SALT LAKE CITY – Before Bruce Pearl cut down the nets in Nashville, he acknowledged two former Auburn basketball players: Charles Barkley, and the former walk-on who helped Barkley become a legend.
"Big Chuck, this one's for you buddy," Pearl said in his on-court interview seconds after Auburn beat Tennessee to win the SEC Tournament championship. "And all of those former players. Gary Godfrey, that's battling ALS. This one's for you, Gary."
Watching from his home in Auburn, Godfrey was stunned.
"I saw it live and I was just overwhelmed that he would be thinking of me during probably one of the best moments of his career," Godfrey said. "I was just overwhelmed that he talks about Charles and immediately goes to me.
"There might be a few other great basketball players in Auburn's history before me. He kind of went from one extreme to the other is the way I thought about it, but it was still very heartwarming, overwhelming and humbling all combined together. It was great."
Two days later, after Auburn's first practice in Utah, Pearl said you never know what you'll be asked or what's going to pop into your head in those spontaneous settings.
"But when I got to thinking about how much this means to me, it means so much to me because it means so much to so many others," he said. "And then you do get thinking about the lettermen, and the former players who are so excited that their basketball team is relevant and competitive. That's the reason we shout out for Gary."
'I'VE BEEN THROWN IN JAIL FOR LESS OFFENSES'
That Pearl linked Barkley and Godfrey was entirely appropriate. They both arrived at Auburn in the fall of 1981 and remain close nearly four decades later.
Godfrey chose Auburn University for the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.
At North Shore High School in North Palm Beach, Florida, he teamed up with future NBA standout Derek Harper to win a state championship in 1980.
"I was a decent basketball player in high school but I decided if I didn't go out for the team as a walk-on I would never know if I was good enough to play," Godfrey recalled. "Fortunately, I learned I was good enough to play, just not good enough to play."
In the 6-foot-7 Godfrey, Auburn basketball coach Sonny Smith saw the ideal sparring partner in practice for Barkley.
"What made him so valuable to me is he was the only guy who was extremely strong," Smith said. "I would have him guard Charles Barkley every day and push him around to get him to be more aggressive, and Gary did that all year."
"I didn't know anything about Charles," Godfrey said. "He looked to me like he was an ex-football player that Sonny picked up from football. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how special he was going to be.
"I couldn't compete with him athletically. When I showed up at Auburn, I was 190 pounds, I was lean. Charles was maybe pegging 280, maybe a little more, and I'm trying to guard him. I learned quickly that the only way I was going to be able to try to compete with him was to be physical, and try to bring physicality into it.
"He will tell people that I used to beat the you-know-what out of him every day. He told my wife one time, 'I've been thrown in jail for less offenses than what Gary did to me in practice.'
"My job was to make our guys work in practice. My job was to get them ready for the game. My job was to be physical with them because the SEC at that time was an extremely physical and bruising league. And I think Charles later on grew to appreciate that when he got to the NBA and realized that what the NBA was, was a lot less than what we used to do in practice, so it worked out okay."
In recognition of Godfrey's contribution, Smith eventually awarded Gary a scholarship.
"He was as much a part of our team as the guys who were scoring points because he had leadership and he kept the dressing room from getting divided," Smith said. "He had leadership skills that were noticeable all the time."
"It makes you feel like you belong and you've earned it," Godfrey said. "All of us walk-ons, we know we belong, but when you earn a scholarship it's a reward for all of the hard work and sweat, and also an acknowledgment that you're making a good contribution."
3 MILLION MILES
Like recent Auburn basketball walk-on scholarship recipients Patrick Keim and Will Macoy, Godfrey earned his degree in industrial engineering.
Godfrey's graduation date, March 1986, coincided with Auburn's Sweet 16 appearance in Houston after the Tigers defeated Arizona and St. John's in California.
"Sonny said, 'Gary, I know you're getting ready to graduate. I'll send you home if you want, but we're going to Houston and you can come to Houston with us, too,'" Godfrey said. "I said, 'I'm going to Houston. This is a lifetime experience. I'll forego walking graduation.'"
When the season ended, Godfrey returned to Texas, working in supply-chain and logistics for Frito-Lay for eight years. He then spent 25 years in management consulting, becoming a partner at Accenture, then at Ernst & Young.
Gary and his wife, Carol, a fellow Auburn industrial engineering grad, made their home in Atlanta.
"The consulting business is very challenging because you travel all the time," he said. "I earned 3 million miles on Delta, and have been to every continent but Antarctica."
On one of his weekly round-rip flights to Portland, Godfrey decided it was time to trade his laptop and spreadsheets for his high-tops. He retired, lost 75 pounds, and started playing hoops in an over-50 league.
"It was nice that I got a couple years off to be able to enjoy getting back, playing with some guys and having some fun, and I loved it. It was great.
"it was almost like God was saying to me, 'You need to quit what you're doing, get back in shape and do some things you haven't been able to do in a while, because I've got something bigger for you."
In January, at age 55, Gary was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
"Now, we're on a new journey, but it's still good."
'ALS DOESN'T HAVE ME'
In October, Godfrey teamed up once more with his old friend Charles, playing 18 holes in the Bruce, Barkley and Basketball Golf Classic. Five months later, Gary says he is unable to grip a golf club, or even a pen, in his right hand.
"It just ravages your body," he said. "There's other things that there are treatments and cures for. They're tough. But this is one that there is really no treatment and no cure for.
"In the early stages of this, it's hard, but it's not hard. This thing progresses. I'll lose the ability for my arms. I won't be able to walk. At some point, my voice and my ability to swallow will go. And then at some point, my breathing will require a ventilator to help me breathe. So right now, it's kind of a walk in the park.
"But, the way I look at it, God has a plan for me. It's probably a little different than what I envisioned. He's got a plan, but he's also got a purpose. He wants me to serve while I'm living with ALS.
"And I don't worry about what I used to be able to do. I celebrate what I can do. Being the engineer in me, I look for ways to work around it. How do I get around this? The scooter's a great thing to be able to do.
"I tell people all the time, I have ALS, but ALS doesn't have me. I've had a very, very blessed life. My wife is my rock. I'm worried it's tougher on her as the caregiver than it is on me."
Gary turned 56 on March 4, five days before serving as honorary captain during Auburn's 84-80 win vs. Tennessee. After the game, Pearl and Smith attended an event in Gary's honor at his fraternity.
"I'm just so indebted to them for doing that. That's the type of guys they are," Godfrey said. "Coach Pearl has been phenomenal to let me hang around the team because it rejuvenates me."
When the Tigers board the bus Saturday night for the trip to Vivint Smart Home Arena, Gary and Carol Godfrey will be in the front row at Tiger Walk at the team hotel. They were at Toomer's Corner Sunday when Auburn returned victorious from the SEC Tournament.
"It brought back so many great memories from '85 and '86 when we had such good success, both at the SEC and the NCAA," Godfrey said. "These young men, they're a great team that plays together. The coaches are great. It's very rejuvenating for me to be around them. I think it helps me. I really do."
On one side of the court, Bruce Pearl will be trying to coach the Tigers to the Sweet 16. On the other side, Sonny Smith will be analyzing the game on the Auburn Sports Network. Close by, Gary Godfrey will be cheering, willing the Tigers to victory, if he has his way.
"It's a terrible disease and he's fighting it like a champion," Pearl said. "He's fighting it like an Auburn man. He's fighting it like an engineer, trying to figure out, 'What can I do to live through this, to make the quality of not only my life but my wife's life better when I'm going through this process?' And just taking it one day at a time. I just wanted him to know that we were thinking about him."
Says Smith, the coach who saw in Godfrey the strength and unselfishness to bring out Barkley's best, "If he attacks it like he did basketball practice, knowing he wasn't going to play, he'll come as close to whipping it as anybody ever has in my estimation. He's special, he really is."
To learn more about ALS, and to help find a cure, visit: http://www.alsa.org/
"Gary, Gary, Gary!"
— Jeff Shearer (@jeff_shearer) March 23, 2019
🗣@AUJungle students chant in support of former @AuburnMBB letterman Gary Godfrey, who played for AU from 1981-86.
Honorary captain on March 9 for regular season finale vs. UT. pic.twitter.com/ATirbbyqqD
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer