Every Day is Mother's Day for Gloria Fisher

This story was originally published on Mother's Day 2019

After almost every series in every game, Jimbo Fisher greets his quarterback on the sideline with a question: What were you thinking?  It's an inquiry Kellen Mond has come to expect, forcing the Texas A&M quarterback to recount what he saw or thought he saw and explain why he did what he did.

"At the end of the day, it's about processing information," Fisher said. "Why did you do what you did? Even when it's right, tell me why you did it? If he knows why, he can repeat it when it shows itself again. If he doesn't, he can fix it, so he doesn't do it again. People think it's negative when you question him. It's not. To me, it's the ability to openly communicate."

Whether she's watching in the stands or from her home in West Virginia, Gloria Fisher smiles a knowing smile and nods a knowing nod every time she sees her son quiz his quarterback.

She did the same thing to her son back in the day. Heck, she still does it.

"I will ask him, 'Why didn't you do this? Or why didn't you do that?'" Gloria Fisher said, chuckling.

Gloria Fisher has spent a lifetime teaching. She taught chemistry and physics in West Virginia public schools for 51 years, retiring in 2011. Retirement lasted less than a year, and even today, at 82 years old, Gloria works as a permanent substitute at her sons' alma mater, Clarksburg Liberty High School.

Gloria teaches high school science students. Jimbo teaches college football players. There isn't much difference between the two.

"It surprises me when I hear him say things I say as a teacher," Gloria said. "Whenever I am teaching, and they give me an answer, my question is: 'Why? Why is it that?' Not just, 'It does this,' but 'Why does it do that?' I'm one of those who learns deep or I don't remember it. I've got to know why, what and how it works. I can't just memorize something and keep it. And he does the same thing to his football players. They'll do something on the field, and he'll ask them, 'Why did you do that? Explain to me why you did that.' I couldn't believe it the first time I saw it."

Jimbo, 53, credits his parents – Gloria and Big Jim, who died in 1994 at the age of 62 – with making the biggest impression on him. It's a sentiment shared by his younger brother, Bryan, who spent years as a high school football coach and served as the offensive coordinator for three seasons at Division II Fairmont State before becoming a cattle rancher.

"I understand my parents more now, the older I've gotten," Jimbo said. "I was around a lot of great coaches, but by far my greatest influences were my mother and my father. It's not even close. I mean, not even close. They could see through people.  They were very direct and to the point people. My father had an ability to lead people, and my mom had an ability to teach and explain. What is a coach? You're a teacher, and you're a leader.

"Everything – I mean EVERYTHING -- comes back to those two."

Gloria will get a phone call from her eldest son on Mother's Day, like she does almost every Sunday of the year. Bryan, who lives nearby, and some of the grandkids will take her out to dinner. She will have cards and gifts to open. Jimbo recently bought her a new Escalade, much to her chagrin.

Gloria doesn't want her sons to spend their money on her, dote on her or make a big deal out of her. Mother's Day or not.

"She doesn't want anything," Bryan said. "Both of our parents were like that. It's good to appreciate your mom on Mother's Day and all that, but it's every day for us."

Gloria grew up an only child in rural north-central West Virginia on a 20-acre farm. Her father worked at one of the many glass factories in the area.

She went to West Virginia University on a scholarship. Only 18 and still a freshman, Gloria was showing a horse in a ring at a fair when Big Jim Fisher, then 23, set eyes on her.

"I didn't really know him, but I knew some of his relatives," Gloria said. "He looked at his sister and he said, 'You see that girl on that horse? I'm going to marry her.' She laughed at him. I thought they were laughing at me when I looked up. After that, we started dating."

The couple married a year later, in January 1957, but not before Gloria made it clear to Big Jim how important her education was.

"We were talking before we got married, and I was at school, and he looked at me and he said, 'When we get married, you're going back with me. You're not going to stay here and go to school,'" Gloria remembered. "I looked at him, and I said, 'I don't remember anyone asking me to marry him.' And my proposal was, 'Well, you are, aren't you?'"

Gloria finished her bachelor's degree at nearby Fairmont State and later returned to West Virginia University to get her master's. Five years after Jimbo was born, Gloria gave Big Jim a choice: A sibling for Jimbo or a doctorate for her.

Jimbo and Bryan both call Gloria one of the most intelligent people they have ever met.

"She made one B in her life," Jimbo said.

Big Jim, who quit high school to join the Army, and Gloria attended all their sons' games, but both made it clear that school work came before ball. The boys were good enough students to become star athletes.

"She taught at my rival high school," said Jimbo, who earned all-state honors in football, basketball and baseball. "You could transfer if your parents taught there. I said, 'I'll go if I don't have to take her class.' I knew that wasn't going to happen. If I could make C's and D's on her stuff, I was really good in mine. I don't mean that as an insult. She was just very hard. She didn't cut anybody any slack."

While Big Jim was the disciplinarian in the family, Gloria would put her foot down every now and again. It took her longer to reach her boiling point, but once she did, that was the end of that. Gloria told her family that if she ever started crying, they best start running.

"If my dad drew the line in the sand, he might get over it in a couple of hours," Bryan said. "My mom was the one. If she drew the line in the sand, you still ain't crossed it. She had to be like that living with us three. I'm sure it was hard."

Jimbo inherited his mother's stature and her temperament. He talks almost as fast as Gloria does. Bryan looks more like his mother but has his father's height.

Both have her inquisitiveness, her toughness, her work ethic and her competitiveness.

"When we were all here, and dad was still living, she's the one that kept everything going," Bryan said. "Dad was working in the [coal] mine and working on the farm. We were going 18 different directions in sports. She was the thing that sort of kept everybody going and got us all going in the right direction. She was there for emotional support, too. Just tough. She had to be tough. Jimbo and I joke that we're tough, but she was probably the toughest one in the family."

Not much has changed.

Gloria still lives in the house in Glen Falls where she and Big Jim began their life together, though she has enlarged the 900-square-foot house the boys grew up in and added to the 300 acres they grew up on. She continues to make the house a home.

Gloria was and is the "backbone" of the Fisher family.

"She never wanted anything to make sure we had what we had," Jimbo said. "She's the most giving person I've ever been around, so selfless.

"She's the definition of what a mother is. She's supportive, smart, hard, tough, will fight for you on the end of it and give everything for her kids and family. Everything was about her kids and family. It still is."