BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

State Championship Coach Ted Ginn, Cleveland Glenville High School -FCA Hall of Champion - Building a Life Long Legacy in Sports and Faith

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Coach Ted Ginn lead the 2022 Cleveland Glenville Tarblooders football team to the first Cleveland Public School team to win a state championship. He  has served as Head Football Coach of the Glenville Tarblooders since 1997.  In 2020 Coach Ginn was inducted into the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Hall of Champions.

As a student at Glenville High School, Coach Ginn played the positions of linebacker and center for the team in the 1970’s.  He started his career as a volunteer coach from 1976 to 1986.  He was hired as an Assistant Coach and eventually assumed the Head Coach position,  In 1997, under Coach Ginn’s leadership, the Glenville High School football team became co-champs for the East Senate League.  From 1997 to 2009, Coach Ginn led the Glenville Tarblooders to eight consecutive East Senate League wins.  In 1999, Glenville became the first Cleveland Municipal School to reach the State Playoffs and made 10 subsequent appearances from 2000 to 2010.  

With a strong Christian background and foundation instilled in him by his grandparents as a young boy growing up in Franklinton, Louisiana, Coach Ginn was instrumental in bringing the Fellow ship of Christian Athletes (FCA) to the Glenville High School Football Program.  He refers to FCA as the ‘playbook’ and places no time limits on fellowship.  “FCA is part of the glue that holds my program together.”
 

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SPEAKER_03:

Be a baller. Welcome to Be a Baller, where we discuss how to build a lifelong legacy. I'm your host, Coach Tim Brown. Today, I'll be talking about building a legacy in faith and sports with Cleveland Glenville High School football and track coach and founder of the Ginn Academy All-Boys High School in Cleveland. Before we get started, let's hear a word from our sponsor.

SPEAKER_01:

Good players win games. Great players break records. Legends change the game and share their fate. This is Ry DeRozio, Executive Director of the Central Ohio Fellowship of Christian Athletes, inviting you to attend the 24th annual Lunch with the Legends on Thursday, April 20th at Villa Milano. This year, we are excited to honor former OSU football legend, Executive Director of the Driven Foundation, Motivational and Corporate Speaker, Riverboard President, Roy Hall Join us in celebrating Roy's athletic success and his extraordinary passion to inspire people, athletes and coaches to be followers of Jesus Christ. The Legends Luncheon helps raise support that fuels FCA to serve coaches and athletes of Central Ohio. Get your Lunch with the Legends tickets today at centralohiofca.org slash events. Wellstone Tax Advisors is proud to support the Central Ohio FCA. Today on

SPEAKER_03:

our show, Coach Ginn is going to share his experience in building not just a football program legacy, but also saving the lives of young men who expose them to the word of God. He is known as the Good Shepherd, protecting children from the ills of society. Coach Ginn, welcome to Be A Baller podcast.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, it's going to be great. I've been looking forward to just sharing that we've been at this for about 30 years. We met at FCA camp.

SPEAKER_05:

Man, those were good times, man. Oh,

SPEAKER_03:

man, it was great. That's great. So, Coach, can you talk about growing up? You grew up in Franklin Town, Louisiana.

SPEAKER_05:

I was born in a town called Bogalusa, stayed in Frankenton. And then there was a suburb of Frankenton, which was a little town called Clifton. And that's where we stayed. You know, I was on the farm. You know, we... We grew everything and stuff like that. You know, we probably a little bit ahead of our time. I stayed with my grandparents. We were the first people to really have running water and not having a well that you had to go draw it. We had a little store that we had the neighborhood store and You know, we had the first, probably one of the first people to have a bathroom, you know, not just the outhouse, stuff like that. So I'm a country boy, you know. And Clifton, during segregation time, I land connected with another land of a guy that was a Ku Klux Klan, Mr. Benny King, you know. So I had all those experiences. Coming up in the South during segregation time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Talk a little bit about your grandparents.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Well, you know, everything that I do and everything that I stand for basically probably came from my grandmother. My grandmother, grandfather, we had our own church. So I was in church all the time. You know, I was a custodian. You know what I'm saying? So the church was Lear Hill. And that was the name of the church. And my grandmother was named Lear, not my immediate grandmother, but my great-great-grandmother. And the church just started on the back porch of our home. And then we built a church right next to our house and stuff like that. But my grandparents raised me till I was about 11 years old before I came to Cleveland. And my grandmother just told me all the core values of life. They was real strong Christians. Everything I did was a sin. You know, I came up through stuff like that. I was a little mischievous kid. Only child. And just, you know, all I knew was church, farming, and living on the land, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

Living on the land. Let's get stuck. And, you know, you are truly a Cleveland man through and through. How has Cleveland and particularly the Glenville community impacted your life?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, well, you know, everything that I'm doing in my life today came through Glenville. You know, I went to Glenville and, you know, back then you can just about pick your career through high school. So I was a machinist and I learned that at Glenville. I went in the industry. And once I, at 19, my mother died. So then my coach at Glenville made me come down to the field. At that time, you know, when we was children, we didn't, we did, we didn't have a question. We just obeyed. One day after I got back from bearing my mother in the South, in the South, Coach Hubbard said, come down here and show this boy how to snap the ball. You know, I didn't think they'd know it. So I went down and I was honored to do it. He said, okay, I'll see you tomorrow. I showed the boy how to snap the ball. And I say, okay. He said, I'll see you the next day. This is about the third day. So I said, now, why do you keep asking me to come down here, folks? You understand? But that was his way of keeping me close because I lost my mother, and I was the only child, and he wanted to make sure I didn't go astray. Then the third day, he told me, go down to the teacher, but I said, I want you to clean the bathroom up.

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_05:

I'm going, what's up with this dude? You know what I'm saying? But then after a while, I figured it out that, you know, that was his way of keeping me close and made me coach.

SPEAKER_03:

That's a great story. That's a great story.

SPEAKER_05:

No, I was just making sure that everything that I did at Glenville is what I do today. You know, I got my coaching job. I started a school. I got the football team. I got the track team. I work in the community. But it all came from Glenville.

SPEAKER_03:

I know you're a strong man of faith. How has your faith helped to guide you to your life purpose? Well,

SPEAKER_05:

I think that growing up in the South, you know, all I knew was church. And then all I knew was core values that my grandmother and my grandfather taught me. But you have to have faith to live in America. And so when you asked me that kind of question at this age, I know that we was all saved to serve. So my faith have to be in front because it's my responsibility just like it's yours. So I believe in what I do. I believe in it because God gave up his begotten sons so we all can live. And the light that he left into the gift that he left was the light, the light of service. So that's why I know my faith has to be where it's at because my job is to serve.

SPEAKER_03:

I know you've very much involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And you once said that FCA is not a program, it's a way of life. I know it's been a big part of your football program and just period. How has FCA's presence impacted the lives of young men through the years?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, I always felt that once I was introduced to it, I didn't even know this kind of thing was going on. And once I found out about it, you know, when I became the head football coach, I was going to FCA camp prior to that, but that was something that I had to implement into the program because the kids don't know why they're here. They just think that things that they do in life is based on their strength and they don't understand it's come from Christ. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, I still go back to that thing like what your grandmother said. They used to take the Bible and church and all that and scare the devil out of you. So I use the same concept to do that, but then make it relevant to their life and understand that you have to be thankful that you are here and that your gift, your talent don't come from you. It comes from God. And FCA was the glue that holds my program together. together even today. You know what I'm saying? And it's more needed today than it was yesterday.

SPEAKER_03:

You've received a lot of awards recently just through the years. But one, you were inducted to the FCA Hall of Champions. Can you describe that honor? How was that honor for you?

SPEAKER_05:

That was another honor that I'm going to hold close and dear to my heart. You know, it's all about Christ. It's all about serving. And that was an honor that can explain what my life about and I appreciate them choosing me but it really just shows that what I believe in and You know, I'm not really big on all these different honors, you know, but that one was real special to me.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, you mentioned earlier how you come full circle with the Glenville football program as a player. I understand you're a volunteer coach. That volunteer coaching turned into 10 years, you know, volunteering.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Well, I volunteered for 10 years and didn't get paid

SPEAKER_04:

from 76 to

SPEAKER_05:

86. And then it became... a way of life. I've seen the influence that I had over young people and understand that I could, the power of coaching and mentoring is to be able to change somebody's thoughts and lead them in the right direction. And then I saw how I could influence young people like that. And it just exploded in And that's just something that I really love to do.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I know you probably have had many opportunities, I'm sure, with that success at Glenville to take another job, so to speak. What is it about the Glenville community that keeps you at the bill? What is it about that tower of blood that keeps you there?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, well, we have a different mindset here at Glenville and we have a different mindset in our community. A lot of great people came through here way before me. And it's the mentality of the Glenville community. But the main thing is that I've had the opportunity to go other places, but my heart is not in anywhere else. My heart is here in Cleveland and the Glenville community because that's been the problem. I've never, ever coached trying to coach as a career. I coached as a purpose, and our purpose was here. It wasn't about the money. It's still not about the money because we don't make no money. You know what I'm saying? It's just being able to leave an impact in a community which is leaving an impact in the world and setting tables here to be able to give direction. I never coached for all this stuff that people coach for. I coach for a purpose. I don't coach as a career.

SPEAKER_03:

That's good. Can you talk a little bit about your bride? I know all the support she's given you throughout this journey.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, well, you know, one thing that I can say that no success for any man without having a good woman. My wife has endured a lot to to be with me, for me to serve and help other people. And she have to be a part of that. Might not have been her way of life, you know what I'm saying? But, you know, she stuck by me and she, you know, it could have been a different thing. You know what I'm saying? A lot of wives don't understand purpose, don't understand what you do as a man sometimes. But I was serving people, serving God and the sacrifices that she had to give, just like my children, my grandchildren. The sacrifice that they have to give for me to be who I am in this world of having a purpose of serving so many other people. You know, I can't really explain to you the words that I can tell you. You know, just thank God that he gave me

SPEAKER_03:

her. Yeah. And I like what you said about the fact that your wife understands the purpose, you know, and the sacrifices and your children as well. I think people don't realize the sacrifice that a coach makes, but also a sacrifice that the wife and the family makes, you know. There's a lot of time to win. There's a lot of time, you know. And it's great to have, like I said, the success of any man. You got to have a good woman with you, you know. Absolutely. No doubt about that. You know, as we talk about those influences, I know you mentioned Coach Hubbard and some other persons. Can you talk about some people that have had some influence on your coaching philosophy. What did you see about those guys as far as their philosophy of coaching?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, I think that being around coaching for a long time and watch how other people did, and I can go back to Coach Hubbard and people that I was around, it's things that I knew he wanted to do but couldn't do. And it was things that he'd done that he wasn't able to do because of the right staff. You know what I'm saying? The right purpose. And I just think that, you know, I saw those things. I saw things that I wasn't going to do. So my, the influence that I would have as a coach, I think most of my, when you talk about coaching, it probably was Matt Chinchar.

SPEAKER_04:

Hmm.

SPEAKER_05:

You know what I'm saying? That's coaching. And then the idea of Matt Chinchar believing in the philosophy of my purpose. So all that kind of influence, and that's just right next to me. We've been together. Everybody came and went, but Matt Chinchar and Frank Street have been with me forever. And I've had tons of people come and go, but it was just God that put this together. If you're talking about the X's and O's. I learned a lot from him. I learned a lot for organization and stuff like that from Matt. And then he's my friend. You know what I'm saying? But my philosophy has been my philosophy when it comes to football and how I play it and how I coach it. I still have that, but that just came within. But when you oversee the whole thing, I think with Matt Chinchar teaching me and showing me because he was an older coach. Before I was, he was a head coach before me. And this, my ideas, he helped me a lot to organize and learn football. And then I learned myself, you know, I taught myself. But other than that, I would think, It's

SPEAKER_03:

hard

SPEAKER_02:

for me not to say Matt. Right, that's good. Speaking of that,

SPEAKER_03:

what advice would you give to some of these young up-and-coming coaches? You know, times have changed. You've been doing it for four years of change. You know, the way of life has changed. What advice would you give to some up-and-coming coaches?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, try to find somebody. Try to find somebody that is It's season. You know what I'm saying? And there's nothing new under the sun in coaching. See, if they don't have a purpose or a philosophy of why they're coaching and they think it's all about a win or a loss, you're already in the wrong game, you know. I think that you have to have a philosophy and a purpose to coach to help children. And in today's time, you have to come up with a scheme. But the first scheme you better come up with, you don't have no– spiritual base. If God ain't in it, you can't win it. You know what I'm saying? So I would give you that advice first because it's so much that the young people are being exposed to that we weren't exposed to. That's one thing. The next thing is that they don't love the game. No kid today loves football like we did.

SPEAKER_03:

I say that with a game. You got to say that with a game. They don't love the game.

SPEAKER_05:

They don't love the game. You know what I'm saying? They just play the game. And they're just good enough just to play, you know. And you have to come up with a philosophy and a scheme to break that. So you got to fight all the time because everything is ATM. Everything is fast. I need it right now. And I don't want to put the work in. And I don't have to be disrespectful. I don't have to do none of that. So, you know, I just want to stay titled. I had 87 kids. Not one of them loved the game.

UNKNOWN:

Hmm.

SPEAKER_05:

Not one. They naturally think after game 10, they'll tell you they want to go 16 games. But they're 9 and they're stuck. They don't really want to do it.

SPEAKER_04:

Right. That's long season. That's long season. Get a little

SPEAKER_05:

cold out there. Yeah. And then you got groups of kids that are not playing. So you got to come up with something to keep them all together. So I used different scriptures and different things and did my own chapel and made it relevant. And that's how I made it through.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. That's a good word, Derek. That's a good word. You know, your commitment to young men on the football team, it feels legendary. Where did the idea come from about the pack of players in your car, Pierre Woods, taking around all these colleges for exposure? Where did that idea come from?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, it's studying the game. It's studying what was happening before I became a head coach. I never could understand why the colleges wouldn't come to us. So I said, it ain't got to come to me. I'm going to me to them. You know what I'm saying? So I would take my kids, put them in the car, and I drove Pierre Woods about 4,000 or 5,000 miles across the country and showcased him. So that's kind of how I started with the bus tour and, I mean, the band. That caused a problem in NCAA. You didn't know that, did you? You know, you go back to Sports Illustrated straight at Pierre on the front of the magazine. Cover magazine, yeah. And that story was about what they call the tear-gain rule now. They said that man up there in Ohio took that boy and said, I was breaking rules to go all over the country to get him exposure. And, you know, they had that rule in the NCAA that you couldn't really offer a kid when they come to camp because of what I'd You know what I'm saying? So I think they done changed that since then. Right, right. Yeah, it's just about exposure. Like you said, they won't come to

SPEAKER_03:

you.

SPEAKER_05:

But I'm going to go to them. Go to them. And then they came. Then they came with the bus tour, so. Right, the bus tour, yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

SPEAKER_03:

I remember you were coming. There was kids. I live here in Columbus, Ohio. There was kids. You was taking our potential Ohio State players on that bus. You

SPEAKER_05:

know? Absolutely. Give them exposure.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you said Yeah, well, right off the

SPEAKER_05:

top of my head, The one that didn't go to pros, I think about him. He went to Yale. Wow. And he graduated from Yale. Yeah. And he came here and he was, he was Jamaican type, whatever. Okay. So he played football with me, got a scholarship to Yale. So one day he was, he came home and, you know, Yale and Harvard, that's the rivalry, right? Right. So he came home. I was sick at the time. He came to my house and he said, he said, coach, I don't understand these players. You know, I said, what you talking about? He said, um, We was playing Harvard. The ball fell on the ground. The quarterback jumped back. I dove on the ball. I said, man, did you see the ball fumble? He said, yeah. He just jumped back. He said, go in the locker room. And I said, let's go. Let's go. And then I said, and he said, everybody just sit there and look at him like there's something wrong with him. You know? I said, let me tell you something, son. I said, you're not a Glenville. Those people that you sit next to, some of those people, they got money, got their face on money, you know what I'm saying, from whatever country they came from, you know. So I said, man, you're not at Glenville, you're at Yale. I said, some of those kids, their parents' face probably on money, they're not there for football. They're there to run the country, to do different things like

SPEAKER_04:

that.

SPEAKER_05:

Football. They're not, they're probably going to be president of the country country or whatever, whatever. They're going to run the United States. He said, oh, okay. But that's one kid. Now he's here back in Cleveland. He's doing a real big real estate thing. So that's one kid, you know, but it's tons of kids, man, that It just came through here that there wasn't football players. You know, I got kids. I had a kid who graduated from West Point, but he never played any football here, but I made him the captain. Right, right. Okay. He's the captain. I don't even play. I said, Coach, you got good leadership. Yeah, yeah. And he ended up going. I had to fight him to go to West Point, man. So all this stuff like that, stories like that, people said, well, how are you going to make this guy? He's not even a player. But he's a good leader. He went to West Point and graduated. Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

That's a story. You just won the state championship in football. First Cleveland City School to do that. First team to win that. Talk about the impact that that had on the community, on the Glenville, on the Cleveland city, schools, community?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, I'll tell you that right there, it had a real big impact, not so much just Glenville, but for the whole city of Cleveland. And a lot of the suburban areas and some of the private schools, you know, people are so proud of that, you know, because in a hundred years, somebody tried to do it. But it was really exciting for the city to have a parade. I didn't expect all that. I mean, they shut the whole city down, businesses, and we went down St. Clair. Like, we had just won the NBA basketball championship. It was big, man. We had a lot of support, man. You know, the mayor, everybody. And that's some history that's going to live forever here in Clair. You know,

SPEAKER_03:

it was pretty good. Yeah, so we talked about that legacy. You know, in 2007, you answered the call to open the Green Academy. Mm-hmm. All Boys High School. What was that? How did that come about? I know that's been your vision for a while.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, it came about for a lot of reasons. You know, it's the same thing I've seen in football. I was kind of in the school, in the basement of Glenville, just with my football team, just making sure they was eligible, making sure they get classes, make sure they come to school. So I was really charting the kids in attendance behavior and academics. So I was doing as a security guard in the basement and I had a principal that allowed me to get a couple of teachers just to coach I mean just to teach the kids football to make them come to school because I wanted to get Scott to make sure they were getting the right courses make sure they were getting the right core courses to do their work And I was so successful. I said, well, it's not fair for me to do this with them. And we got all these other kids here and boys that need to have the right understanding. So it was just studying, studying education. And I made my school based off of what I did on the football team. And what I did is the link between the house and the school. So that's what I call youth support. So I started reproducing my And I got like 15 guys like me. They got their cohort of kids and they do the same thing I was doing there. And I built an academy just like I built a football team. You know what I'm saying? And then we've been successful for 16 years and 98% graduation rate. And we go get them. You know what I'm saying? And we make them come to school. Matter of fact, I just sent home five of my best friends. kids in the school. And they're football players, but I didn't like their behavior. So, you know, you do certain things differently. We ain't suspending. We ain't writing referrals. We give you a timeout. And the timeout really in a normal school, you know, they probably wouldn't have did nothing. But I got to teach you, if you're a professional guy, these are the things you can't do. You know, so it's just giving the kids an life plan and getting the love and passion and understanding on how it goes and how you're going to live in corporate America and just building young men to be men.

SPEAKER_03:

So what are some of the life skills you and your staff are imparting to these young men outside of sports? Just what are some of those life skills?

SPEAKER_05:

It's teaching them how to be a man, teaching them how to be respectful, teaching them how to talk. how to carry themselves, all the core values that kids need to learn from home, which we know that the home is broken, the family is broken. So we teach them everything on how to live and how to survive and how to be respectful in the world and how to seize the opportunity for success, which if you don't expose them to nothing, they don't know nothing. We can teach them math, science, social studies, in English. Those are requirements. But the love, passion, understanding is something different. That's the curriculum here. You know what

SPEAKER_03:

I'm saying? As we begin to wrap up and turn the corner, it's been great catching up with you. This show is about being a baller and leaving a lifelong legacy. As you think about this, what is the legacy of Ted Gann Sr.?

SPEAKER_05:

That he was a servant. That he's going to serve. He's going to be obedient to the gift that God I love for us to serve and that means I did everything that I'm supposed to do as my part of being on this earth to give people opportunity to teach people to gain opportunities to serve, to have love and passion and understanding for people and putting them in position for life.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, Coach, I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for answering that call. I want you to and knowing your purpose, you know. And that is to serve, as you said. You've definitely been on that front line serving because a lot of people see this, they don't know where Glenville is. You know, me being from Cleveland, I know you practice on that little dirt field over there. I know exactly. And I know every year y'all had to come down the street to play us because y'all ain't got no field. That's right. Even we thought

SPEAKER_05:

it was rich people.

SPEAKER_03:

Right under that bridge. We'd be waiting on y'all. You know, we got y'all sometimes y'all got it sometimes, but just the things that you've done in that space, you know, you take it with God. The Bible says this, if you're faithful with a few things, it'll make you ruler over many. That's right. You have been faithful with a few things, and now God has elevated you to be ruler over many, you know. You know, you have your own school. When you talk about that basement, I met with you down in that basement. I know you was down there, down there chasing keys to

SPEAKER_04:

security.

SPEAKER_03:

Office. Oh, yeah, I know. Exactly. I know where you were. And now, now, now look at, look at, look, look at God. Look what God can do. If we just turn it over to him. So I just want to thank you for your time and I appreciate you and all that you're doing. So thanks coach for building that legacy. All right. This brings us to the end of this episode. Thanks to our special guest, Coach Ted Ginn of Cleveland's Linville High School for sharing his wisdom for many decades on how to build a football program based on faith. Thank you for joining us during this enlightening and informative discussion on building a legacy in sports. Hope this episode was beneficial to you. And as always, thanks for listening to Be A Baller

SPEAKER_00:

Podcast. If you enjoy our show, please share this podcast with your family and friends. Be A Baller Podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown. It was edited by Teron Howell and produced and recorded by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.