Fat Little Girlfriends Cookbook II

Team Leach Forward

 

Yes, Team Leach is still here. We are a Facebook group that was started on December 30, 2009 in protest of Coach Mike Leach’s unfair termination by Texas Tech University. We have over 60,000 passionate members that come from every age group, ethnic group, occupation, and tax bracket. We continue to feel that Coach Leach’s firing was choreographed months before and enacted to massage the egos of a select few that hold the power at Tech, but do not necessarily have the best interests of the Red Raider Nation at heart. Yes, we all love Coach Leach’s achievements during his ten year tenure as Head Football coach at Tech, but are also all Texas Tech Red Raiders. We are disgusted that the covert concealment of facts pertinent to Coach’s firing were enacted by so few narcissistic individuals, but have smeared Tech’s esteem throughout the country. Their actions to eradicate Coach Leach’s name from Tech’s history spurred us to start a scholarship at Tech in Coach Leach’s name.

Over the past year, Team Leach has had several fund raisers to benefit this scholarship. Fat Little Girlfriends, Volume I was released a year ago and has been our biggest fundraiser to date. Even we could not have foreseen how successful its sales would be. So thanks to each of you that purchased Volume I and told your friends about it. Its success has encouraged us to continue our efforts with the publication of Fat Little Girlfriends, Volume II. Team Leach is proud to say that 100% of the proceeds of the sales of both cookbooks go toward funding this scholarship
Our scholarship fund has almost doubled over the past year. Our hopes are to eventually endow a scholarship at Tech. This past July, while Coach Leach was in Lubbock for a signing of his bestselling book Swing Your Sword, he awarded Keith Mauldin, our first recipient of the annual scholarship, a $10,000 check. Keith is a senior at Texas Tech majoring in Exercise and Sports Sciences and is truly an outstanding individual. In his scholarship entry essay he spoke of his admiration of Coach Leach.

“During his time at Texas Tech, Mike Leach displayed all of the characteristics I look for in a coach. His main focus for his athletes was clear. They were going to graduate, and he never hesitated to do what was necessary to get these athletes to go to class and do what they received their scholarships to do. In my mind, this should be the focus of all coaches. The reasoning behind that is easy to see. These kids are put on scholarship to get an education. That is the whole point of a scholarship, so that should be the most important aspect of their time here. Mike Leach knew that and made sure it happened. I admire that about him. His second focus was winning football games, which he definitely accomplished. It’s not often you see coaches that can pull off both of those things at the Division I level. However, what impressed me the most about Coach Leach was his ability to take players that are not the most talented, and make them compete at the most talented level. For Leach’s entire career, Tech was projected at a lower place in the Big 12 standings than where they finished. He was a master at exceeding expectations, and that has always been my goal. I came to Texas Tech to learn from Mike Leach, and although I did not learn from him directly, I did learn from the way he conducted himself and his program. He remains one of the best coaches in the country, and I still have hopes of learning from him one day.”
Needless to say, the admiration from Coach Leach and Team Leach toward Keith is mutual and we both congratulate him on his achievements and wish him the best of luck. He has a very bright future ahead of him.

We have received a lot of comments about the title Fat Little Girlfriends. After a disappointing loss to Texas A & M in the 2009 season, Coach Leach made a comment in the press conference that “as a team we were listening to ‘our fat little girlfriends’ telling us how good of a football team we were instead of doing what we needed to do to get ready for the game.” In the foreword of Volume I, Coach Leach went on to explain that while the term “fat little girlfriends” is a metaphor for relaxed, content and complacent comfort which is counterproductive to football, but is the mortar that binds family and friends together. The same goes for sharing a wonderful meal with family and friends. We thought it a perfect title for a cookbook filled with recipes of food and love, many handed down through generations.

Both cookbooks have truly been a labor of love by the members of Team Leach, many of whom have formed lifelong friendships. We hope to honor Coach Leach and the future recipients of the Mike Leach Scholarship by Team Leach by their publications. We also hope that you enjoy the recipes. We have over 100 more delicious recipes in this cookbook than in Volume I and after many requests, we have included a “Holiday Section” to help make your holidays as special as they should be.
And, as always…….Guns Up and Bon Appétit!

 

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Fat Little Girlfriends Cookbook II

Mike Leach Forward

It wasn’t that long ago that I was asked to write the foreward to the first Fat Little Girlfriends Cookbook. I thought it was a great honor and a nice gesture that a group of people would want to create a cookbook like this.

Then, the cookbook started making money, lots of money. In a short time, the cookbook made enough money for Team Leach to help fund a scholarship in my name. Team Leach is a Facebook Group designed to provide emotional support to my family and appreciation for my years at Texas Tech.

Many people have tried to make Team Leach go away over the last 20 months. But it’s still here. The Team Leach/Mike Leach Scholarship was awarded to its first recipient in July of 2011. It’s an honor that Keith Mauldin was given the opportunity to attend his senior year at Tech with a scholarship generated by Team Leach.

There are other ways Team Leach is raising money for the scholarship. Team Leach flags will be going on sale. The final flag design was approved by a great woman named Keri Kuczek. I first met Keri as she was recovering from a coma following a car accident. Keri was a Team Leach member who suffered severe head injuries in an October, 2010 car accident. The folks at Team Leach gave me her mother’s phone number while Keri was still in intensive care. We began a relationship with the family that I hold dear.

I didn’t have a chance to meet Keri in person until I went to Dallas to sign copies of my book Swing Your Sword. Keri and two members of her family came up from Killeen. Despite having a setback during the trip, Keri was determined to get to the store to see me. It was quite emotional.

The support I receive from Team Leach, members of the Tech community and football fans from across the country, is overwhelming. Although I love my radio show with Jack Arute every day on Sirius/XM, I do look forward to getting back into coaching. However, the effort by Team Leach will continue. Team Leach has brought an incredible number of people together and lasting friendships have developed.

I want to personally thank you for buying this cookbook. It is my hope you will buy several and give them to your friends. The Fat Little Girlfriends Cookbook is the driving force behind a scholarship that will allow students to complete their degree and start them on their way to becoming a coach.    - Mike Leach

 

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The Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship Foundation is an effort by a group of Texas Tech football fans to honor former Texas Tech Head Football Coach Mike Leach.

Leach left Texas Tech University December 30, 2009 after 10 years as head coach. During his tenure, he not only brought success on the football field for Texas Tech, he also established the highest football graduation rate for public universities in the country.

This group of fans, students and alumni are not rich by any means. They do not have the ability to write $50,000 checks on a whim. They do not have the wherewithal to watch football games in skyboxes and go to games to be seen or socialize while looking down at the crowd below.

The people setting up this scholarship get up every day and go to work and try to make ends meet in a down economy. They are the people sitting below who buy the tickets, and have been doing so for decades. But still, they give what they can to make The Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship a success.

We ask you to help us in this effort. Your contribution, no matter the size, will be greatly appreciated.

You can give online securely by clicking on this link. All Major credit cards, checking accounts, and Paypal are accepted.

Or you can send your contribution to:

Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship Foundation
#111
3440 Bell Ste. 320
Amarillo, TX 79109

As a pledge from Team Leach, your identity will not be shared. You will not get the constant drip, drip, drip of phone calls, marketing mailers or slick emails asking for more contributions. Please give when you can, as much as you can. That’s all we ask.

Thank you for visiting our site. We hope you will decide to honor Coach Leach and his work at Texas Tech by helping us establish a fund that will help students for decades to come.

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