Yep, just like Spurrier, who
grew up in
tennis-sea,
became the
Heisman QB and the eventual
head coach for the
Vols.
Really!? Any senior
Southerner who's paid attention to Southern-
football history ought to be aware of this SEC star player and head coach:
Johnny Majors, who was
born, "
grew up", and played his high-school football in
Tennessee. He starred as "
triple-threat tailback" for the
Vols (1953[?]--1956), meaning he also had a role as a
passer in the offense. But he
never played for Gen. Bob
Neyland, who was newly retired. So Majors played instead for 2 obscure head coaches, both U.T.-player-alums: Apparent-caretaker Harvey Robinson (1953--1954) and Bowden
Wyatt (1955--1962). He earned only enough votes toward the
Heisman Trophy to become that season's 1st runner-up (
1956)[†]. Which created a scandal unique in that trophy's history, because Heisman winner Paul Hornung was playing for a Notre Dame team that had a
losing record (2--8) that season!
Majors was hired as head football coach of long-laughable U.
Pittsburgh Panthers (1973--1976, 1993--1996), and led them to a
mythical national championship for their 1976 season (12--0). He was then happy to accept a new job:
head coach at his
alma mater U.
Tennessee (1977--1992). He is credited with 3 SEC football championships, altho' the
SEC stole 1½ of those
championships (1985, 1990) from U.F., and gave sole possession to U.T.; their 1989 championship might have been completely legit [×].
Yet another scandal was created when U.T. forced Majors to resign after he'd had heart surgery late in the 1992 season, to be replaced by U.T.-player-alum and long-time assistant Phi
llip "Great Pumpkin" Fu
lmer. Outsiders probably assumed that the resignation was only some kind of U.T. formality to allow Majors to focus his energy on fighting his way thro' recovery from the surgery. But other explanations exist, more in the nature of a conspiracy for Fu
lmer to usurp the head-coaching job (1992--2008)[‡][××].
-------
Note †: To nail down details (e.g., did he ever play for The General?): <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Majors> (insert disclaimer about risks of trusting
Wikipedia).
Note ‡: <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tennessee_Volunteers_head_football_coaches>.
Note ×: Readers should expect
not to see any mention on
Wikipedia pages about Tennessee of how U.T. pried loose those 1985 & 1990 SEC football titles, altho' the details were documented at the time, e.g., by
Gator Bait and presumably various Florida dailies. In
1990, U.F. was the SEC football
champ on the field (1st season for Head Ball Coach Spurrier, who is determined that U.F. not forget that team's accomplishment, in the final year of penalties left from the relatively minor infractions by Galen Hall), and U.T. was only the runner-up. In
1985, despite a tie between U.F. and U.T. for the SEC championship on the field, U.F. was disqualified by the SEC (with Vandy acting as the conference's academically respectable front during the on-going Pell Probation). In
1989, some other school won the SEC championship on the field; U.F. was only 7--5 (SEC 4--3).
Note ××: I'll leave it to honest U.T. insiders to argue the details of the Majors-Fulmer usurpation scandal. Don't know if all the facts have ever come out; Majors (b. 1935), Fu
lmer (b. 1950), and A.D. Doug Dickey (b. 1932) are still living.
