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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


The Way It Used to Be

College football coaching legends share their experiences on the gridiron before laptops, charter jets and mega-million dollar facilities.
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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 college 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 college 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 Eddie Robinson, Tom Osborne, Barry Switzer, Spike Dykes and Gene Stallings 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.”

Travel ...
Barry Switzer (Oklahoma head coach, 1973-88)

“Travel has changed tremendously ... the reason they call Southern Arkansas University the Muleriders is because the team would hop on wagons pulled by mules and the mules would take them over to the train station to get to the game. Back in the 30’s and 40’s teams used trains because they didn’t have interstate highways, charter buses, jet planes. When I played at the University of Arkansas in the 50s, we did not have jet airplanes. We would fly on DC-3s and put half the football team on one plane and half the team on another plane. A DC-3 is about the only thing that could get out of Fayetteville, Ark., anyway because the runways weren’t long enough for anything else. But that’s how we traveled.

First job ...
Eddie Robinson (Grambling State head coach, 1941-1997)

“I had only been married four months to my wife, Doris, and I had just recently graduated from Leland College in Baker, La., so I needed a job. I knew that I had wanted to be a football coach as soon as I was old enough to spell football. I visited the President of Grambling State University, Dr. Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, to talk about an opening for a head football coach position. I can remember visiting with Dr. Jones, who also happened to be Grambling’s baseball coach. Dr. Jones told me he was the best pitcher these parts had ever seen. I told him that I could hit any pitcher I faced. He said, ‘Let’s get a mitt and we’ll see.’ We went outside. His brief warm-up told me the man could throw. But I could hit. Suddenly I remembered it was a job I was after. I went down swinging on three straight pitches – and I got the job.”

Starting salary ...

John Gagliardi (St. John’s head coach, 1953-present)
“I was the only coach at Carroll College in Helena, Mont., but I didn’t mind. Actually, I kind of liked it that way. I was single and I loved it. I spent four years at Carroll College, but St. John’s University (Minn.) offered me $4,200 and I thought that it was so wonderful that I signed a lifetime contract.”

First raise ...
Tom Osborne (Nebraska head coach, 1973-97)
“I began my coaching career at Nebraska and never left. I started in 1962 as a graduate assistant under head coach Bob Devaney. He was an excellent coach that really put the Nebraska football program on the map. Before Devaney, the Cornhuskers had suffered through several losing seasons. After Devaney, Nebraska rarely lost more than two games a year. He was the one man who gave me the opportunity to coach. First as a graduate assistant, then an assistant coach (1966) and finally a head coach (1973). Most everything I know about coaching, I learned from him. However, I will never forget the day that I walked into his office and held my breath as I told him that I wanted $10,000 a year to be an assistant coach. That may not sound like much now, but at the time I thought that I was asking for the moon. Well, I got it.”

Next Month: Lavell Edwards, Gene Stallings






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