Paterno passes Eddie Robinson on career victories list; acknowledges impact of Jake Gaither (FAMU) and Coach Rob

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania -- If it's Joe Paterno's final season -- one spent mostly away from the field on game day, sitting high up in the press box -- fans might see a coach out of touch with his players. He doesn't stand on the sidelines. He doesn't wear headphones. He doesn't call plays.

But his staff -- particularly his son -- sees it differently.

"This might be one of the best jobs Joe's done of coaching, getting kids to buy into team-first, just win, the whole 9 yards," Penn State assistant Jay Paterno said. "Don't worry about personal accolades, personal statistics. Don't worry about playing time. Just (concentrate on) we're going to continue to win. We've got plain uniforms. This is vintage Joe Paterno. "And you know what, if it keeps working, why mess with it?"

Paterno picked up another honor, passing former Grambling State University coach Eddie Robinson by recording his 409th career victory and becoming the all-time victories leader in NCAA Division I football. Paterno held the distinction of winning more games than any coach in major college football before the season began, but Robinson's teams -- although not considered major -- went 408-165-15 from 1941 through 1997. Paterno's teams improved to 409-136-3 during his 46 seasons as a head coach.




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Gaither, Galimore Among Black College Football Hall of Fame Inductees

Former Black College football standouts Walter Payton and Jerry Rice and coaches Eddie Robinson and Jake Gaither are among the 11-member inaugural induction class of the Black College Football Hall of Fame. The Black College Hall of Fame, established last year by former quarterbacks James Harris and Doug Williams to honor the greatest players and coaches from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), will honor the inaugural class at its first enshirement ceremony Feb. 20, 2010 in Atlanta. The class of eight players, two coaches and one contributor was selected from a field of 260 nominees and 35 finalists.

Payton played at Jackson State from 1971-74 and later finished his pro career as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher. Payton is already a member of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. Rice had an All-American career at Mississippi Valley State and went on to set several receiving records in the NFL. Rice is also a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and a finalist for this year’s Pro Football induction class.


Chicago Bears RB Willie Galimore (Florida A&M Rattlers)

Robinson spent 56 years as the coach at Grambling State University, winning 405 games and nine Black College championships while sending more than 80 players to the NFL and AFL. The award presented annually to the top coach in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) is named in his honor. Gaither won 203 games and six Black College titles during his 25 seasons at Florida A&M. Gaither was famous for saying he wanted his players ‘agile, mobile and hostile.’

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From: http://www.blackcollegefootballhof.org/

WILLIE GALIMORE
Willie “Gallopin’ Gal” Galimore, as a running back at Florida A&M University from 1953 to 1956, was all-Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference choice four times and was named a Black College All-America by the Pittsburgh Courier three times. The Rattlers won four conference championships while Galimore was at FAMU and one Black College National Championship. He played for the Chicago Bears from 1957 to 1963, before passing away tragically at the age of 29 in an auto accident in Rensselaer, Indiana, on July 27, 1964. As FAMU’s all-time leading rusher, Galimore averaged 94 yards per game and was the Rattler’s first 1,000-yard runner (1,203 yards in 1954).



JAKE GAITHER
Coach Alonzo “Jake” Gaither spent 24 years at Florida A&M University, from 1945 to 1969, amassing an astonishing record of 203-36-4. His teams won 18 Conference Championships and were Black College National Champions six times. In a 10-year streak, from 1953 to 1962, his teams went 87-7-1. His “split line T” offense was adopted by several major college programs, and he retired in 1969 with a .844 winning percentage, the best ever among all NCAA coaches. In 1975 he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

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Florida A&M Coach Has Faith in His Rebuilding Program

Tallahassee, FL — When Joe Taylor took over as the football coach at Florida A&M, barely a month after the Rattlers lost six of their last seven games to finish 3-8 in 2007, he summoned every returning player for an individual conference. In each session, he asked the same question: why did things happen the way they did last season? And each player pointed the finger at someone else. Not one acknowledged any role. “There was a whole lot of what I call deflecting,” Taylor, 59, said in recent interview.

Coach Joe Taylor stands next to the statue of legendary Rattlers Coach Alonzo S. "Jake" Gaither on the campus of Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL.

Taylor said that he realized that the job facing him was more than returning Florida A&M to its customary success. He had to oversee a character makeover, which for him meant a regimen of churchgoing, class work and off-season training. As he said, “My whole idea is that if you can improve the person, you can improve the player.” Less than two years later, the results vindicate the thesis. Taylor’s 2008 team went 9-3, and after last Saturday’s 31-28 overtime victory against Morgan State, the Rattlers were 6-2 in 2009, with one of those losses to Miami.

Florida A&M now ranks in the top 25 in the N.C.A.A. Football Championship Subdivision poll for the first time in eight years. Before Saturday’s home game against North Carolina A&T, the No. 24 Rattlers were in second place in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and third in the Sheridan Broadcasting System ranking of historically black colleges. Impressive as the improvements have been, the Florida A&M tradition demands even more. Taylor toils here in the shadow of Jake Gaither, one of the greatest college football coaches ever, who retired in 1969 with a career record of 203-36-4.



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'Crow' could fly: Bob Hayes' legendary career began in Jacksonville

"People are coming by the bus loads; it's going to be an amazing sight," said Bob Hayes Jr., a Dallas resident who will help present his father for induction along with Roger Staubach, the Cowboys' Hall of Fame quarterback." Many of Hayes' Gilbert High classmates and football players from the 1958 black state championship team are taking a charter bus to Canton. Dr. James Ammons, the Florida A&M president, and three past presidents of the school will also be in attendance.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You called him "Bullet." But they called Bob Hayes "Crow." Long before he became the world’s fastest human by winning double gold medals at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo — and well before he came to Dallas to play for the Cowboys, earning a Super Bowl ring and in the process changing the game — he was "Crow."

On the brink of his posthumous induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, his former high school teammates and childhood friends shared their memories of Hayes as a youth. Not of the world-renowned "Bullet" Bob Hayes, who is still the only man in history to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring and was so fast that opposing teams had to revise how to play zone defenses. But of "Crow:" the playground speedster yet reluctant athlete who honed his skills in the sand and muck on the east side of Jacksonville in an area called the black bottom.

Sitting in a wheelchair outside a beat-up old house on the corner of Odessa and Iona, Charles Sutton started to laugh. "I would say 'Bullet’ and he would say, 'Stop that, Knotts,’ " said Sutton, whose childhood nickname was Knotts because he would bump his head so many times that it would swell up in, well, knots. "I said, I can’t call you Bullet. They call you Bullet. He said call me what you been calling me."

2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement
WHEN: 7 p.m., Saturday.WHERE: Canton, Ohio. TV: ESPN/NFL Network. Inductees: Bob Hayes, Ralph Wilson, Randall McDaniel, Rod Woodson, Derrick Thomas, Bruce Smith.

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USA wins the 4 x 100m relay at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in a then World Record time of 39.06 seconds. The improbable victory was made possible by the phenomenally swift anchor leg run by FAMU's (#702) Robert Lee "Bullet Bob" Hayes.

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New Rattler' coach Taylor's goal: Return to glory

New Rattlers coach brings Gaither-esque run attack

As he made his rounds throughout Florida and other parts of the country during the offseason to promote his mission as Florida A&M's new football coach, Joe Taylor heard countless stories about Jake Gaither. Some went back more than half a century, but they all had the same theme — Gaither had a positive impact on his players' lives. There was plenty said about the numerous national championships won under Gaither during his 25 years of coaching at FAMU, too.
















Taylor was touched and encouraged. But months earlier, Taylor had reason to be worried whether Gaither's legacy would be remembered generations from now. He discovered that only a handful of his players knew anything about Gaither or had ever heard of the legendary coach's accomplishments.

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