ALPHA ATHLETE
The Man With The Golden Toe By KEITH A. MILES Keith A. Miles is presently a Unit Producer for WFSU-TV in Tallahassee, Florida. He is also a stringer for the National Black Network and a member of the Gamma Mu Lambda chapter in Tallahassee.
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ou can call him "Ding-aLing", his collegiate nickname . . . or you can call him "Thunderfoot" a name he has earned since his arrival in Minnesota . . . or you just might call him "The Man with the Golden Toe". Whatever you call him, he's Greg Coleman . . . the only AfricanAmerican punter in the National Football League and an Alpha man. Greg is a graduate of Florida A&M University, where he crossed the burning sands at the Beta Nu chapter. He is a native of Jacksonville, Florida where he and his wife, Eleanor, and daughter, Cara Jennine, reside in the off season. Not large for a football player, Greg was described by his college coach, Rudy Hubbard, as an all around kind of guy. At FAMU Greg never missed a game in four seasons. He attempted 53 field goals and made good on 27 of them for a little better than a 50% average. For PAT's Greg was 76 out of 96 for an average of .791 and scored a total of 157 points. In punting Greg attempted 127 punts for 5,099 yards and an average of 40.1. His longest punt in his college career was for 68 yards. During his college days he was named All SIAC (Southern Inter-Collegiate Athletic Conference) in 1973, 1974, and 1975. Greg was a 14th round draft choice by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1976. After things didn't work out for him there, he went back to Jacksonville and taught World History and helped coach track. But that Alpha luck gave him another chance, this time with the 16
Cleveland Browns. When Tom Skladany refused to sign a contract with the Browns, Greg made the team. He punted 67 times for a 39.2 yard average. A year later he averaged 47.5 yards per game in the pre-season but was cut before the season started. Greg calls that time the lowest point of his career, but he never gave up. "When the Vikings called, I couldn't have been happier. I knew how much pride this club has in its special teams and I wanted to be with a team that knows how to win." All football kickers work alone after practice or on a separate field because they need the space to work out the kinks. Greg is used to working alone, he did it as one of the leading hurdlers in the nation for FAMU, running the high hurdles in 13.5 seconds at his peak. He also competed for a national AAU team in international meets. Greg's former track coach at FAMU, Bobby Lang, said, "To me he was one of the most outstanding men I've coached as a hurdler. He was a leader and he did it by example. He was a team man who did his job to the best of his ability." According to Lang, "Greg was one of the top ten hurdlers in the country at that time." Lang especially remembered Greg for his talented toe that lifted FAMU over Alabama State one Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee, Florida in 1975. Greg set a record that still stands in FAMU's record books. He kicked four field goals, which proved to be the only scoring the Rattlers did that day. The final score was FAMU 12-Alabama State 11. Since he's been with the Vikings, he has stolen the hearts of Vikings fans. "It's a warm feeling here," he says. "You've got a job to do and the other guys know it and are pulling for you." Sometimes in the off-season Greg's wife Eleanor clocks his punt's hang times and also those of his brother Erroll and cousin Vincent, who is presently the kicker at FAMU.
According to Greg, "We're the kicking Colemans." In Minnesota they call him a good-bad weather punter, which means that a lot of guys who kick don't want to play in the north. "They'd rather not play instead of kicking for northern pro teams in cold climates. Well, I didn't have a choice, so I guess it means I roll with the punches and don't worry about the weather." "In the very near future the Vikings will be a contender again," says Coleman. "We lost Alan Page, Carl Eller, Fran Tarkenton, and Mick Tinglehoff. I'd say right now we're in a period of readjustment, but we'll be back. In fact we started coming around at the end of last season." Being the league's only African-American punter doesn't seem to bother Greg much. He remembered playing the Cowboys in Dallas, where both teams benches are on the same side of the field. Greg remembers Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson saying, "Hey Coleman! I thought you were a dark skin white boy, but you're as black as I am." Greg says, "The Vikings don't
1. GREG COLEMAN 2. Brother Coleman and "the golden toe" in action. care what color I am as long as I produce and that's important." Greg says when things settle down a bit he plans to be more active in the Fraternity. In the off-season he does a little teaching and some sportscasting for a television station. For Greg, it's a big thrill to hear youngsters say he's a punter. "It gives them a different perspective. For so long, kids looked up to people like Bob Hayes . . . players in the glamorous positions, now they can see a black punter. I can remember in my high school yearbook I said I wanted to be a punter in the NFL and here I am." "When I went to Minnesota they needed somebody to punt the ball and that's what I did." Greg says, "One of the ultimate goals of a professional football player is to be the best and I always wanted to do my best."
The Sphinx / Winter 1980