If there is one person and one family who may be most emblematic of athletics in the state of Tennessee, it might be John Majors and the Majors family.
Johnny Majors’ football career has spanned over 60 years and continues today. In his 29-year head coaching career, he amassed a 185-137-10 record.
His playing career at Tennessee was so successful he was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987 as a player.
The Majors family of eight, originally from Lynchburg, 75 miles south of Nashville, is Tennessee’s first family of football. Father Shirley was a college and high school head coach for 28 years. His five boys all became star college football players, two of them All-Americans. They played at Tennessee, Florida State and Sewanee.
Just as great as their athletic accomplishments is their spirit and loyalty to faith, family and friends. They all have lived rich and full lives outside of football. The children, in order, are: John, Joe, Bill, Shirley Ann, Larry and Bob.
Johnny and his wife of many years Mary Lynn today live in east Tennessee near their two children. Johnny, 75, never seems to slow down, speaking, leading coaching clinics across the nation, supporting worthy charitable causes and continuing to be a dynamic and visible leader in athletics and beyond.
Majors calls his father Shirley “the real Coach Majors.” (5). He was head coach at small college power Sewanee from 1957-1977. Before that, after working for years as a farmer and barber, Shirley was head coach at Huntland High for eight years, until 1956. Shirley and wife Elizabeth and the family lived in Lynchburg until Johnny was 14, when the family moved to Huntland. Shirley was an outstanding athlete in his own right. The children would follow in his footsteps.
First, there is Johnny. Brother Joe went on to become a well-known lobbyist and leader in Nashville. Bill was a rising coaching star rise before his tragic death in a car accident in 1965.
In football, Joe starred as a QB at Florida State. Bill was a tailback at UT. Larry was a tailback at Sewanee. Bob was a two-time All-American at UT as a defensive back.
A synopsis of Majors’ career:
Assistant
1957-1959- Tennessee- Wyatt
1960-1963- Miss. St.- Wade/Davis
1964-1967- Arkansas- Broyles
Head Coach
1968-1972- Iowa St.- Big Eight
1973-1976- Pittsburgh- Independent
1977-1992- Tennessee- SEC
1993-1996- Pittsburgh- Big East
Majors four head coaching jobs spanned 29 years from 1968 to 1996.
In the first two, Iowa State (five years) and Pittsburgh (four years), he turned around the two programs, taking them from losing to winning programs.
In the second, at Pittsburgh, he engineered one of the most remarkable turnarounds ever in college football. In the nine years before Majors arrived, Pitt had an overall record of 22-68-2 and had not had one winning season. The Panthers, an independent program, had a difficult schedule with annual rivalries against the likes of Notre Dame, Penn State and West Virginia.
In Majors’ four years there, facing the same stiff competition, Pitt was 33-13 and appeared in three bowl games, culminating in the 1976 National Championship season and a 12-0 record. Majors had indeed arrived on the national football stage.
At Tennessee, he brought the vaunted Tennessee program back to national prominence. Playing in arguably the toughest conference in the nation, Majors’ Tennessee teams went to bowl games 11 out of 15 seasons and had only one season with a conference record below .500. In his final three seasons, his teams were 29-6 and appeared in three different BCS bowl games (before the actual establishment of the BCS.) His overall record at Tennessee was 116-62-8, a .65 winning percentage.
Majors’ coaching career reads like a virtual who’s who in college and pro football. He has coached with and mentored a host of coaches and leaders around the nation. Through it all, he has maintained a commitment to people and a passion for his work. In the midst of the pressure of being a leader, Majors keeps it all in perspective with deep friendships, camaraderie and humor.
As a player, Majors was a All-American tailback and runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. Majors was like a coach on the field, calling the plays and playing both ways (NCAA rules required players, not coaches, to call the plays.) That year, he led Tennessee to a 10-1 record and a Sugar Bowl appearance. It would be the Vols’ second-best winning percentage in the 38-year period from 1951 to 1989, when Majors led UT to an 11-1 Cotton Bowl season.
After playing one year of pro football in the CFL (Montreal), Majors immediately began his coaching career at Tennessee under Bowden Wyatt, his coach as a player for his last two seasons. During his three years as coach, Majors was the assistant freshman coach in charge of the backs.
Wyatt coached Tennessee for eight seasons (1958-1965) and was a protégé of Gen. Bob Neyland. Wyatt was a college coach for 16 years total. The three seasons Majors was at UT the Vols were 15-12-3.
At UT, Majors coached and recruited with the likes of Jim McDonald, Skeeter Bailey, Ralph Chancey and George Cafego, who worked with five UT coaches in his 30-year coaching career. Cafego is one of the great early Vol superstars, a Heisman finalist who played several years in the pros, interrupted by his service in World War II.
It was during this time that Majors met his wife Mary Lynn. They were married in 1959 and have now been together over 50 years. Mary Lynn has been the perfect coaches’ wife, always supportive and possessing a charismatic personality and quick wit.
Majors got to know and work with the great Gen. Bob Neyland while coaching at UT. While he did work directly under him, the General’s influence on Majors is unmistakable.
First, Majors played for Wyatt, one of Neyland’s many protégé’s. Then, as a coach for three years at UT, Majors was able to spend considerable time with Neyland, who was close to the football program in his retirement. Neyland would attend staff meetings and the like. Majors would often pick his brain for football principles and so forth.
A later coaching position, assistant for four years under the legendary Frank Broyles at Arkansas (1964-1967), just before becoming a head coach, had an unmistakable Neyland influence. Majors’ time under Broyles had a deep impact on Majors’ coaching style and philosophy.
Broyles’ three mentors had all played for Neyland at UT, and two of them had coached under him. Broyles played for and coached under Bobby Dodd (UT ’31) at Georgia Tech. He then coached under Bob Woodruff at Florida (UT ’39). He was hired at Arkansas by John Barnhill (UT ’28). Neyland, Broyles and Dodd are in the CF HOF.
Neyland’s influence on football in those days was widespread and vast. Neyland would transform the Tennessee program during his three different stints and 21 years as head coach. He served admirably in the U.S. Army during World War II from 1941 to 1945, missing five football seasons. In the 1960’s, there were more than 15 major college coaches around the nation who had played for Neyland at UT.
At Miss. St. from 1960-1963, from age 25 to 29, Majors coached under Wade Walker (later AD at Oklahoma) for three years and then Paul Davis in his final year there. Davis was HC at MSU from 1963 to 1966 and then later was DC and Asst. Head Coach at Auburn for 17 years under Shug Jordan, Doug Barfield and Pat Dye, from 1967 to 1990.
Majors was defensive backs coach for three years. In his final year, 1963, he was offensive play caller and offensive backs coach. That year, 1963, Miss. State was 7-2-2 and had one of its best seasons ever even until 1980. That year, with Johnny calling the offensive plays, the Bulldogs went to their fourth bowl in history and their only bowl between 1941 and 1974.
Majors also coached at State with Ken Donahue, who would later join Majors as DC at UT after being longtime Assistant Head Coach under Bear Bryant at Alabama.
Majors was definitely on the fast track. In terms of his coaching training, he learned from some of the best in the business. His next job, his last before becoming a head coach, was under a future Hall of Famer. He coached from 1964 to 1967 (age 29 to 33) under Frank Broyles at Arkansas.
Frank Broyles transformed the University of Arkansas football and is a legendary figure in Arkansas athletic history. He was head coach there from 1958-1976 and was Athletic Director from 1974 until his retirement in 2007.
Majors calls Broyles “one of the smartest men I’ve ever known in college football.” (100). Broyles was “a mover and a shaker, a man of great imagination.” (101). Majors coached with a group of men who would go on to remarkable careers.
For the first three of his four years there, Majors coached the defensive backs. In his final year, he coached the offensive backs and called the plays. The Razorbacks, in the Southwest Conference with the likes of Texas, Texas A&M, SMU, Baylor, etc, were 33-8-1 during Majors’ years there. One of Majors’ top players was Kenny Hatfield, who would later become a star coach at four schools, including Clemson and Arkansas.
A sad part of these years is that Johnny’s beloved middle brother, Bill, passed away tragically in a car-train accident on the way to work. Only 25, Bill was already a budding college coach. His left behind his wife Linnie and two sons.
Majors’ first head coaching job, at Iowa State in Ames, was a tough situation, to say the least. Majors coached there from 1968-1972, from age 33 to 37.
Majors faced an uphill climb at Iowa State for many reasons- perhaps the toughest conference in the nation (the Big Eight, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Okla. St., Kansas, etc), small budget, no tradition and more. But Majors’ teams improved steadily during those five years. Majors put Iowa State football on the map, appearing in the first bowl games in the history of the university. The team went 8-4 and 5-6-1 in his final two seasons, appearing in bowl games both years.
Majors’ staff was outstanding and included future superstar coaches Jackie Sherrill and Jimmy Johnson.
The staff included future coaching luminaries Hayden Fry, Doug Dickey, Bill Pace and Hootie Ingram. Fry and Dickey would go on to have Hall of Fame coaching careers (both were inducted in 2003.) Dickey was a successful head coach at Tennessee and Florida and was the AD at UT for the last seven years of Majors’ tenure there.
Ingram was a major college coach and AD for 40 years from 1956 to 1995, finishing his career as AD at Florida State and then Alabama.
Other assistants Majors worked with at Arkansas were Bill Pace, later OC for Majors at UT, Jim McKenzie, Merv Johnson, Barry Switzer and Jimmy Johnson.
Pitt was an uphill battle too- and Majors ended up on the mountaintop.
The Panthers had won only four games in the last two years and had not had a winning season in nine years. They were 22-68-1 during those nine years. Majors promptly had four straight winning seasons. He led them to three bowl games, with the 1973 team going to Pitt’s first bowl in 17 years. Returning Pitt to national prominence, Majors’ 1976 team won the National Championship, going 12-0, the school’s second consensus NC.
The decision to leave Pitt for Tennessee “was the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make.” (151). Majors’ family, and in some ways he himself, wanted to stay in Pittsburgh. But the dream of reviving his alma mater in his home state, the challenge of it all, was the clincher. Bill Battle at UT resigned during the 1976 season, and UT wanted Majors.
After the 1976 season, Majors was on top of the college football coaching world. Everyone at Pitt loved him- and still loved him many years later after he left Tennessee, so much so they hired him again the year he finished at UT in 1992. He would go on to serve at Pitt as head football coach for four years and then as one of the top athletic administrators from 1993 to his retirement in 2007.
His first speech, delivered at a basketball game, was memorable. In it, Majors coined the phrase “my blood runneth deep orange.”
The first few years were tough. Tennessee’s storied program had not had a winning conference record in four years. They faced some of the toughest competition in the nation, facing powerhouses like Alabama, Georgia and Florida every year.
Majors brought most of his Pitt staff to Knoxville. Some of the facilities were rundown, including the dorm.
The Vols were 9-12-1 in his first two seasons. Majors writes that “no group of players I have ever coached meant more to me” than the group from those years. They included Robert Shaw, Roland James, Brent Watson, Pert Jenkins, Dennis Wolfe, John Chavis, Jimmy Streater and Scot Farrar.
The 1979 season was Majors’ first UT bowl team. They finished 7-4 and appeared in the Bluebonnet Bowl. The season included three close losses to eventual national champion Alabama, Rutgers and Purdue in the bowl.
After a 5-6 season in 1980 and a slow start in 1981, a “gutsy bunch of players” went on to win eight games in ’81, appearing in the Garden State Bowl. The 1981 bowl team began a streak of seven bowl years in a row. Despite losing some key players in ‘81, players like Steve Alatorre, Willie Gault (NFL, Bears) and Fuad Reveiz helped the Vols finish 8-4.
The 1982 team appeared in the Peach Bowl (now Chick-fil-A) and finished with a 6-5-1 record. One of the highlights of the season was the Vols’ 35-28 win over Bryant and Alabama, beginning a four-game win streak over the Tide- and breaking an 11-game win streak the Tide had over the Vols. Well-known players like Reggie White, Alan Cockrell, Chuck Coleman, Gault and Reveiz led the team that year.
The next season, ’83, was the best yet. The team finished 9-3 and won the Citrus Bowl over Maryland. The squad had big victories over LSU and ‘Bama. Reggie White and Willie Gault were the leaders and went on to NFL stardom.
The 1984 season was solid, with a 7-4-1 record and Sun Bowl appearance. The stars were QB Tony Robinson, WR Tim McGee and RB Johnnie Jones. Majors knew he needed to improve the defense, so he brought in Ken Donahue from Alabama to bolster the defensive staff.
Majors now had an outstanding staff: Mel Foels, Ron Zook, Dick Bumpas on D; Walt Harris, Phil Fulmer, Doug Matthews, Kippy Brown and David Cutcliffe on O.
That 1985 season turned out to be magical. The Vols finished 9-1-2 and ranked 4th in the nation. Tennessee won big in the Sugar Bowl over Miami, 35-7. Some of the top players were Robinson, McGee, Darryl Dickey, LB Dale Jones and many more.
His coaching career is without a doubt a Hall of Fame career as well. He compiled a 185-137-10 record. Along the way he won three SEC Championships at Tennessee and a National Championship at Pittsburgh.
Majors coached NCAA football for 40 years at five different schools.
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