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PAGE 20 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1982 Some shoes are hard to fill "It‘s a natural move to go to at this point," said Delahey at a press conference Tuesday after Director of Athletics Carl Totzke announced the coaching shuffie. ‘"‘We knew we couldn‘t afford at this point to hire an outside persoif to coach football, rather than go outside we felt it best to stay internally and hopefully add a fullâ€"time assistant coach for football next year. That way we‘d be building a fairly strong staff, so when the time comes for Bob (McKillop) sometime down the line to make a decision whether he wants to stay with football or hockey, we‘ll have the staff to competently step in if needs be." Throughout his career, Delahey‘s hallmarks have been optimism, patience and understanding. At least in the eyes of a novice reporter, who time and again marvelled at the man‘s congenialty and class under the most stressful situations. Not everyone can quickly find a silver lining following a 42â€"3 drubbing. Wally almost invariably could. But after a while, to say nothing of 25 years, the enthusiasm tends to wane, the losses get harder to take, introspection reigns supreme. ‘‘Sure you can look at a guy like Woody Hayes, or others like him, but generally as you get older, you just don‘t have the same intensity, the same drive as you did when you were young and energetic. It just isn‘t the same,"" he said. A 25â€"year veteran of football coaching wars, Delahey has been at the helm of the UW program for the past 14 autumns after four as assistant coach. During that time, Warriors have carved statistical guccess envied by none, but character and class aren‘t tallied in wonâ€"lost colâ€" umns. ‘*You have the choice to either run a service program or one committed to excellence. It‘s a philosophy we‘ve been wrestling with for several years. And now that other institutions, for example Gueiph, have committed themselves to excellence, it‘s time to do the same. If you want to compete, get in there all the way, if not, get the hell out." One individual who sympathizes with Delahey‘s plight over the years is WLU athletic director and head football coach Dave (Tuffy) Knight, king of the football factory that for years has dwarfed the UW program both in Later this fall, Wally Delahey will attempt to blow out 50 candles on his birthday cake. . It will be only one of several challenges confronting the former University of Waterloo head football coach. Yes, that‘s former. He stepped down officially Tuesday to allow himself more time to concentrate on his adminisâ€" trative duties as men‘s coâ€"ordinator of intercollegiate athletics in UW‘s expanding "Phase IH‘"‘ program. One, which in the next few years, will see significant facility/program expansion. The move to replace Delahey with Bob McKillop, 13â€"year veteran bench boss of the UW hockey Warriors, startled â€" few people closely in touch with the university scene. However long in the planning stages, it‘s a move that on the surface appears to benefit all affected parâ€" ties. ‘"‘My basic problem is, with my other duties, 1 just haven‘t had the time to go out and beat the bushes (recruit) like other institutions. Winning‘s becoming very important, and that means the name of the game is recruiting. Bob McKillop McKillop has a long string of successes in his coaching RICK CAMPBELL ‘"My family‘s happy, they‘ve always been my greatest fans, and the team‘s greatest fans, it‘s been tough on them,‘"‘ said Delahey. ‘‘They‘re up when I‘m up, but when I‘m down, they‘re down too, théy‘ve been through a lot." Meaning more losses than victories, more agony than ecstasy? Perhaps. But they‘ve also been privy to an outstanding example of humanity, who in all the matters of the universe that really count, stands then and now at the head of his class. A winner in every sense of the One huddle 100% behind Wally‘s newlyâ€"chosen path is the Delahey clan over on Chelford Cr., wife Pat, daughters Karen and Diane and 13â€"yearâ€"old twins Brian and Jill. In terms of highs and lows, Delahey points to the 1978 playoffs when his club rallied from a 23â€"3 halfâ€"time deficit to tie Laurier, only to lose on a fumble, as the high point between the hash marks. The low point was this past season, when performance fell far below expectaâ€" tions, leaving an aching feeling which even the easyâ€"going Delahey found hard to conceal. That too, to be truthful, accelerated the move to Tuesday‘s announceâ€" ment. ‘"After you‘ve been involved in something for 25 years, naturally getting out can cause pangs of consternation, but it‘s time to look ahead to other challenges in life. I‘m sure I‘ll miss the action, but it‘ll feel good to be able to sit up in the stands and secondâ€"guess everyone else... I‘m sure too there‘ll be the fears and trepidations, if the team‘s successful in the next few years, I‘ll probably wonder why the heck I didn‘t stay, but by virtue of the stance we‘ve now taken, the push to commitment, I‘ll feel I‘ve helped the scene regardless and will be able to take a little credit for any success that comes our way .‘ ‘I‘m not ashamed of anything I‘ve done over the years, in fact I‘m pretty damn proud of some of the individuals who have come out of our program," he said. ‘"Sure it‘s nice to win, but we‘ve had a lot of success with people, the way we‘ve helped develop individuals, and that‘s darn important, that‘s why I‘ve been in coaching. If you fail with people and their development, then you‘re a complete failure as a coach, but you tailk to a lot of our players, they‘ve learned, they‘ve gotten the experience, and just as important, they‘ve had a lot of fun." One of the challenges Delahey will not necessarily miss is how to occupy his time during the formerly stomachâ€"churning fall Saturday afternoons. ‘"He‘s worked under some tough circumstances up there, he didn‘t have a lot of fullâ€"time help, he‘s had to get along with partâ€"time people and to do that he‘s had to work extremely hard himself. He‘s certainly been a credit to the coaching profession, especially the football coaching profession in Canada and I hate to see him get out of it." Lest popular opinion involuntary write off Delahey‘s tenure as head coach at UW one of failure, the man himself is quick to come to his own defence. organizational structure and success. ‘"I‘m sorry to see Wally get out of the coaching profession," said Knight. "He was a very dedicated coach, and I feel an extremely hardâ€"working one too. Tufly‘s right, Wally. Hate to see you go.