Older Coaches A Vanishing Breed Coaching Dinosaurs Have Become A Rare Sideline Sight

You could hear it, the pensive mood, the wistful thinking out loud. Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson was talking about this, his last season as a football coach.

“I’d like to coach to about 100, if I could live that long,” said the 78-year-old legend, who has coached the Division I-AA Tigers for 54 years and won 405 games.

Robinson’s forced retirement signals the beginning of the end of an era. As the millennium approaches, college football’s coaching codgers are becoming an endangered species. Of 112 Division I-A coaches, 76 are baby boomers (born after World War II.)

“College football is not for an old man,” said Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill, who is 53 and became a head coach at age 31. “It’s a game for a young person. I have a lot of respect for a coach like (Penn State’s) Joe Paterno. It’s not an easy job anymore.”

Ten Division I-A coaches are age 60 or older: Ohio State’s John Cooper, Colorado State’s Sonny Lubick, Nebraska’s Tom Osborne, West Virginia’s Don Nehlen, Southern California’s John Robinson, Virginia’s George Welsh, Brigham Young’s LaVell Edwards, Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, Iowa’s Hayden Fry and Penn State’s Paterno. They have combined to win 1,893 games and nine national championships.

“You’ve got to be successful,” Bowden said. “Losing kills you. And they don’t keep you around long if you’re not winning.”

Of those 10 coaches 60 or older, Iowa’s Fry has coached the most years: 35. That ranks eighth on the NCAA’s longevity list, which is topped by Amos Alonzo Stagg’s 57-year career. With Robinson’s retirement, that record is safe.

“I dare say we’ll never see another group like this, and I don’t think we’ll see that kind of longevity at one school,” said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association who coached at Baylor for 20 years. “The best programs are the ones with consistency in their coaching staffs. You don’t get that changing coaches every four years.”

Terry Donahue left UCLA in 1995 after 20 seasons as coach there. He’s now a college football analyst for CBS Sports. In terms of laid-back lifestyles, the two jobs are diametrically opposed.

“As a general rule, people have less patience; it’s a microwave society,” he said. “The role of a CEO or a head coach has changed. The ability to maintain continuity and consistency over a long period is more difficult.

“And people are more informed. Through talk shows, the Internet, there’s more information out there. It might not be accurate information, but it’s there. It’s something you have to deal with now that wasn’t there 20 years ago.

“There’s more money, and coaches have a tendency to move onward and upward. And there’s not as much patience at the administrative level. In Division I-A, football has a tremendous responsibility of paying for itself and paying for other programs.”

Paterno, whose team is ranked No.1, will turn 71 in December. Going into this season, he had participated as an assistant or head coach in more than half of Penn State’s 1,045 games. He has been the Nittany Lions’ head coach for 31 years and he realizes that questions about his retirement are inevitable.

“I think about it a lot because I get asked about it a lot,” Paterno said with a chuckle. “Contingent on my health and whether I’m doing a good job, I’m working on a five-year plan. Obviously if your health goes south, then you have to make accommodations.

“I don’t want to retire. I’ve seen too many people retire and that’s the end of it. They sit around, play golf, go to cocktail parties … that’s not me. I’d be too active.”

Bowden, 67, also is wary of retirement. He has said he wants to coach for another 10 years.

“You get to be my age, you start wondering if you’re dying,” he said. “My dad retired when he was 64 and he died two months later. Coach (Paul) Bryant retired and he was dead a month later. That’s why I don’t want to get out of it. As long as I’m feeling good, I want to keep doing it.

Osborne has the best winning percentage (.828) of active Division I-A coaches with a minimum of 10 years as a head coach, and Paterno has the most victories (289). Bowden’s Florida State teams have finished ranked in the top four an NCAA-record 10 consecutive seasons. That trio has coached a combined 86 years.

“Those guys are dinosaurs,” Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes said. “I don’t know how in the world they’ve survived that long. They’re master coaches. I guess that’s the best way of explaining it.”

Being a head coach these days involves much more than drawing plays on cocktail napkins or watching game films. From media interviews to coaches’ shows to fund-raising to recruiting to monitoring academics to dealing with discipline problems, most coaches find their time being divided among multiple tasks.

“It’s harder to coach now,” said Virginia’s Welsh, who is 64. “There are a lot more things off the field. Used to be coaches got out of this business in their mid-50s. Darrell Royal and Frank Broyles are two examples. Now, there aren’t any cushy administrative jobs. I’m coaching because I still like it and I don’t know what else to do.”

Paterno, Bowden and Osborne have validated their careers with national championships and all three have adapted to maintain their success.

“I have a lot more patience with kids,” Paterno said. “When I was young and aggressive - I was 39 years old when I first started head coaching - I had very little patience and a very difficult job realizing how different kids could be.”

One example of that is the “breakfast club.” Paterno breaks bread with his players during the week; the informal sessions have improved communication between the coaching staff and the players, he said.

Last season, Bowden gave up calling plays from the sidelines. Bowden said he turned over the play-calling to offensive coordinator Mark Richt because he realized that from the sidelines, he wasn’t able to see the field as well and was having trouble keeping up with the fast pace of the Seminoles’ shotgun, no-huddle attack.

And Osborne has made two significant adjustments. In the early 1980s, he started recruiting quarterbacks who were athletic to make his offense more dangerous. And a few years later, he switched to a 4-3 defensive scheme that emphasized speed. Both changes contributed significantly to Nebraska’s national championships in 1994 and 1995.

“I watch a lot of film and make a lot of phone calls asking people to send me film on certain things,” Osborne said. “I’m not proud. I’ll borrow from anybody. You’ve got to do whatever works.”

Paterno bristles when people ask if he’s getting too old. If he sticks with his five-year plan, he will probably pass Bryant’s 323 Division I-A coaching victories.

“I would hope (continuing coaching) would serve as an example to people who think they have to pack it in when they’re 65,” he said. “There’s nothing else I’d rather do.”