Archie Cooley, the dynamic who built a pass-crazy offense at Mississippi Valley State University in the 1980s that included future Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice, died April 18 in Fort Worth. He was 85 years old.
His son Dwight said his father died at the hospital, but the cause was not yet known.
Cooley, nicknamed “The Gunslinger” by sportswriters for the cowboy hat he wore and the offense he masterminded, was hired in 1980 as head coach at Mississippi Valley State University in tiny Itta Bena. But it wasn't until the 1984 season that the offense he called the “satellite express” exploded.
With Willie Totten at quarterback, the Delta Devils lined up their receivers in various configurations, including double slots, five wideouts, all receivers on one side of the field, and Rice and Co. He played defense to catch up with the receiver.
“We feel we have the best receivers in college football,” Cooley told the New York Times early in the 1984 season. “It's unlikely he'll be double-teamed this season as much as Rice.”
Cooley denied that he was running up the score. However, he said his players are extremely talented, whether they are starters or reserves.
“If you're talking about records, you could have left people there and set a record that will never be broken,” he told the Times.
This marks Mississippi Valley setting NCAA Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision) records for points per game (60.9) and yards per game (640.1), among others. It was a prelude to a great offensive season. Totten averaged 455.7 receiving yards per game and Rice set a new record with an average of 168.2 receiving yards.
That season, Totten and Rice combined for 27 touchdowns, the most between a quarterback and a receiver. Rice caught 102 passes in 1983 and 103 passes in 1984. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1985.
Posting on social media platform X After Cooley's death, Rice called Cooley “a great friend, coach, mentor and father figure, like Bill Walsh,” whom he coached with the 49ers.
The Delta Devils finished the regular season with a 9-1 record, but lost to Louisiana Tech 66-19 in the opening game of the divisional playoffs.
“They whipped us a lot,” Cooley later said, “just like we usually do to people.”
Before the 1985 season, there were reports that Cooley would be the subject of a CBS television movie starring Kansas City Chiefs defensive back turned actor Fred Williamson.
The movie was never made. But when that was still a possibility, Cooley told the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi: They say I'm flashy, outspoken, and all that crap. If they're going to spend millions of dollars on a movie, I have to be something too. ”
Archie Lee Cooley Jr. was born March 18, 1939 in Sumrall, Michigan, and grew up with his father in a government housing project in Laurel, about 60 miles away. his mother, Bernice; and six siblings. His father worked in a Masonite factory and his mother worked in an elementary school cafeteria.
“We were the lucky ones,” Cooley told the Clarion-Ledger. “The project had a refrigerator, a stove, and a bathroom with a shower.”
At Jackson State University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1962, he played center and linebacker. After he served in the Army, he began his coaching career at a high school in Heidelberg, Michigan, working with the football and women's basketball teams. He was hired as Alcorn State's defensive coach in 1971 and joined Tennessee State's defensive staff in 1974.
He coached at Mississippi Valley for seven seasons. After ending his tenure with a 4-4-1 record in the 1986 season, he resigned to take the head coaching position at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
In 1990, after the Golden Lions had their best season with a 9-1 record, an investigation found the football team had committed more than 40 code violations, including player eligibility violations, and Cooley became the coach and athletic director. He resigned as director. Cooley took several games off coaching during the investigation.
The team received a so-called death sentence and was suspended for two years by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The ban was then reduced to one year.
Speaking to the school's student newspaper, Cooley denied the allegations against him and defended his stewardship of the football program.
“When I arrived in January 1987, Archie Cooley promised the university four things,” he said in 1991, sometimes using the third person. “One, to make the university nationally known. Two, to put more emphasis on education. Three, to bring in more revenue to the school. And four, to bring more revenue to the school.” to get drafted into the NFL. And I feel like I accomplished that goal.”
Cooley resurfaced in 1992 as offensive coordinator at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the following year as head coach at Norfolk State University in Virginia. However, he left after leading the team to a 3-7-1 record in his only season, saying he was exhausted.
He then served as offensive coordinator at Texas Southern University in Houston and Carter Riverside High School in Fort Worth before taking his final head coaching job at Paul Quinn University in Dallas in 2000. He remained with the team until 2006, the final year of its existence before the school disbanded the team for financial reasons.
As with the rest of his career as a head coach, Quinn was a historically black college.
In addition to his son, Cooley is survived by his wife, Georgia (Reed) Cooley; his daughters, Lisa Cooley Thomas and Trace Jasper Monaghan; six grandchildren; many great-grandchildren; his sisters, Betty McCarthy, Lois Ellis and Ruth Harris; and his brothers, Richard and Larry.
One of Cooley's proudest moments was Mississippi Valley's 49-32 victory over his alma mater Jackson State during the 1984 season. This is his first win over a rival in 30 years. After the game, he happily paraded along the sideline waving the school flag.
“Jackson State said they needed to score 30 points to win,” he said after the game. “We scored 49 points, so they had to score 50 points. I'm going to talk about it now, because they have to put up with it for a year.”
