There isn’t a specific time of day that Buzz Preston remembers, but he does every day.
In late July, just before Georgia Tech was preparing for the start of preseason camp, the Yellow Jackets’ wide receivers coach was in a bind far graver than a third-and-17 or a three-game losing streak.
“I’m just thankful because basically, I probably could have died,” Preston said.
Four months after being rushed to the hospital incoherent and suffering from a fever that eventually hit 105, Preston has regained his health. This will be a particularly meaningful Thanksgiving.
“We all need reminders,” Preston said, “because sometimes we let the noise of the world distract us from being centered on what’s important. I just take it as another opportunity to realize what I have, what I’m blessed with.”
Preston, 57, may need fewer reminders than most. Preston grew up the middle child of seven in southern California. His father owned a junkyard and his mother worked a night job, which enabled them to send their children to Catholic school. All earned college degrees.
A message he heard often, he said, was, “don’t ever think that you’re above somebody or a situation, and no job is too big or too small. And just give. Always be willing to give and support and just love people.”
They are lessons Preston has lived out in 33 years of coaching, all at the college level.
“Buzz is salt of the earth,” said offensive line coach Mike Sewak, who has known Preston since their days as assistants with Paul Johnson at Hawaii from 1987-93. “He’s the guy you want to have as your next-door neighbor.”
“He’s not only a position coach,” wide receiver Darren Waller said. “He’s somebody, I can go to his office and he’s worried about what you’re doing in class and what you’re doing off the field, social life, your well-being, your soul and everything. He’s more like a father-figure and somebody you can just really go talk to as a friend as well as a coach.”
Waller and the other receivers, in fact, came over to the Prestons’ Morningside home for dinner in July just as Preston was falling ill with what he thought was the flu. At about 3 in the morning, with her husband feverish, incoherent and staring blankly, Audrey Preston called 911. He was taken to Atlanta Medical Center.
In a few days, doctors diagnosed him with an E. coli infection, the result of a prostate biopsy taken the day before. But two terrifying days passed in intensive care, with Buzz awake and growing gradually more aware, but weakened and unable to communicate well.
“I know the scary part for me was when the doctors couldn’t figure out where the infection was or what bacteria it was,” Audrey said. “They couldn’t really identify anything at that point.”
Even after the diagnosis, doctors told Audrey that Buzz’s organs could shut down.
Said Audrey, “All these things they’re telling you, you’re just absorbing everything, you’re thinking what else can go wrong?”
In his bed, Preston relied on his Christian faith.
“I was just praying,” he said. “I kind of knew I would make it, but what would be the effects, I didn’t know, but I kind of had a feeling I would make it. But I was thankful.”
It was at once a test and demonstration of the strength of the Prestons’ bond. The Prestons, who met as student workers at the University of Hawaii library, have been married 27 years. Preston’s career has taken his family through 10 job changes and three firings. Between 2004 and 2008, when coach Paul Johnson hired him, Preston was part of a staff firing at Notre Dame in 2004, could not find a job for the 2005 season, was at Stanford for the 2006 season before that staff was fired, was hired at New Mexico in 2007 and then took the Tech job.
The Prestons have three children, including a 23-year-old son, Evan, who has non-verbal autism.
If anyone was made to coach and recruit wide receivers to an offense where 30 receptions is a big season, it might be Preston.
“Even when we hit the three-game skid (earlier this season), you just hang in there and you appreciate and you grow and you gain more inner strength and believe through those moments and try to help lead these young men through those moments and teach them in those moments,” he said. “Like, that’s what’s going to happen to you in life.”
After about 2 1/2 days, Preston was moved out of ICU to his own room. He was still having difficulty communicating, but his determination was evident. Nurses had to tie him to his bed because he kept getting up to move around.
He was released after a week and stayed home to recuperate as the team began preseason camp. His health appears entirely returned. The passing thoughts he has daily about his medical scare might make for a decent Thanksgiving meditation.
“You say, ‘Hey, you know what?’” Preston said. “’You’re blessed, you’re fortunate, so make sure you make today a good day.’”
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