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FSU’s Willie Taggart ponders first Father’s Day without his dad
FSU football coach Willie Taggart contemplates his first Father’s Day without his own beloved “Pops.”
TALLAHASSEE — FSU coach Willie Taggart quickly reached for one of his two iPhones, swiftly pressed the numbers of his passcode on the screen and played one of his favorite songs in his iTunes collection.
Taggart smiled and nodded his head several times before he hummed the lyrics to his favorite lines as Luther Vandross elegantly reached a crescendo through the first verse.
Taggart can’t help but softly sing the last few words of a particular line.
“I’d play a song that would never, ever end,” Taggart hummed while sitting at a round table in his Florida State office on Friday. “It’s a pretty cool song. Luther could sing now.” “Dance With My Father” has become a symbolic ballad for Taggart since his father, John, died in August at the age of 70 after battling cancer. Playing the tune is one of many coping mechanisms Taggart uses to deal with the loss.
During his introductory news conference at Florida State in December, Taggart said his father divinely put a word in for him to help him land the Seminoles job so he could move closer to his mother, Gloria, in Palmetto.
He also shared a story of his oldest son urging him to not let anyone or anything hinder him from pursuing his dreams — a message he often preaches to Willie Taggart Jr., 16; Jackson, 11; and daughter Morgan, who will turn 3 on June 25.
“It was like he was my father, talking to me,” Taggart said of his oldest son.
Today may be Taggart’s first Father’s Day without his father, who couldn’t see his dream of becoming FSU’s coach come true.
But he’ll be spending it with the children, who gave him the nudge needed to leave Oregon after just one season and turn his aspiration into reality at Florida State.
Taggart hopes it will be just another day, avoiding some painful emotions.
“I think about it all the time,” Taggart said as the holiday approached. “I don’t think it would be crazier than any other day because every day I think about him and every day I talk to him.
“Every day is Father’s Day for me, talking to him, looking up, giving him a little wink and telling him I appreciate him.”
John Taggart was the family jokester and life of the frequent family gatherings. He held numerous jobs, picking oranges, tomatoes and watermelons before landing a position with Darlene Shells, a wholesale retailer of sea shell products, for about 30 years.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, Willie Taggart’s mentor and friend, still has an ornament resting on a shelf in his house John gave him of shells arranged to sit around a table playing poker.
“My dad always worked and did what he needed to do to take care of the family,” Willie Taggart said. “We didn’t have much, but we had enough.”
Outside of work, friends and relatives often gathered at the Taggart household, where the FSU coach has vivid memories of his parents blaring music early on Saturday mornings while cleaning the house or preparing meals for the family.
John would often ad-lib his own melodies to songs playing while his five children were still asleep.
On Thursday nights, the day before football games when Taggart played quarterback at Bradenton Manatee High, several teammates visited to score a haircut from him. But they really came for his mother’s fried chicken or any meal she whipped up for them while enjoying his father’s witty nature.
While the Taggarts love bringing family and friends together, no one was exempt from some lighthearted ribbing from John.
His father at times reminded him of Fred Sanford, the popular “Sanford and Son’’ TV character portrayed by comedian Redd Foxx during the 1970s.
“Pops was a good ol’ dude — he was the show,” Taggart said.
When Taggart accepted the Oregon coaching job in 2017, he planned to have all of his family members attend the Ducks’ season opener.
He was three weeks away from seeing that plan come to fruition.
Taggart and his family visited his parents during a weekend trip before preseason camp in August, first meeting John at his job.
“He was pretty much Pops then. But you could see it in his eyes — he wasn’t the same,” Taggart said.
When the Taggart family gathered at their Palmetto home, John usually was fired up, eager to dance and socialize with his grandchildren.
This visit, however, John greeted the family and went back to his bedroom to rest.
“I remember telling my wife, [Taneshia], there’s something not right with my Pops,” Taggart said. “That’s just not like him.”
After returning to Oregon on Aug. 6, Taggart and his family flew across the country again three days later when John was admitted to Manatee Memorial Hospital in Bradenton.
While being transported to a Moffitt Cancer Center location in Tampa on Aug. 10, he passed away.
“Everything just went the opposite way,” Taggart said, his eyes becoming glossy while containing his emotion.
Before his father died, Taggart had one final chance to speak with him.
He listened intently as John reiterated a phrase he always told his son before they hung up after lighthearted discussions over the phone.
“He always said, ‘Make sure you take care of your family,’ and that’s something that’s always stuck with me,” Taggart said. “I always took that to heart because that’s what he did for us.”
Without John, Taggart’s mother and siblings still took their first trip to Oregon to see the Ducks dominate his coaching debut — a 77-21 win over Southern Utah on Sept. 2.
“He was excited about coming out to Oregon, and I was disappointed he didn’t get a chance to do that,” Taggart said of his father. “He helped me call some good plays that day.”
Taggart may be at peace with his father’s passing. But he desperately wishes he could give his father just one more phone call and hear his voice again.
When Taggart needs to, he reaches for his phone to find a video documentary NBC Sports Northwest created before last season that detailed his progression from childhood to major college football coach.
All Taggart has to do is rub his finger across the bottom of his phone screen to reach the final three minutes and hear his father compliment him with a hearty laugh.
It may not fill the void, but it does soothe the empty feeling.
“I brag a lot. I’m proud of him,” John says in the documentary.
Taggart may not have any extravagant plans for Father’s Day, outside of keeping a promise to take Morgan to the park and planning ahead for her third birthday party.
But he will surely think about his father.
And he might play a song that would never, ever end to celebrate the day.
“Every day is Father’s Day for me, talking to him, looking up, giving him a little wink and telling him I appreciate him.” — Florida State football coach Willie Taggart