019t have a baseball team, if you can believe it, but it was strong in football. Williams and Agee were defensive ends. Jones, later an All-Star with the \u201969 Mets, was a prolific running back who scored 26 touchdowns as a senior, breaking the school record held by Williams\u2019 older brother, Franklin.<\/p>\n
The memories are rich and vivid all these years later, because home for Williams \u2014 whose late wife of 61 years, Shirley, was his high school sweetheart \u2014 has always meant that much.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Williams made Principal Dixon and \u201cgood, better, best\u201d a centerpiece of his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1987.<\/p>\n
\u201cYear after year, [the words] would circle and become more and more pronounced as my career unfolded,\u201d he said then. \u201cBy working hard, I wanted to be the best ballplayer in the big leagues. I put these words into action, and worked harder and harder each year. These few words were the driving force behind my desire to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alas, Dixon wasn\u2019t alive to hear the tribute, having died a couple of months earlier. Williams had hoped to have her in attendance as his guest in Cooperstown, N.Y.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was such a great teacher,\u201d he recalled, a lifetime later. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t just great for me but for so many school kids. She inspired us all.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, Williams \u2014 an avid Bears watcher \u2014 is transported back in time every time he sees a video of Johnson crouching intensely in the locker room, fist pumping, \u201cgood, better, best\u201d-ing his heart out along with the NFC North champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMotivational, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Williams said. \u201cThe players really seem to be accepting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams doesn\u2019t know quarterback Caleb Williams, yet he feels a connection with the young star he refers to as his \u201cnamesake.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key to the whole thing is they came up with a good offensive line to give Caleb time to see his wide receivers,\u201d the old ballplayer said, flashing his football chops.<\/p>\n
Williams \u201ccan\u2019t wait\u201d for Sunday\u2019s kickoff against the Rams. As usual, he\u2019ll watch until the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m enjoying it, man,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole family is enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Look, he just happened to love a certain chant first. It\u2019s not like he\u2019s territorial about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatter of fact, go listen to Tim Duncan\u2019s speech,\u201d Williams suggested.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, during the former NBA great\u2019s own Hall of Fame induction speech in 2021, he paid a touching tribute to his mother, whom he\u2019d lost when he was only 14.<\/p>\n
Said Duncan, \u201cShe instilled in me, \u2018Good, better best, never let it rest, until your good is better and your better is best.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Boy, does it ever have a ring to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cGood, better, best! \u201cNever let it rest! \u201cUntil the good gets better and the better gets best!\u201d Chicago\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-411841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}