Lucas at Large: Caring comes as no surprise with Mason
September 23, 2015 | Mike Lucas
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September 23, 2015
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com
MADISON, Wis. -- When Henry Mason heard from Lee Evans, he didn’t think there was anything suspicious about Evans coming to Madison for a football game and wanting to get together. For 12 seasons, Mason was Wisconsin’s wide receivers coach and Evans was one of the best receivers and players that Mason recruited, along with Chris Chambers -- the other half of the Bedford, Ohio, connection with Evans.
Last Friday, Evans met Mason at Camp Randall and got him to walk over to Heritage Hall. An unsuspecting Mason stepped into the trap -- a surprise party celebrating his 20th anniversary; two decades of service to the football program. It was a “gotcha” moment for the 59-year-old Mason, who was greeted by his wife Debbie, family (mom, brother, niece, cousins), friends and former UW players.
“They got me,” Mason said with a sigh. “They got me bad.”
And he loved every minute of it. And so did everyone who was there to honor him. That included the coach who hired him. “To hear the players speak to the experience that they had here and what Henry meant to them was special,” said UW athletics director Barry Alvarez, who admitted the biggest surprise was that Mason didn’t get wind of the tribute and was genuinely surprised.
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“Besides being a great person and someone who really related to the kids well, he was an outstanding coach and recruiter,” Alvarez said. “The kids trusted him. They knew that he cared about them and not just as football players. They felt very comfortable going to him with different things. He had a great relationship with a lot of players, and not just his receivers.”
When Mason looked around the room, he saw players that he had mentored. Most have aged well -- from Evans and Chambers (who got in town late because of a flight delay) to Jeff Mack, Mike Echols, Jonathan Orr, Johnny Sylvain, Brandon Williams and Brandon White, among so many others. And let’s not forget John Favret, a defensive end out of Cleveland. “First guy recruited,” Mason said.
As an assistant, he respected the game, and his players. And now they were returning the respect. “It was almost a tear-jerker because we feel like he has done so much for this university,” Chambers said. “He’s a real person; he tells it like it is. Everything is built on toughness and he knows how to get the guys to where they need to be; he knows how to push their buttons the right way.”
Chambers remembered his first meeting on campus with Mason. “When I came in as a freshman, he asked if I wanted to play defensive back or receiver,” he recalled. “I said, ‘I want to catch touchdowns.’ He said, ‘Then, you have to learn how block first.’ So I learned how to block and I was able to catch some touchdowns (16 TDs among his 127 career receptions). It worked out for me.”
As it did for Williams, who finished with a school-record 202 catches. “He was able to balance me out but not put my fire out,” said the receiver known as B-Will. “He was able to focus my energy in the right places. He never tried to stagnate my imagination and exuberance for the game. But he always kept it real. You always felt like he was doing it because he wanted you to be better as a man and as a player.”
That was, indeed, Mason’s goal as a coach and a teacher. “You wanted to be stern with them, but you wanted to be fair,” he said. “On one end, you’re the guy that they have to follow. On the other end, you want to be able to sit down and chew the fat with them and relate. They saw both sides -- the guy who’s the boss and the guy who’s teaching them how to work and have fun at the same time.”
As a recruiter, Mason had guidelines. “You really followed your gut on whether you thought the player could come in here and be successful, and not so much just on the field,” he said. “This is a different place, a special place. But it also takes a certain type of individual. Spending time with the kids and family, you’d get a better feel for whether they could make it here or not. Usually, they’d do well.”
Most of them are still doing well. “That was the biggest thing that I took from it (the reunion) -- how well they are all doing,” Mason said. “It’s real interesting, but the guys who put in the work and listened and took direction while they were here, they’re the ones who are doing really well right now. I was happy to see them and really proud of the fact that they’ve all taken care of their business.”
In July of 2007, Mason suffered a spinal cord injury that ended his career as a coach. For the last seven years, he has been working out of the football offices as the Director of Player Personnel and External Relations. It has been an all-encompassing assignment of working with NFL scouts, Big Ten officials, high school coaches, alums and a diversity group. “I do a lot of things that keep me busy,” Mason said.
Nobody appreciates his contributions more than Alvarez. “He understands what we’re all about,” he said of Mason and his thorough knowledge of the football program, the campus and the community. “Paul (Chryst) wants to use him more as a springboard, and in a lot of different ways to where we can get our current players to know him better and trust him like the older players did.”
Chryst definitely has a role in mind for Mason. “He can add so much to this program,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to work with Henry; I know what kind of coach he was. He was demanding but he cared tremendously about the players. He coached them off the field as much as on the field.
“He knows people, he knows players. He knows their competitiveness and how to help them grow.”
When Mason scanned the room Friday, he couldn’t help but smile, and laugh. “I was actually thinking, ‘There’s a lot of money in this group,” he said. “All the guys are doing really well, they’ve got decent jobs and families.”
Evans, 34, brought his 7-year-old son with him. “Looks fast,” said Mason, who still has a discerning eye and soft spot in his heart for all of his “kids” -- and now theirs, too.
