The Way It Used To Be
Football coaching legends share their experiences on the gridiron before laptops, charter jets and mega-million dollar facilities
by: Aaron S. Lee©
More from this issue
If there is one constant, it is that there are no constants.
Over time, everything changes and nothing remains quite the same.
Never is this more evident than in the profession of coaching football.
American Football Monthly recently sat down with a few of the game’s greatest
coaches for a peek inside the ever-changing world of football. From their first
job to their last, their first championship season to their first losing season,
AFM has captured it all – in their words. Men like Lee Corso, Barry Switzer
and Grant Teaff have provided
AFM with an exclusive journey down memory lane.
Maybe you can’t walk in their shoes, but perhaps you can at least try them
on. Over the course of the next few months,
AFM will feature several of these “firsts” in
each issue. So sit back and enjoy the game of football “the way it used
to be.”
Predictions ...
Lee Corso (Indiana, 1973-82, Louisville, 1969-72, ESPN Analyst)
“I’ve got lots of good stories ... however, my favorite would be
after I left coaching. A few years back, while on the set of ESPN’s College
GameDay, I picked before the season that Florida State would play Virginia Tech
for the national championship and it happened, which was like a miracle. Then
the next year, we went to Blacksburg, Va., to do a show and I picked Florida
State to play Kansas State, and the Virginia Tech crowd went crazy. Anyway, I
walked off the stage and lightning hit. I said, ‘Wow, what happened?’ And
they said lightning hit. I said, ‘No kidding, where?’ And they said
over there in the corner. I said, ‘What did it hit?’ Some guy told
me a car. I said, ‘You gotta be kidding, what color?’ He told me
the car was red. I said, ‘Lightning just hit my car!’
Well, I walked back on the stage and said, ‘I don’t know what a Hokie
is, but God is one of them ... Go Virginia Tech!’” – More from
Coach Corso in upcoming issues of AFM
Recruiting ...
Barry Switzer (Oklahoma, 1973-88)
“Boy, recruiting has certainly changed ... you have to go back to the early-1980s
to see the way it used to be in recruiting before the NCAA changed the rules.
“Back in 1975, we were recruiting several great running backs in Texas.
At the time it was a heated recruiting war with Baylor and Texas to sign them.
We really wanted Kenny King out of Clarendon. He was a jet. I knew he would be
a great player. But, Kenny wanted to sign the first thing of signing date. At
the time, we had the No. 1 player in the country on campus just before the signing
date, running back Billy Sims of Hooks, Texas. I knew that’s what Billy
would want to do, also. So, I thought I might have a problem. If I was in Hooks,
I might lose Kenny King to Texas A&M.
“What I did was persuade Billy to wait. I told him that he was the No.
1 player in the country, and if he waited for a couple of days after the signing
that he would be getting all of the publicity. He thought it was a great idea.
“When Billy left Norman that weekend, no one could find him. I knew where
he was. He went to Houston to stay with an aunt. Everyone thought that I persuaded
Billy to hide out. But I didn’t tell him to disappear. But, then again
I didn’t tell him not to.
“I left the day before the signing to go to Clarendon. I figured if no
one knew where Kenny King was, the better shot we would have of signing him.
What we did was find a little pool hall in Clarendon. We went out there with
his girlfriend and ate hamburgers and played pool all night. Then we got a couple
of rooms at the local motel and slept there for the night. No one knew where
we were. First thing in the morning, I followed Kenny over to his house and I
signed him to a letter of intent.
“After signing Kenny in Clarendon, I took a plane and flew to Tyler, Texas,
to look at a running back named George Cumby.
“Somebody tipped us off about George. He was playing in a private school
in Tyler (Gorman High School). I saw a film of him and I just couldn’t
believe what I was seeing. I thought he could be a great running back or linebacker.
I was really surprised that no other schools knew about him.
“George’s grandma and grandpa really didn’t want George to
come to Oklahoma. They thought it was too big for him. They wanted him to go
to an NAIA school. They thought he would have a lot better chance playing there.
“So there I was, trying to out-recruit an NAIA school. Finally I convinced
them if things didn’t work out for George at Oklahoma, he could always
transfer to that NAIA school.
“
Billy Sims, Kenny King and George Cumby became pretty good players at OU. You
know, you just don’t have recruiting stories like that anymore.” – More
from Coach Switzer in upcoming issues of AFM
Salaries ...
Grant Teaff (Baylor, 1972-92)
“My first job was $3,200 a year ... you talk to anyone of my generation
and they will tell you that is what we made. I got a raise the next year when
I went to McMurray College in Abilene, Texas, and became an assistant football
coach and the head track coach. I really only wanted to be the football coach,
but they asked if I would take the track coach opening, so I did. My wife and
I lived in a little dormitory – no rent, ate in the cafeteria, so no food
costs ... we lived like millionaires.
“You have to understand that when I came to Baylor in 1972, my salary was
$25,000. In fact, on an interesting note ... when I came to Baylor the problem
was not my salary; it was the salary of assistant coaches, which at the time
was $8,500. Remember this was a Division I-A school. So, I would not take the
job as head coach unless they paid each of my assistants $13,500, which they
did. If you are a head coach and you don’t fight for your assistants then
you won’t be a head coach for very long.” – More from Coach
Teaff in upcoming issues of AFM
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