Post by aggierattler on Oct 16, 2014 21:26:37 GMT -5
WARNING: This is a lengthy essay by Coach Joe, which he posted on his Facebook page.
Joe just celebrated his 74th birthday this month.
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THE (ONE) REASON WHY I WAS SUCCESSFUL, AS A HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, AT HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
I was the head football coach for 34 years at four HBCU institutions. I am forever indebted to these prominent colleges, especially Cheyney State University for hiring me as a young 31 year old head football coach with no previous head coaching experience in March of 1972.
Because of my tenure at these academically oriented institutions, the most prestigious and highest college football award was bestowed upon me: The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame honor in 2007, the same induction year as Bobby Bowden of Florida State University and Joe Paterno of Penn State University.
Also, I am extremely proud of several other achievements:
1. Winning five sequential National Black College Championships at Central State University (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990)...no other black college coach has won more than two sequential black college championships.
2.Winning two NAIA football championships (1990, 1992) Central State University is the only black college that has ever won an NAIA football championship.
3. The second winningest coach in black college football (Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University is first. He coached for 56 years) history.
4. Elected in 1995 as the President of the American Football Coaches Association.
5. Inducted into 10 other Halls of Fame: MEAC, Villanova University, Cheyney State University, Central State University, Famu, etc.
Obviously, my assistant football coaches, football players and a plethora of adjunct supporters were an integral part of my success.
And, of course, they deserve most of the credit for my achievements. I must say that it was a very fortuitous circumstance and coincidence for me to have such an outstanding support system as a college head football coach.
I had incredible athletic directors: Ed Lawrence at Cheyney State, Lu Wims at Central State and Ken Riley at FAMU.
"GREAT PRESIDENTS" was the reason why I was successful at these respective universities. It is imperative that the president is on board and supportive of your mission statement as the head football coach.
The president has the ability to make your football program a success, or a failure. In my opinion, there are a litany of presidents at historically black colleges and universities that have more authority and power than other presidents at historically white colleges and universities.
Therefore, they are able to assist you, more readily, with the building of your football program.
Certainly, it is essential that the head coach has an outstanding relationship with the president. A great relationship with the president gives the head football coach a feeling and conception of sovereignty with his team.
However, I have discovered that there are three additional common denominators that the presidents possessed that was the key to my success as a head football coach. The trifecta of commonality of the presidents are:
1. They were an alumnus of the college. As a result, they had an excruciating desire for their alma mater to achieve success on the gridiron.
2. They were an athlete at their respective university. This aspect afforded the presidents to be knowledgeable about the arduous profession of athletics on a college campus, and more sympathetic/empathetic to their athletic welfare. They had personally experienced the pitfalls, trials and tribulations of being a student athlete.
3. All of the presidents were male. I am definitely not chauvinistic. I am, foremost, a proponent of equal opportunity, justice, equality and fair wages for women.
I absolutely have no misogynistic tendencies towards females. This happenstance is probably just the luck of the draw. But later in this essay, I will state why it may be of significance.
Moreover, it is incumbent upon me, as a retired former football coach, to explain to you what each president provided me as their head football coach.
Dr. Wade Wilson, President of Cheyney State University and a great football player for his alma mater, in conjunction with being the head football coach, he assigned me as the assistant admission director and the assistant placement director.
With these two positions, I could recruit student athletes with the admissions office budget, and I could give student athletes Christmas, summer and permanent jobs after they graduated from Cheyney State University.
It was an ingenious idea by Dr. Wilson, because Cheyney State University was a Division III football program at that time (no scholarships, no recruiting budget).
Because of Dr. Wade Wilson's support, I was reluctant to leave Cheyney State to accept the much vaunted running back position with the Philadelphia Eagles that was offered to me.
Dr. Arthur Thomas, President of Central State University and a track and field star (hurdler) for his alma mater, took a quantum leap and assigned me to his cabinet as the athletic director.
I attended all presidential cabinet meetings. I was responsible for the entire athletic department (9 years) until my departure for the head football coach position at Florida A&M University.
It was Dr. Thomas who persistently and annoyed the governor of Ohio until the gov. relented and gave his permission to name a new State building on campus in my honor, the Billy Joe Athletic Facility.
Dr. Frederick Humphries, President and basketball star for his alma mater, immediately upon my arrival as his head football coach at Florida A&M University, told me that he would have an open door policy with me.
He said I was welcome to discuss any football issues with him in his office, or at his home. He firmly promised and convinced me that I would have his unswerving support of my football program. And he lived up to that conviction.
All of my football wants and needs were attended to by the president. As a matter of fact, I don't remember the president turning down a request that my athletic director, Ken Riley, made on my behalf to Pres. Humphries.
I do remember chills running up and down my spine when Pres. Humphries would recite the Rattler football anthem that he wrote, "when the dark clouds gather..." Wow!
These three aforementioned presidents were extremely successful and very popular on campus. When we were in disagreement, there were always signs of rapprochement. They are, arguably, the most successful presidents in the history of their respective colleges. Their achievements are seemingly unsurmountable and legendary on campus.
Conversely, my last couple of years at Florida A&M University was very controversial and tumultuous.
I was not a lame duck coach; I was a dead duck coach.
In retrospection, I should have resigned as a head football coach immediately after Pres. Fred Humphries resign as the president of Florida A&M University.
Dr. Humphries realized that the power structure on campus was being transferred to the chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, decided to usurp control of the college from the president and transfer it to the chairman of the board,
Jim Corbin. Corbin's plan for the football program led it down an unforgivable, uncharted and unbelievable road of athletic iniquity. It should have been deemed criminal!
Because the incoming cabal was my judge, jury and executioner. I had to be very circumspect about my position as the head football coach.
I had a new chairman on the Board of Trustees, Jim Corbin; and, four presidents during that time (Dr. Humphries, Dr. Lewis, Dr. Gainous and Dr. Bryant) and four athletic directors (Riley, Ramsey, Lee, Jackson).
The hiring and firing of presidents was analogous to a busy subway turnstile!
Some of those administrators were part of the problem; all of them should've been part of the solution. They all had their special design as to what the football program should look like at Famu, and it was growing exponentially; and it led to the football team's disenfranchisement.
Dr. Castell Bryant, the first female president (Interim) at Florida A&M University and Dr. Jackson, athletic director, sent the football program and me cascading into the black hole of the abyss.
Their tenure at Famu gave a euphoric feeling and smell of workplace flatulence.
Their unabated fervent and fanatical ideology on the campus precipitated their dismissal, and the cabal. She was the antithesis of a great football president; she was an aberration and an anomaly in the college football world.
After my departure, all of the members of the cabal were fired and the newly constructed Board of Trustees (minus Jim Corbin) hired a very astute Dr. James H. Ammons. He abruptly and intelligently reversed the dastardly decision to play Division I level football and returned the university to the MEAC.
The perfidious decision to be the first black college to play major college football on the division one level was certainly impetuous. I and copious numbers of football mavens advised the cabal not to migrate to the Division I NCAA football level.
Dr. Robert E. Lee, athletic director, informed me that winning the MEAC football championship was not important to Famu, anymore.
I was appalled and perplexed by that statement. I was cognizant, at that moment, that Famu's administration was avaricious and corrupt.
Winning a MEAC football championship is not a "walk in the park." My Famu football teams won the MEAC football championship five times within a seven year period (1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001).
We won more NCAA playoff games and earned more NCAA playoff berths than any black college football team in the history of the game. Still, that was not good enough...
The SWAC teams have never won an NCAA playoff game. And when they participated, they usually got embarrassed and "blown out." Thus, at this time, they have decided to divorce themselves from the NCAA playoffs.
To my knowledge, only one black college football team has won an FCS (Div. I AA) NCAA playoff football game since my last football season at Florida A&M University, 2004.
Lee said, he and the administration had already decided to leave the conference, and they had applied for NCAA division one level football. A bevy of Famu alumni believed the move was made to placate Jim Corbin, the president of the Board of Trustees.
That ignominious transformation of the football program is still wreaking havoc with the Rattlers, because I had to dismantle my best football team at Famu before the start of the football season in order to qualify for Division I level acceptance.
In order to mollify the cabal, we had to play such powerhouses as: University of Miami, University of Florida, Virginia Tech University, University of Illinois, Temple University, Tulane University, Florida International University, and others.
We played all of these universities on their campus when we were heavily outmanned and with minimal grant-and-aid scholarships; and we were hammered!
That is what can happen when there is total discombobulation within the confines of the president and his/ her administration.
Needless to say, I did not have a positive relationship with those presidents; and, they did not have the qualities I identified for a solid football president earlier in this piece. They did not possess the qualities that would help a head football coach achieve success.
Ironically, and currently, the three universities that I mentioned in this essay have a total of one victory, thus far.
Football programs are rather cyclical in nature, but it takes time for a football program to recover from abject blunders and miscalculations by an administration.
Cheyney State University's football record is 0-5. Central State University's football record is 1-4. Florida A&M University's football record is 0-5.
Incidentally, and amusingly, all of the presidents of these three universities with losing football records are females.
What does that mean...?
Please, let's not have a visceral reaction to that statement. After all, these female presidents are not missing blocks, missing tackles and throwing interceptions. There is an old football axiom, "failing to prepare - is preparing to fail."
George French, the president of Miles College, was not an athlete at Miles College. He was not an undergraduate of the Miles College Golden Bears. I did not have a warm and fuzzy relationship with him at this great and private religious college.
I was the Miles College head football coach for three years. The team was on NCAA probation and in total disarray, with minimal grant-and-aid scholarships (18 out of the maximum of 36), when I accepted the position.
Their administration had been making untoward decisions concerning the football program for decades! Miles College's present football record is 2-3.
In closing, without the support of the president, the football coach's opportunity for success drops precipitously; and, without question, it probably gives him suicidal ideation.
A disingenuous president, who is anti-football, will unequivocally sound the death knell of a college football program. A football president must have an intrepid zeal for the game.
He/she must realize that an outstanding football program is a worthy partner in the halls of academia.
Presidents at Historically Black Colleges and Universities must remember the old biblical verse when making decisions concerning their football programs, "never tire of doing what is right."
II Thessalonians 3:13
Written by: Billy Joe
Read more: meacfanszone.proboards.com/thread/26367/billy-joe-successful-hbcu-coach?page=1#ixzz3GMhEvyYr
Joe just celebrated his 74th birthday this month.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE (ONE) REASON WHY I WAS SUCCESSFUL, AS A HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, AT HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
I was the head football coach for 34 years at four HBCU institutions. I am forever indebted to these prominent colleges, especially Cheyney State University for hiring me as a young 31 year old head football coach with no previous head coaching experience in March of 1972.
Because of my tenure at these academically oriented institutions, the most prestigious and highest college football award was bestowed upon me: The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame honor in 2007, the same induction year as Bobby Bowden of Florida State University and Joe Paterno of Penn State University.
Also, I am extremely proud of several other achievements:
1. Winning five sequential National Black College Championships at Central State University (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990)...no other black college coach has won more than two sequential black college championships.
2.Winning two NAIA football championships (1990, 1992) Central State University is the only black college that has ever won an NAIA football championship.
3. The second winningest coach in black college football (Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University is first. He coached for 56 years) history.
4. Elected in 1995 as the President of the American Football Coaches Association.
5. Inducted into 10 other Halls of Fame: MEAC, Villanova University, Cheyney State University, Central State University, Famu, etc.
Obviously, my assistant football coaches, football players and a plethora of adjunct supporters were an integral part of my success.
And, of course, they deserve most of the credit for my achievements. I must say that it was a very fortuitous circumstance and coincidence for me to have such an outstanding support system as a college head football coach.
I had incredible athletic directors: Ed Lawrence at Cheyney State, Lu Wims at Central State and Ken Riley at FAMU.
"GREAT PRESIDENTS" was the reason why I was successful at these respective universities. It is imperative that the president is on board and supportive of your mission statement as the head football coach.
The president has the ability to make your football program a success, or a failure. In my opinion, there are a litany of presidents at historically black colleges and universities that have more authority and power than other presidents at historically white colleges and universities.
Therefore, they are able to assist you, more readily, with the building of your football program.
Certainly, it is essential that the head coach has an outstanding relationship with the president. A great relationship with the president gives the head football coach a feeling and conception of sovereignty with his team.
However, I have discovered that there are three additional common denominators that the presidents possessed that was the key to my success as a head football coach. The trifecta of commonality of the presidents are:
1. They were an alumnus of the college. As a result, they had an excruciating desire for their alma mater to achieve success on the gridiron.
2. They were an athlete at their respective university. This aspect afforded the presidents to be knowledgeable about the arduous profession of athletics on a college campus, and more sympathetic/empathetic to their athletic welfare. They had personally experienced the pitfalls, trials and tribulations of being a student athlete.
3. All of the presidents were male. I am definitely not chauvinistic. I am, foremost, a proponent of equal opportunity, justice, equality and fair wages for women.
I absolutely have no misogynistic tendencies towards females. This happenstance is probably just the luck of the draw. But later in this essay, I will state why it may be of significance.
Moreover, it is incumbent upon me, as a retired former football coach, to explain to you what each president provided me as their head football coach.
Dr. Wade Wilson, President of Cheyney State University and a great football player for his alma mater, in conjunction with being the head football coach, he assigned me as the assistant admission director and the assistant placement director.
With these two positions, I could recruit student athletes with the admissions office budget, and I could give student athletes Christmas, summer and permanent jobs after they graduated from Cheyney State University.
It was an ingenious idea by Dr. Wilson, because Cheyney State University was a Division III football program at that time (no scholarships, no recruiting budget).
Because of Dr. Wade Wilson's support, I was reluctant to leave Cheyney State to accept the much vaunted running back position with the Philadelphia Eagles that was offered to me.
Dr. Arthur Thomas, President of Central State University and a track and field star (hurdler) for his alma mater, took a quantum leap and assigned me to his cabinet as the athletic director.
I attended all presidential cabinet meetings. I was responsible for the entire athletic department (9 years) until my departure for the head football coach position at Florida A&M University.
It was Dr. Thomas who persistently and annoyed the governor of Ohio until the gov. relented and gave his permission to name a new State building on campus in my honor, the Billy Joe Athletic Facility.
Dr. Frederick Humphries, President and basketball star for his alma mater, immediately upon my arrival as his head football coach at Florida A&M University, told me that he would have an open door policy with me.
He said I was welcome to discuss any football issues with him in his office, or at his home. He firmly promised and convinced me that I would have his unswerving support of my football program. And he lived up to that conviction.
All of my football wants and needs were attended to by the president. As a matter of fact, I don't remember the president turning down a request that my athletic director, Ken Riley, made on my behalf to Pres. Humphries.
I do remember chills running up and down my spine when Pres. Humphries would recite the Rattler football anthem that he wrote, "when the dark clouds gather..." Wow!
These three aforementioned presidents were extremely successful and very popular on campus. When we were in disagreement, there were always signs of rapprochement. They are, arguably, the most successful presidents in the history of their respective colleges. Their achievements are seemingly unsurmountable and legendary on campus.
Conversely, my last couple of years at Florida A&M University was very controversial and tumultuous.
I was not a lame duck coach; I was a dead duck coach.
In retrospection, I should have resigned as a head football coach immediately after Pres. Fred Humphries resign as the president of Florida A&M University.
Dr. Humphries realized that the power structure on campus was being transferred to the chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, decided to usurp control of the college from the president and transfer it to the chairman of the board,
Jim Corbin. Corbin's plan for the football program led it down an unforgivable, uncharted and unbelievable road of athletic iniquity. It should have been deemed criminal!
Because the incoming cabal was my judge, jury and executioner. I had to be very circumspect about my position as the head football coach.
I had a new chairman on the Board of Trustees, Jim Corbin; and, four presidents during that time (Dr. Humphries, Dr. Lewis, Dr. Gainous and Dr. Bryant) and four athletic directors (Riley, Ramsey, Lee, Jackson).
The hiring and firing of presidents was analogous to a busy subway turnstile!
Some of those administrators were part of the problem; all of them should've been part of the solution. They all had their special design as to what the football program should look like at Famu, and it was growing exponentially; and it led to the football team's disenfranchisement.
Dr. Castell Bryant, the first female president (Interim) at Florida A&M University and Dr. Jackson, athletic director, sent the football program and me cascading into the black hole of the abyss.
Their tenure at Famu gave a euphoric feeling and smell of workplace flatulence.
Their unabated fervent and fanatical ideology on the campus precipitated their dismissal, and the cabal. She was the antithesis of a great football president; she was an aberration and an anomaly in the college football world.
After my departure, all of the members of the cabal were fired and the newly constructed Board of Trustees (minus Jim Corbin) hired a very astute Dr. James H. Ammons. He abruptly and intelligently reversed the dastardly decision to play Division I level football and returned the university to the MEAC.
The perfidious decision to be the first black college to play major college football on the division one level was certainly impetuous. I and copious numbers of football mavens advised the cabal not to migrate to the Division I NCAA football level.
Dr. Robert E. Lee, athletic director, informed me that winning the MEAC football championship was not important to Famu, anymore.
I was appalled and perplexed by that statement. I was cognizant, at that moment, that Famu's administration was avaricious and corrupt.
Winning a MEAC football championship is not a "walk in the park." My Famu football teams won the MEAC football championship five times within a seven year period (1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001).
We won more NCAA playoff games and earned more NCAA playoff berths than any black college football team in the history of the game. Still, that was not good enough...
The SWAC teams have never won an NCAA playoff game. And when they participated, they usually got embarrassed and "blown out." Thus, at this time, they have decided to divorce themselves from the NCAA playoffs.
To my knowledge, only one black college football team has won an FCS (Div. I AA) NCAA playoff football game since my last football season at Florida A&M University, 2004.
Lee said, he and the administration had already decided to leave the conference, and they had applied for NCAA division one level football. A bevy of Famu alumni believed the move was made to placate Jim Corbin, the president of the Board of Trustees.
That ignominious transformation of the football program is still wreaking havoc with the Rattlers, because I had to dismantle my best football team at Famu before the start of the football season in order to qualify for Division I level acceptance.
In order to mollify the cabal, we had to play such powerhouses as: University of Miami, University of Florida, Virginia Tech University, University of Illinois, Temple University, Tulane University, Florida International University, and others.
We played all of these universities on their campus when we were heavily outmanned and with minimal grant-and-aid scholarships; and we were hammered!
That is what can happen when there is total discombobulation within the confines of the president and his/ her administration.
Needless to say, I did not have a positive relationship with those presidents; and, they did not have the qualities I identified for a solid football president earlier in this piece. They did not possess the qualities that would help a head football coach achieve success.
Ironically, and currently, the three universities that I mentioned in this essay have a total of one victory, thus far.
Football programs are rather cyclical in nature, but it takes time for a football program to recover from abject blunders and miscalculations by an administration.
Cheyney State University's football record is 0-5. Central State University's football record is 1-4. Florida A&M University's football record is 0-5.
Incidentally, and amusingly, all of the presidents of these three universities with losing football records are females.
What does that mean...?
Please, let's not have a visceral reaction to that statement. After all, these female presidents are not missing blocks, missing tackles and throwing interceptions. There is an old football axiom, "failing to prepare - is preparing to fail."
George French, the president of Miles College, was not an athlete at Miles College. He was not an undergraduate of the Miles College Golden Bears. I did not have a warm and fuzzy relationship with him at this great and private religious college.
I was the Miles College head football coach for three years. The team was on NCAA probation and in total disarray, with minimal grant-and-aid scholarships (18 out of the maximum of 36), when I accepted the position.
Their administration had been making untoward decisions concerning the football program for decades! Miles College's present football record is 2-3.
In closing, without the support of the president, the football coach's opportunity for success drops precipitously; and, without question, it probably gives him suicidal ideation.
A disingenuous president, who is anti-football, will unequivocally sound the death knell of a college football program. A football president must have an intrepid zeal for the game.
He/she must realize that an outstanding football program is a worthy partner in the halls of academia.
Presidents at Historically Black Colleges and Universities must remember the old biblical verse when making decisions concerning their football programs, "never tire of doing what is right."
II Thessalonians 3:13
Written by: Billy Joe
Read more: meacfanszone.proboards.com/thread/26367/billy-joe-successful-hbcu-coach?page=1#ixzz3GMhEvyYr
