Lifetime Friendships Form on a Legacy Team (updated 2023)

Lifetime friendships are rare.

Having more than one makes you a rich person.

We all long for connection and a desire to be known – to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

Legacy teams

I’m not sure if you’ve ever enjoyed the experience of achieving something great with a group of people. But, when this happens consistently, you get what I call a legacy team.

One of the endearing aspects of a legacy team is that lifetime friendships form. These friendship roots go deep. Deep down in our hearts. So much so that after years pass and the team disbands, one day, you could end up eating at a restaurant and see a former teammate across the room—and because of the lifetime friendship that forms from being legacy teammates, you have deep mutual respect and love for that person.

Before my senior year at the University of Washington, the Pac-10 sports writers picked us to finish 5th in the league. However, with a band of brothers and a love for one another, we exceeded the writers’ and fans’ expectations and won the Pac-10 Conference Championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl.

How did we pull this off? We liked each other. We loved each other and were willing to sacrifice for one another.

Close encounter of the big kind

I was recently at the Orlando International Airport heading home from a trip. I spotted a former college teammate whom I hadn’t seen in fifteen years. We were a good distance across the concourse from each other. After making eye contact, we made a beeline toward each other and embraced. I felt my feet lifting off the ground as we hugged. He happens to be six feet, four inches tall, weighs 270 pounds, and is black. I’m six feet, three inches tall, weigh 175 pounds, and white, but all that didn’t matter. We were teammates at the University of Washington and legacy teammates at that. 

Our experience together on the gridiron created shared experiences, deep mutual respect, and enduring love for one another. Time hadn’t diminished those past experiences. On the contrary, they enhanced them because lifetime friendships form on a legacy team.

Action step

At Tom Flick Communications, I have had the privilege of helping countless organizations develop legacy teams. Teams with heart, deep mutual respect, a renewed sense of purpose, and a hunger to win. If you want to create legacy teams in your organization, please get in touch with me today.