North Carolina State University Athletics
Coaching With Passion
10/12/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 12, 2004
The NC State coaching staff boasts a combined 275 years of coaching experience among its ranks, as Chuck Amato has assembled a cabinet of great football minds to help him lead the Wolfpack. Dick Portee is the dean of the NC State coaches, as the 2004 campaign marks his 40th year in the business. You wouldn't know it from seeing the spring in his step and his endless encouragement to the Pack's stable of running backs.
Portee grew up in Decatur, Ill., where he and his two younger brothers were raised by their grandmother. After high school, Portee became the first person in his family to go to college. Playing football at Eastern Illinois, Portee graduated in 1965 with a degree in health and physical . He returned to Decatur to coach at his old high school.
"It was my hometown and I was just happy to have a job at that time," Portee said. "I didn't have any thoughts about spending the next 40 years in coaching. My goals were a little different then - make some money, keep a job and have something to do."
Four years later, Portee made the jump to college coaching when he took an assistant coaching position at Illinois State. It was not only a huge leap in his career, but it was a huge leap for the University. Portee was the first African-American hired in the entire athletic department.
"It was a great opportunity for me to get into college coaching," Portee said. "I didn't know much and had a lot to learn. I learned in a hurry about dealing with athletes, coaching and issues in society at that time. It was an eye-opening experience for me. I hung in there and was able to deal with a lot of situations that I was faced with as an African-American coach and one of the first African-American employees at that university."
A lot of things have changed in the coaching business over the course of Portee's career, but he says that the game itself is still the same.
"The game hasn't changed all that much to me," Portee said. "I think the emphasis on different aspects of the game has changed. The players are bigger, stronger and faster. Those things have changed. Technology has changed things. I've seen it go from 16 millimeter film, to video tape, to the computers doing a lot of the work for you. I try to stay up with it. Those things help you do your job more efficiently. I don't want to be categorized with the days of leather helmets, but things have changed a lot."
Other opportunities have come up for Portee along the way, but he's never seriously entertained any other line of work.
"Coaching is a passion for me," Portee explained. "People wonder how coaches like me can continue to do this for 35-40 years and I think it's just like anything else, you have to enjoy what you're doing. When I get up and I'm not excited about going to work, then that's when I'll get out of coaching. I don't think I'm ever going to get that feeling though, to be honest. The thing about being around young people is that it keeps your mind young. It's been a great endeavor. I've coached some awfully good young men and I hope all of them learned something, good or bad, from dealing with me, not just as a football coach, but as a person. You have to deal with all parts of it in coaching. That's what is so unique about college athletics. You have to coach each kid to be successful as a player, as a person and as a student. I don't ever want to fall short in any of those things."
Portee credits many people with helping him to get to where he is today, but especially points out three individuals above the rest.
"The most influential coach I've ever known is my high school coach, John Alexander," Portee said. "When he found out that I wanted to go to college, he put me in his car and drove me to Eastern Illinois University. He's the one who took me to school to meet the football coach and got me involved with the football program. He was the guy who got me started. After college he gave me my first job coaching at my high school. The second most influential coach I've ever known is Milt Weisbecker at Illinois State. He was the athletic director at Illinois State who hired me as an assistant football coach there. Milt got me involved with my very first college coaching job. I've worked for some very good people from there."
The third person is not a coach, but a girl who grew up in the same neighborhood as Portee.When he returned from college, she was graduating from high school and they started dating. Their fathers were friends who played on the same softball team and hung out together at the same bar every Friday and Saturday night. That person remains a big influence in his life.
"My wife Dorothy has been very supportive of me all the way along," Portee stated. "Since I married her in 1968, I've dragged her along the way through several moves and changes. Being a coach's wife is not real easy. When my kids were growing up, I wasn't there to help her raise them a lot of the time. Her support has been tremendous in me being successful as a coach."
A year-round commitment, coaching not only includes practices and games, but recruiting, scouting, counseling and much, much more.
"My favorite time of the year is when you stand on the football field and the team comes running out of the tunnel," Portee quipped. "I watch them coming out of the tunnel and the hair on the back of my neck stands up."
