I'd always wanted to be a coach since I was in the fifth grade and I can't tell you why
because there wasn't nobody in Back Bay, Mississippi, a coach for sure and I never
did change my mind. A lot of times at that age you change your mind a dozen times
and my first job was in a little place in Natchez, Mississippi called Jefferson
Military. It was probably the worst job in the country but anyway then I went to
Ocean Springs, Mississippi for four years and then I came to Salford which at that
time was an ideal place but I never did change my mind about doing something
else, you know, never not one time.
I guess the best thing is that football was important then and it stemmed
from the principal on down. It was very important and anytime anything's important
to the principal it becomes important to the teachers some kind of way, you know
what I mean? And yeah, Mr. Walker was, he knew the value of a good athletic
program strictly because of the discipline that they have. If they have
that discipline they take it to school with them, you know, they don't leave it
out on the field.
Talk about the great teams that you've had there.
We had quite a few good ones I'm not sure how great they were but they were pretty good.
We had a real good team in 68 when we got beat in the finals. In 64 when I was
an offensive line coach we got beat for the state in Baton Rouge and then in 65
we won the state over at Shreveport with Bradshaw. In 70 we got beat in the
semifinals over at Bogalufa on a bad call but in 74 was a real good team we
got beat on first downs. 76 we got beat on first downs. That's a bunch of first
downs. 79 was a pretty pretty good team but this bunch of men they had different
personalities. Some of them was a shade better on defense than the other ones but
they all played and laid it all out on the field. I don't remember in my stay
that I ever see a team that didn't lay it all out on the field for it and then
that's about if you can get that you got a lot. They didn't have a lot left so
there's a bunch of good ones in there. We had a bunch of all-staters in there. We
had Arthur Davis was a great player and went to LSU and Bill Thomason went and
started at LSU. We've had Jim Eladou went to LSU. We had more go to LSU than and I
was thinking of we had Mike Wright we had Philip Moses we had Doug Booty all of
them went to LSU and the thing that was good is they stayed and they played you
know and they graduated. That was the most important thing. We had Jim McKeever and
Lee Gibson went to Tulane along with Mike Walker who was a great player down
there and they all stayed at Tulane and they all graduated and we had to turn
them go to McNeese around I can't remember all of them right off hand. But
they all 98% of them 99% of them stayed you know and graduated. They weren't
gonna let the college practices run them off you know because I was as hard as
any college practice. Marine Corps teaches you a lot about dealing with with
people in there and they didn't give you a choice and then I went to Alabama my
first year too. Coaching and Coach Bryant was over there and watched them
practice and I just like the way they practice and the way they got things
done. It was full speed all the time wherever you was going running you know
there wasn't no walking and with a water bottle in your hand it wasn't nothing
like that it was it was in the football in the 50s and the 60s and that's kind
about how we patterned hours after.
He knew what buttons to push on people to get them motivated fired up and play.
I think people would have done most anything for him especially to win a
football game and that's what he talked to you that you never quit. I can give
him credit for me always working and not never quitting a job or anything. You
just didn't quit that was just something that he instilled in me.
It was an animal a little skinny looking thing that had that hair rolled up on top
to help bond and wore them glasses and I don't know where she got her brain from
but she was very intelligent about the ways of the world and I used to tell
him something I ain't rosy can play better than y'all. My Aunt Rose is sick and
she wants y'all to win a game or something like that but I think it was
overstated I don't know.
