Monroe, N.C.----He imagines heaven as a 24-hour football game where he can eat what he wants and never gain weight.

Coach Mike Pope was diagnosed with congestive heart failure more than five years ago. Since then, he has had quadruple bypass heart surgery, his first pacemaker and a staph infection that led to double amputation of his legs.

His doctor and friend, Jim McGeorge of Seneca, S.C., assured him it wouldn’t affect his coaching; a coach doesn’t need legs, he said, only a brain.

“He said, ‘(Either you) lose both legs, or you’re going to die in two weeks.’ It wasn’t a hard decision,” Pope recalls.

Published on May 12, author Wilt Browning tells Pope’s story in a biography called Do They Play Football in Heaven? A book signing was held Sunday.

Pope is a 1970 graduate of Piedmont High School, where he took the field as an offensive and defensive lineman. He attended Gardner-Webb University to major in physical education and minor in social studies, later returning to Piedmont to coach.

Pope also coached for several South Carolina schools, for a total high school coaching career of 35 years. He has coached more than football, but claims the sport as his favorite. He is now a volunteer football coach and director of high school relations for football at Wingate University.

Yet through all of his successes, Pope has seen his share of trials. “My faith is what’s got me through all this stuff,” says Pope, a member at Lakeview Baptist Church. In addition to faith, a plethora of family members, players, fellow coaches and friends have helped along the way. Many of these folks contribute to Pope’s biography.

The book dedication, written by Pope and his wife, Ginger, reflects that hierarchy in the opening line: “Our philosophy of life is the importance of God, family and football.”

A book signing was held at the Dickson-Palmer Student Center on the Wingate campus Sunday. Learn more about the book at http://www.dotheyplayfootballinheaven.com/. For information on Pope’s football camps, visit his Web site at http://www.hawgtuff.net/.

Questions and Answers with Mike Pope

Q: What’s the draw to football?

A: “Football is one of the few things that people can do to learn discipline. It develops character, it develops a work ethic and I love the strategy and the planning. I always believe in team before self. It teaches you to get off the ground when you get knocked down. I love all the other sports, but (football) is the only sport I’ve ever seen that could close a whole town on Friday nights…and everybody’s at the football game.”

Q: You have three daughters: Taylor, 27, Elizabeth, 24, and Sarah, 23. What’s it like to coach a bunch of guys on the field…then be a dad to three girls?

A: “My wife said God did that on purpose. Probably if I’d had a son, I’d be so hard on him, he wouldn’t even like football. If he’s like me, he’d be so aggressive…it’d be hard to handle. She said God gave me girls so it would tender my heart.”

Q: In the biography, author Wilt Browning calls you a man of courage. How would you define courage? How does it apply to you?

A: “It’s real easy to do things when things are going well. Courage is what you do when things go against you...and you keep working your way through it. It can be like fighting in war against an enemy or fighting against a disease or getting up and going to work in the morning and you’re not feeling well. Football is what developed (this trait) in me, to have the courage to take on all the adversity and fight through it.”

Q: How has your double amputation changed the way you view life, your family and the game?

A: “It’s not as big a deal as people like to make it out (to be). They cut my legs off six inches below the knee. Once they got the prosthetics on, I could walk. It takes me five minutes to get my legs on in the morning, but I can do anything I ever did. When I’ve got long pants on, people don’t even know I’ve got prosthetics, but I wear shorts.”

Q: What are the greatest obstacles you’ve faced as a coach, husband and father?

A: “All my life, I’ve been so committed to the kids I coach that I had to really work hard to make time for my girls and my family. One of the things that I regret more than anything, I didn’t take enough time for myself. I would be up at school at 5:30 in the morning…and many times, I wouldn’t leave ‘til 12 o’clock at night…that’s partly what led to my health issues.”

Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned on the field?

A: “…to never give up. If a person gives his or her best, that’s all one can ask. We need to learn to be satisfied with that.”

Q: What do you want your athletes to learn from the game?

A: “A love for the game (and) teamwork. Then the biggest thing, they need to learn to appreciate that God gave them the ability to play the game.”

Q: Will you still be coaching in 10 years?

A: “If I’m alive, I will be. I’m going to coach as long as I can coach. I’m hoping to be coaching in 20 years.”

(Special thanks to Tiffany Jothen from The Enquirer-Journal for sharing this article; it is published and posted with the author’s permission. The article originally appeared in the Sunday, May 23 edition of The Enquirer-Journal.)

WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private four-year co-educational institution of 2,159 students offering active learning opportunities through personalized instruction, world travel, career discovery and community service.

Wingate offers 34 undergraduate majors in arts and sciences, business, communication, education, fine arts, music and sport sciences. It also offers graduate degrees in business, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration. In addition, the school awards the doctor of pharmacy and the doctor of education degrees.

Bulldog student-athletes compete in 19 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past four years.

Wingate University is ranked number three among NCAA Division II Academic All-America® producing schools in the 2000’s with 34 honorees during this millennium. Only Pittsburg State (Kan.) University and Truman State (Mo.) University have produced more Academic All-America® honorees during this time period. Wingate’s 43 Academic All-America® honorees (lifetime) is tops among all SAC schools.