Bobby Collins died earlier today

[Duke Humphrey]

Former Bulldog player, and HC at USM and SMU when the Pony Express came to an end

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

MY condolences. Regardless he could coach football.

 

[patdog]

Hate to hear this. My father graduated from Laurel HS with him in 1951. He was a hell of a coach. What went on at SMU was a lot bigger than him and started long before he got there. If he'd been a little more careful where he made his next move after USM, he could have had a much longer career.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Yes on the longer career,

but the $ was too much.

 

[patdog]

I'll never forget the quote from the documentary on the SMU scandal. One of their big boosters said that even with the threat of the death penalty hanging over them, they had no choice. They had payroll they had to meet.

 

[Willow Grove Dawg]

A lot of MSU fans wanted to hire him after Tyler “resigned” after the season in 1978 instead of Bellard

 

[patdog]

We probably should have made that hire.

 

[basedawg]

A lot of MSU fans wanted to hire him after Tyler “resigned” after the season in 1978 instead of Bellard

I did, When Collins was at USM, he had a 5 minute or so radio talk show early in the morning on Thursday I believe. He was so impressive and an outstanding Coach, plus a Msu graduate who played football at State.

If we would have hired Collins I think he would have been our "Johnny Vaught".

 

[was21]

At one time between coaches they wanted to hire Bobby Wallace but maybe that was a different time.

 

[Willow Grove Dawg]

The talk was that Wallace was the preferred coaching candidate mid season 1996 when everyone wanted to fire JWS. JWS beat Bama & Ole Miss to close 1996 with a close loss to UPIG between then and saved his job for the glorious 1998-2000 run. Wallace had won 3 consecutive DII national championships 93-95 at UNA. Wallace was hired at Temple after the 97 season as head coach and went 23-71 in 8 years.

 

[thekimmer]

His name was Thurman Lavelle. How did they get 'bobby' out of that?

 

[patdog]

If my name was Thurman Lavelle, I wouldn't use my real name either.

 

[dawgman.sixpack]

And three MSU alumni were at the center of attention. Bobby Collins, Henry Lee Parker and Bootsie Larsen. Granted they were just following the Ron Meyer playbook in making the payments, thinking they could not just quit making payments cold turkey.