Tuesday afternoon, Mississippi State held a memorial service for Mike Leach, the MSU football coach who had died eight days earlier.

It was a moving ceremony, with 12 speakers who knew Leach well — former and current players and coaching colleagues all with intimate knowledge of the coach and influenced by him — sharing their favorite stories of the man known as “The Pirate” wherever college football is discussed.

If a word cloud graphic were made of the speakers’ comments, it would prominently feature the words innovator, intelligence, curiosity, authentic, unconventional, confident and generous.

Those who spoke represented only a small cross-section of people who knew him and had their own stories. His influence on football is felt not only throughout the college game but the NFL as well, where elements of his “Air Raid” offense have been widely adopted. As a coach, that will be his enduring legacy.

Yet during the service, it became apparent that his offense was a reflection of the man’s nature rather than his identity.

And ultimately, it is the man, not his creation, that fascinates us.

Most of us did not know Leach or, if we did, only through some brief interaction.

He was to most of us, a stranger, truth be told.

Yet many of us feel like we know him somehow, albeit as observers watching the games he coached or listening to interviews.

But we were drawn to him, somehow.

Why?

It may be because Mike Leach was relatable, approachable in a way major college football coaches seldom are.

Here in the U.S., major college football coaches take on the aura of Royalty. They are paid millions. They are important people. They are large in our presence and we are small. If we have the temerity to engage them it is with great deference. They are admired but also awed.

Leach defied that aura. Somehow, he was as easy to approach as your neighbor or the guy at the next barstool and like those encounters, the ensuing conversations came easily.

Leach was known for his sometimes quirky views and eclectic interests, his curiosity. There seemed to be no constraints on where a conversation with Leach might go or how long they might last, either.

No one would even imagine asking Alabama coach Nick Saban about his evaluations of different types of Halloween candy or which teams would win based solely on their mascots or ranking the breakfast foods. With Leach, those kinds of conversations were almost inevitable and came as easy as shooting the breeze with your friend.

As noted by the speakers Tuesday, Leach seemed to have no concept of time, which is probably why he was so generous with it. Anyone who fired his curiosity captured his attention, a mark of high intelligence since intelligent people are intrinsically curious.

We witnessed that in Leach’s fascination with the MSU campus. While other coaches view appearing across campus as an obligation —  a tedious but necessary part of the job — Leach, by contrast, appeared genuinely interested in campus life and whatever was going on at the moment.

In this respect, like so many aspects of his life, Leach was unconventional, and unconventional people aren’t soon forgotten.

That’s why Mike Leach won’t be quickly forgotten, either

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.