Coach Hill always wore a straw hat. He said that in Tennessee, men wear straw hats. Coach Hill’s hat was crushed in the back and had a large gaping hole in the top, “air conditioning for his bald spot” he said. One evening after a particularly embarrassing loss for the football team, Coach Hill angrily tossed his hat into a nearby trashcan at the stadium and marched off to the bus that would take us back to school. I walked over to the trashcan and removed the hat. I shoved it into the bottom of my equipment bag and walked towards the bus. Coach Hill was sitting, frowning, in the seat behind the bus driver. He looked odd and small without his hat. I stood for a moment and looked down at him. He looked up, perturbed. I dug the mangled hat from my bag and said, “You dropped this back there”. He took the hat from me, positioned it on his head and smiled.