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 ...
Tom Osborne (Nebraska head coach, 1973-97)
“One thing about traveling 20-30 years ago, it was a lot easier
to get a charter plane. That was before the NCAA placed restrictions
on private plane use. However, I can remember a bowl trip to Arizona
(Fiesta) in the early 1980s where we had a little airplane trouble.
I took a peek outside the window and noticed that the mountains
were getting rather close ... a few seconds later the pilot announced
over the intercom that the plane had lost an engine and was unable
to maintain altitude. Now that is not what you want to hear at 20,000
feet and falling. This was not a big plane and as far as I was concerned,
it needed every engine it had in working order. When we got to the
airport, the runway was lined with fire trucks and emergency personnel
and we were scared to death. Well, we landed and found out that
the situation was not nearly as dire as the pilot had implied. To
this day I have always felt that pilot could have worded things
just a little bit better to make us feel more assured that our life
was not in danger. He just did not have any common sense.”
Recruiting ...
Gene Stallings (Alabama head coach, 1990-96)
“I was trying to recruit this kid in Texas while I was at Texas
A&M, and this kid was kind of leaning toward Baylor, so I went
and spoke at his church service. I decided during that service I
would try to recruit this kid, so I would quote a little scripture
and then I would look at this kid. I would tell him how evil companions
corrupted good morals and what great kids we had at A&M. Then
I would quote a little more scripture and look at him again and
talk about how great A&M was academically. I was really trying
to recruit him while I was in the pulpit. After I finished, I sat
down and one of my assistant coaches leaned over and said, ‘Coach
you really did a great job and I think that we are going to get
him.’ Right away I’m looking for the recruit and here
he comes. He said, ‘Coach when you were talking I sort of had
a little vision and I have made up my mind, I want to tell you right
now where I want to go to school.’ I told him to wait right
here, don’t tell me yet ... let’s get your momma and daddy
and lets make this official. I got them all together and told the
kid to tell us what he had decided. He said, ‘I listened to
what you said and I have made up my mind. Coach, I want to go to
Baylor and become a preacher.’ So other than convince him to
sign with me, I convinced him to go to Baylor. I sent word to Baylor
that they owed me some money for the recruiting trip ...
First job ...
Lavell Edwards (BYU head coach, 1972-2000)
“My first job was at Granite High School in Salt Lake City,
Utah. It was August of 1954, and I had just gotten out of the military.
I was set to go back to Utah State were I had played and graduated.
The day before we were to begin, I ran into the basketball coach
at Utah State and he asked me what I was doing. He said that he
had just gotten a phone call from his brother-in-law at Granite
High School and he is looking for a football coach. Granite was
just about to start practice and they had lost their football coach
and would I be interested. I was 23 ... my wife was in Wyoming with
her parents and Utah State was in Logan, which is about 100 miles
north of Salt Lake City. The next morning I drove to Salt Lake City
... I met with the principal at 9 a.m. and he asked me to come back
around 11 a.m. to introduce me to the superintendent of the school.
Then they asked me to come back around 2 o’clock in the afternoon
and we visited and they offered me the job, just like that. We then
left the office and I did not know a soul at the school. Remember,
I was all set to go back to school at Utah State to get my masters
degree and work as a graduate assistant football coach, but they
took me out on the field and there dressed in uniform were about
35-40 football players ready to practice. So, I had a wife in Wyoming,
an apartment in Logan and I was in a place where I knew no one,
but I had the job and we had a game in two weeks. We won our first
two games and I thought I had all the answers.”
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