Johnny Majors
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Yes RIP JM, great guy as well coach. 1976 will live in our hearts forever! H2P!
Johnny Majors greatest moment in his coaching career.... Rest in Peace and thanks for the memories...
I can't blame him because it's his alma mater. And it begat the Sherrill era. But either Majors or Sherrill would have had an NC if they had stayed.
HAIL TO JOHNNY!
Great memory. Going from 1-10 to 12-0 and a National Championship is fairy tale stuff. And to tell you how good Matt Cavanaugh was, TD ran for over 200 yards in the NC game yet Cavanaugh was named the MVP.
RIP. Pitt will forever be grateful to him for resurrecting a dead program, winning our ninth national championship, and laying the foundation for one of the most dominant stretches in Pitt football history.
Rest In Peace Coach Majors
I was privileged to get to know him pretty well during, and after, his second stint at Pitt. He was a good man. He was an avid reader and amateur military historian. He knew a lot about things off the football field.
I am forever grateful that our relationship evolved to the point where he would call me, "Brother ..... " followed by my family name.
One of the things I most enjoyed talking to him about was his relationship with some of the greatest coaches the game has ever seen. We never discussed, other than a knowing nod, State Pen and GodPa. But he knew the giants from the middle of the last century and on. Pretty amazing.
I will never forget the one day tailgating before a Pitt game in 2005. There was a group of us and it included the also departed John Brown. We were discussing the Heisman Trophy that season. It was generally thought that it was Reggie Bush v Vince Young. Bush won and it has since been wiped away from history. I still believe Young should have won.
Anyway, I decided to play Devil's Advocate and mention that State Pen was having a terrific year and that QB Michael Robinson was having a good year and might be more important to his team than any of the others. This was before they lost to Big Blue.
I said, "If you take Michael Robinson off State Pen they are not undefeated". To which John Brown answers, "If you take Michael Robinson off Penn State they are all still assholes".
That got a good laugh from everyone, and especially Coach Majors.
I was privileged to get to know him pretty well during, and after, his second stint at Pitt. He was a good man. He was an avid reader and amateur military historian. He knew a lot about things off the football field.
I am forever grateful that our relationship evolved to the point where he would call me, "Brother ..... " followed by my family name.
One of the things I most enjoyed talking to him about was his relationship with some of the greatest coaches the game has ever seen. We never discussed, other than a knowing nod, State Pen and GodPa. But he knew the giants from the middle of the last century and on. Pretty amazing.
I will never forget the one day tailgating before a Pitt game in 2005. There was a group of us and it included the also departed John Brown. We were discussing the Heisman Trophy that season. It was generally thought that it was Reggie Bush v Vince Young. Bush won and it has since been wiped away from history. I still believe Young should have won.
Anyway, I decided to play Devil's Advocate and mention that State Pen was having a terrific year and that QB Michael Robinson was having a good year and might be more important to his team than any of the others. This was before they lost to Big Blue.
I said, "If you take Michael Robinson off State Pen they are not undefeated". To which John Brown answers, "If you take Michael Robinson off Penn State they are all still assholes".
That got a good laugh from everyone, and especially Coach Majors.
RIP Coach Majors.I just wished his second stint would been half as good as the first.He then would have restored the program twice.He should get some credit for the 1997 Liberty Bowl team.Mostly his players.
I can't find it and since he played and coached with I am interested. It is not on his twitter account.
A great guy who I watched win a title as a kid
as an adult he once walked with me at 3 Rivers (2000 season) as I went to my section... I remember telling him at the time how he had some great teams... he seemed to not want to focus on himself and replied “ Yeah but what do you think about this year?”.... I won’t forget it... a really genuine nice guy.
RIP Coach
as an adult he once walked with me at 3 Rivers (2000 season) as I went to my section... I remember telling him at the time how he had some great teams... he seemed to not want to focus on himself and replied “ Yeah but what do you think about this year?”.... I won’t forget it... a really genuine nice guy.
RIP Coach
Another short Coach Majors story.
At the Big East Tournament one year, during our peak Big East, I was walking around inside MSG and happened upon Coach. He was looking for his seat, up near the top of the 200 level.
One thing that always bothered me was the administration folks, and I don't mean people like the AD or Chancellor, scoring the best seats, or those big donors who get many many seats for Big East or now ACC and just sell the good seats and make those who can't give as much sit in crappy seats....I digress.
Well, I helped Coach find his seat, he was alone. And I told him I was going to get a drink and I would be back. I made my way down to Guy Smiley behind the bench and I told him that one of the underlings should give up their "free" seat so that Coach Majors, a man who brought us our greatest moment of the past 50 years would have a good seat.
Smiley did not enjoy that comment, I didn't care then and do not now. Then I went back up after I told them where Coach was sitting and I sat with Coach for that session.
I hate Smiley.
Another short one.
I was at a banquet and Coach Harris was the speaker. I had gotten to know Coach Harris pretty well too. I like him and still do.
Well, after the banquet I went and talked to Coach Harris and I told him that I would never try to tell him what to do with his team. But I also told him that I do know uniforms and that when we wore those God-awful solid blue pants that we looked like blueberries. Just terrible.
Three days later I ran into Coach Majors at the airport and he was heading to Auburn for a golf outing and I was heading to Germany. We chatted and talked about how we should switch planes because he loved war history and I also love Auburn.
I also told him about what I said to Coach Harris about the uniforms. He laughed and laughed. Coach Majors, along with Coach Sherrill he told me, had a big hand in designing the uniforms for 1973 and he loved that uniform, as do I.
At the Big East Tournament one year, during our peak Big East, I was walking around inside MSG and happened upon Coach. He was looking for his seat, up near the top of the 200 level.
One thing that always bothered me was the administration folks, and I don't mean people like the AD or Chancellor, scoring the best seats, or those big donors who get many many seats for Big East or now ACC and just sell the good seats and make those who can't give as much sit in crappy seats....I digress.
Well, I helped Coach find his seat, he was alone. And I told him I was going to get a drink and I would be back. I made my way down to Guy Smiley behind the bench and I told him that one of the underlings should give up their "free" seat so that Coach Majors, a man who brought us our greatest moment of the past 50 years would have a good seat.
Smiley did not enjoy that comment, I didn't care then and do not now. Then I went back up after I told them where Coach was sitting and I sat with Coach for that session.
I hate Smiley.
Another short one.
I was at a banquet and Coach Harris was the speaker. I had gotten to know Coach Harris pretty well too. I like him and still do.
Well, after the banquet I went and talked to Coach Harris and I told him that I would never try to tell him what to do with his team. But I also told him that I do know uniforms and that when we wore those God-awful solid blue pants that we looked like blueberries. Just terrible.
Three days later I ran into Coach Majors at the airport and he was heading to Auburn for a golf outing and I was heading to Germany. We chatted and talked about how we should switch planes because he loved war history and I also love Auburn.
I also told him about what I said to Coach Harris about the uniforms. He laughed and laughed. Coach Majors, along with Coach Sherrill he told me, had a big hand in designing the uniforms for 1973 and he loved that uniform, as do I.
There were a lot of things that could have happened. Your supposition being one of them.
My thought was to go down the east coast and grab FSU, South Carolina, Miami, Va Tech and to join them with Pitt, State Pen, WVU, Syracuse, Boston College and force Temple to take football seriously.
That's a pretty good conference.
VPI looks good on that list today, but in the 70's, and really anytime prior to the Big East, they were not good at all.
They won their first ever bowl game in 1986, and had only been to five bowls before that.
Very good question!
The biggest mistake that was made goes back to the founding of what is now the A10. Back then, the idea of any of the independents forming a conference was new. The idea became serious when the NCAA finally opened up the tournament to multiple teams from one conference. Pitt and Penn St. got on board early, as did WVU. Syracuse was resistant. At the time, Syracuse had recently become the big dog in the east (with Rutgers right behind them). Pitt, PS, and WVU should have basically forced Syracuse to be a part of this, using football as the lever. This was not a great period for Syracuse football, and there is no way they could have withstood the loss of their three biggest rivals from the schedule. Had Syracuse joined in, St. John's, and likely BC would have wanted to be included, and likely Providence as well. This would have become what the BE eventually did, and adding football would have been much easier with all of the key players already included.
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