1975 Interview with Coach Vaught

[Colonel_Reb]

This is an interview with one of the best coaches ever in college football. He won 6 SEC titles between 1947 and 1963 with the Rebels. He coached at Ole Miss through 1970, Archie Manning's senior year, then came back and coached half of the 1973 season, then was the Athletic Director from mid 1973 until 1978. You guys tell me what you think about it. I think it is very interesting. This is an exerpt from the 1975 Ole Miss.



Interviewer: Do you think the institution of private schools in Mississippi has hurt the quality of athletes in the state?

Vaught: I don't think there's any doubt that the quality of athletes in the state has gone down. I'm not exactly sure what the reason is. I believe the Academy organization has taken away some from the competitive football we had in the past in public schools. I don't think there is any doubt about this. They are not getting the training and coaching in the academies that they're getting in the public schools.



Interviewer: The competition is . . .

Vaught: Not as Good.



Interviewer: What about blacks in Ole Miss athletics?

Vaught: Well, actually, I think we are most fortunate here to have the caliber of black athletes that we have. I didn't have much association with black athletes until I came back last year at the end of the season(1973). And we had four real fine blacks on the football team and they contributed a great deal. We still have those same four with us with a few others. They are all high caliber men and athletes who contribute greatly to our program.



What a change 30 years has made huh?

 

[sport historian]

I remember an interview with John Vaught in a Nashville newspaper around 1966. That year, the government was putting pressure on the SEC schools to integrate, or to show that they were making some effort to. Vaught was quoted as saying something like, "not good enough for the Rebs." About a year later, Vaught said that he was interested in a black quarterback named Bill Triplett, who went to Michigan State.


Triplett was well-publicized, but failed at Michigan State and was switched to WR. That same year, Archie Manning came to Ole Miss. I believe Triplett was rated much higher than Manning coming out of high school.


I would point out that Southern football coaches had no trouble using black players when they wererequired to do so, including Vaught himself. The black players who first came into the SEC tended to be well-behaved. I knew a man who knew someone at the Alabama athletic department. He said that they tried to recruit blacks from small towns who "didn't have big-city problems." Of course, this situation didn't last.


By the way, I was happy when my team, Tennessee, was the first SEC school to integrate. I figured it gave us an edge.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

No doubt that SEC coaches were happy to have them when they were allowed to do so. Johnny Vaught tried to recruit a black player in 1970, but he went to
another school instead. He retired after the 1970 season, and Billy Kinard the next coach, was able to sign two during the 1971 recruiting year. One of these was Ben Williams, a future all-SEC and all-American defensive lineman. He made the varsity 72 squad and the other guy who didn't played on the JV squad that year, which was coincidentally the first year freshmen were eligible for varsity play. The other guy and two 1972 recruits were on the 1973 squad, which Vaught coached the last half of the season.
That was the ONLY year Vaught had anything to do with coaching black players. He wasn't really required to use them, although he did inherit them from Kinard, who was losing big time. Vaught was AD from then until 1978 like I said earlier. I think Bear Bryant did more to really integrate the SEC. I don't think the coaches ever saw it as a requirement to have black players until 1973. They felt they could compete with the best. But when Bear made it ok, everyone else went with him.
The 1971 Rebels were Billy Kinard's first team, and the last all-white Ole Miss team. They went 10-2 and won the Peach Bowl. The 1972 team went 5-5 with no bowl for the first time since 1956. The 1973 team finished without going to a bowl as well. I believe the decline at Ole Miss football in the 1970's had more to do with the loss of white talent, as competition did drop off some with many private schools. The only problem is that many of the good private school players that there have been over the last 35 years have been totally ignored by Ole Miss and most other 1-A programs. As for Tennessee having an advantage with the first black SEC players, do you think it made much of a difference? It sure didn't in Jackson in 1969!

 

[sport historian]

If Tennessee had stayed all-white until 1972, they would have been a good team. A black linebacker we had, Jackie Walker, was really an amazing player at 180-85 pounds from 1969-71. The 1969 Jackson game was one of those off the wall games like when the Bears beat the Redskins 73-0 in the 1940 NFL Title Game.


Linebacker Steve Kiner, who playedin the NFL 1970-78, said something to the SEC Skywriters tour in 1969 that became a big thing. Kiner mentioned several teams who looked strong leaving out Ole Miss. A writer said, "Ole Miss has the horses this year, don't they?" Kiner answered , "You are mistaking horses for mules," or something like that. In Mississippi, they thought Kiner had called the Rebels "mules."


Tennessee came to Jackson ranked No 3 and with an Orange Bowl spot. Unfortunately, several players were hurt (including Kiner). Ole Miss was sky-high and could do no wrong in a stadium filled with Confederate flags. Tennessee lost the Orange Bowl bid, went to the Gator Bowl and lost to Florida.Doug Dickey, ironically, then went to Florida.


In 1964, blacks started going towhite schools in Tennessee for the first time. From 1964 to around 1970, there was a system called "Freedom of Choice." Blacks could go to white schools if they wanted to, or to all-black schools.Some black athletes went to the white schools in order to be noticed by college scouts. I suppose it was like this in the rest of the South.


From 1970, all-out school busing to "achieve a racial balance" began. Then, the all-black schools were closed, and the major high schools were integated.This development led to the SEC teams looking the way they do today.Iwonder how it would have been if "Freedom of Choice" had stayed. The social engineers wouldn't have it.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Your right about the "choice" plan sport historian. It was the same way in Mississippi and much of the South. The last schools to integrate in the Delta were at the beginning of the 1970-71 school year. I know of a couple of cases where the old black schools stayed, but got some white teachers and began vo-tech busing agreements with other schools so they would have some interaction with whites in a class setting. Your right, though, the social engineers would have no token integration, they had to force it down the throats of the South, as in many other cases.

 

[Quiet Speed]

Sport Historian,


I didn't know that about the mule comment from Steve Kiner. I remember that Ole Miss-Tennessee game (vaguely) as the "Archie You" game. I think that was the 1969 game? Reporters asked Steve Kiner about Archie Manning and he responded - "Archie Who". Well, after that game the phrase "Archie Who" became a big deal. There was even a song made - "The Ballad Of Archie Who". I wonder if Steve Kiner gets any royalties from that?

Edited by: Quiet Speed

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Quiet speed, Your right about the origin of Archie Who. Kiner did say the Rebs looked more like mules instead of ponies. Archie had 4 songs written about him, including one pathetic one done by some LSU fan in 1970 or 71, after he had finished his career and had went 2-1 against LSU.

 

[sport historian]

Yes, Kiner also said "Archie Who." I remember hearing of the song. So you had Steve Kiner calling Ole Miss players "mules" and Archie Manning, "Archie Who." Kiner was one of those "flakey white athletes of the 70's" as Don called them in a post a few months ago. When Kiner was drafted by Dallas in 1970, he asked to have a black roomate. The Cowboys gave him Duane Thomas to room with.


Kiner bounced around during the NFL during the early 70's. In 1973, he was with the New England Patriots. O.J. Simpson gained a then-record 250 yards in the season opener that year. Simpson got around 200 of those yards right over Kiner. In fact, Simpson gained nearly 500 yards in two games against NE that year, most against the side were Kiner was the LB. So in 1969, Steve Kiner inflamed Ole Miss to beat Tennessee in a crucial game. Four years later, he couldn't tackle O.J. Simpson, helping O.J. to run wild. Quite a record.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Wow, I didn't know all that about Kiner. Interesting stuff. I knew he wasn't great in the NFL because I never heard of him except from his UT days, but I didn't know he was a wash. Oh well, so it goes.

 

[Bronk]

Reb, I remember Kiner from his days with the Houston Oilers in the mid-1970s and though he was not great, he was still a damn fine LB in the NFL. From what I remember, hestarted with the Dallas Cowboys and developed a drug problem. Houston picked him up and he played for the Oilers from 1974-78.

 

[sport historian]

Yes, Kiner had drug problems. The Cowboys traded him to New England in 1971, they saw his drug habit and sent him to the Redskins in 1972. Kiner was on the Washington taxi squad during 1972. He then went back to New England in 1973 for a mediocre year as described above. The Patriots unloaded him and he went to Houston for his last chance. As Bronk says, Kiner played well for Bum Phillips.


I saw him play several times for Tennessee. As a college player, he made a lot of big plays causing turnovers. With Jack Reynolds, they made a great LB combination. He was something of a "counterculture athlete." Kiner is most-remembered for the "Archie Who" remark.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Speaking of Bum Phillips, was that guy something or what. Talk about a character! I wish there were more guys like him in the NFL now.

 

[speedster]

Bum Phillips had a great answer when asked if he was bothered by the fact that the Dallas Cowboys were known as America's Team.Bum,who was coaching Houston at the time,said that it was fine that the Cow were America's Team but his Oilers were Texas' team.

 

[Bronk]

Bum was one of a kind, a real Texan and a great coach. He cut his teeth in the high school ranks in Texas where you a lot in a hurry. Hecoached under Bill Yeoman, Hayden Fry and Bear Bryant. He was not some superficial stuffed shirt, he was a regular guy, the kind opf guy a lot of people these days spurn as "redneck."


The day Bud Adams fired him was the day I lost interest in the Houston Oilers.

 

[sport historian]

I remember reading that in the early 70's, that there were actually more Cowboy fans in Houston than there were Oiler fans. Bum Phillips changed that. He made the people in Houston (and around the country) care about the Oilers. Bum was a regular guy, but also gave the Houston Oilers class and dignity in his own way.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I don't remember him personally, but he seemed like a cool guy who everyone could relate to.