Legends of Lamar Field

BY JOSHUA CRAFT

LEGENDS OF LAMAR FIELD

Alabama knows football. Football fans know Alabama. There are not many people in the country that would have difficulty recognizing names like Bear Bryant, Nick Saban, Bill Belicheck, or even Tom Brady or Joe Montana. Some of these names have transcended the barriers of time so far, with legacies that are so vivid that nothing is lost in translation; sons that hear these stories from their fathers are able to be there as well, in that very moment, when they saw that winning field goal, or that defensive stop on 4th-and-goal, or to see the coach being hoisted onto the shoulders of his players. That is the love affair that many of us have with the gridiron, and Oxford has been blessed to actually live out this love affair with the game that becomes life for some of us, because of two men that have left their stamps on football not only in Oxford, but in Alabama and across the Southeastern United States.

What if you were a head football coach for over 70 years? Would it be impressive for you to average nine wins a season? Is over 500 career wins enough? What if I said you would win three state championships, a national championship, and be elected to several local and state halls of fame? Could you do that? Not many of us could, but there were two coaches for Oxford that did just that—two icons in Alabama and the Southeastern United States. Bill Burgess and Robert Herring are two football legends that coached in our hometown for almost three decades, and their names are cornerstones in Alabama football history. You are about to embark on two separate journeys that share many common threads, from humble beginnings to sellout games, but the one thread that matters most is that they both had vital roles in creating a winning tradition at Oxford High School.

Bill Burgess was the head football coach at Oxford High School from 1971-1984.

Bill Burgess was the head football coach at Oxford High School from 1971-1984. He led the Yellow Jackets to uncharted territory in football: eight playoff appearances, three semi-final appearances, and one state championship appearance in his 14 seasons at the helm. His reputation was so good that he was hired by Jacksonville State in 1985, and led them to their first and only football national championship in 1992. We got a chance to interview him and his wife, Geynell, and we talked to some of his players and family as well.

Coach Burgess attended Auburn University, and he said he was a fan of the Auburn Tigers until recently. “I like the way Nick Saban coaches, so I started pulling for Alabama a little more,” he said with a grin. Geynell then remarked that his daughter has told him many times that he can’t pull for Alabama, but he just laughs it off.

So Coach, you played for Auburn? 1959-1963, yes. I played fullback, linebacker…and water boy [Laughter]. Ralph “Shug” Jordan was the coach.

Do you have memories of the time that stands out? Just if I could play football only and not have to go to class, it would’ve been a lot better [Laughter].

When you finished college, did you immediately get into coaching? I went straight to Banks High School with Coach George White, who was the best-known coach in Alabama. After serving under him as an assistant for a few years, I accepted the head coaching job at Woodlawn High School in 1966.

Tell us about your move to Oxford. Geynell: I’m not sure how it happened, but he got word that there was head coach position open at Oxford, and he applied for it. It was funny because we were living in Birmingham and the boys [Rick and Greg] were six and four; Bill came home and said that Oxford had talked to him and he met with the board and they offered him the job and a great salary. He would be making considerably more. It didn’t take us long to make the decision to come to Oxford, and it was the best decision we could have ever made. You know, our boys tell everyone that they had the perfect childhood growing up in Oxford. They loved it.

What was Oxford like when you moved here? Geynell: It was so small when we go here. There was nowhere to eat. [Laughter] Shoney’s was the first big restaurant here, and we were so happy when the interstate opened up.

Did you teach high school while coaching? Burgess: I taught before I came to Oxford, but another thing that made it easy to move here was that they told me I did not have to teach. All I had to do was run athletics and coach football.

What did you enjoy the most about coaching? Burgess: The biggest thing was having influence on the young men and seeing how they grew, and once they got out of school, most of them were successful, and you feel like you may have had a part in that. Some of them are almost as old as us, because when I started coaching, those guys were seniors. Geynell: Sometimes he sees people and he will say, “He played for me? Well, he looks older than me!” We still have players from all the schools he coached at call us and they will take him to lunch. Bill has always been happiest when he is reminded of the difference he made in their lives. He won’t ever say it, but he’s a role model to many of them.

Do you think coaching was worth it? Burgess: There was a lot of sacrifice that went into it for our entire family, but at Oxford, the entire coaching staff and their families were like one big family. After the games on Friday night, we started off with everyone coming to our house, and the coaches would come and watch film on the wall and the kids would fall asleep on the floor…all over the house. Those Friday nights ended up growing in people, and our friends started coming over too. Geynell: It’s not easy being a coach’s wife. I learned really quick to sit around people that I knew. I missed one ball game when he was at Jacksonville State because I had to have some unexpected surgery; one game in 35 years. I couldn’t imagine not going; it was part of my life too.

What were the differences between coaching high school and college? Burgess: I coached JSU from 1985-97, then retired. We got out of there before they could run us off. [Laughter] Geynell: Oxford was like family, and we tried to keep that up at JSU, but it wasn’t the same. It was year-round because of recruiting. High school was more fun. He did have some loyal athletes, alumni, and supports when he was at Jacksonville Sate. They called themselves “The Burgess Boys” and they still have a Facebook page for supporters. When JSU moved up from Division II to Division I-AA [now NCAA FCS Subdivision], the administration decided that they needed to change direction and get a new head coach, and The Burgess Boys didn’t like that too much. They defended Bill, and we are still appreciative of all the support they’ve given us over the years, and still today. The Boys eventually made up their mind that wanted to see his name somewhere on campus, so they worked hard to get the field named in his honor, so it’s now “Burgess-Snow Field” at JSU Stadium, which embarrasses him, but it’s good to be reminded of how much his supporters loved him.

Do you have memories like that or any one game that really stood out? Geynell: I will never forget the first game he coached at Oxford. I think the score was like 28-0 Jacksonville at the end of the first half, and of course, the people are not happy. I remember thinking about the boxes that I had left to unpack, and I remember thinking ‘Bill’s going to say he told me not to unpack.’” [Laughter] Anyway, Oxford came back and beat them. That was pretty huge, being his first game. Then they won the rest of the games that year. His first season was an undefeated season.

Was it difficult coaching your children? Burgess: Rick and Greg played for two years together on varsity. I was very proud. Their friends would say, “Gah, how do you handle him when you go home?” They said I was a completely different person coaching and at home. Geynell: They never talked about football when they came home. We sat around the table and laughed when they may have talked about something funny that happened. It was unique because he never got onto them about football at home. The boys would tell you that he would get onto them on the football field, especially Rick. He was always in trouble. Burgess: Ol’ Rick, you had to stay on him. I really don’t think it was hard because the coaching staff that I had was hand-picked by me, and they knew that we weren’t playing favorites, even for my two sons. We would go home and I would aggravate the heck out of them, especially Greg, because he would get all carried away and fired up. I would say, “That wide receiver ran by you like you weren’t even lined up out there,” and he wouldn’t let it happen again. He made sure of that. Geynell: Rick was a defensive tackle and offensive guard. Greg was a defensive back and running back, and that was fine with me. I made Bill promise me to never let our kids be a punt returner. That scares me the most.

If there was a play that went wrong, whose side would you be on? Geynell: [Whisper and with a grin] I’d be on my children’s side.

Do you get to go to any JSU games and Oxford games now? Geynell: We try to go to all the JSU home games but Oxford we usually don’t because our grandson coaches over in Georgia. We will go with Greg and his wife to watch him play. We keep up with Oxford though.

Final thoughts? Burgess: We never worried about much. We were just going to take our team and play your team, and try to whip your butt the best we could. We didn’t worry about how big the school was. We said let’s go and get after it. We had some good kids, they played hard, and they would get after you. They were a lot of fun to coach. You’d have to tone them down every now and them, especially local rivalries. Geynell: I regret that I didn’t keep a journal when he coached college because of all the places we went. When we moved here, everybody took care of us. Everyone was just family. We raised all three of our children, they all graduated here. Angie, our daughter, is a teacher in Birmingham. We still live in Jacksonville. We moved there when he was coaching because if he got a little break, he could come home. We just stayed, but Oxford is our home. We raised our children here, have our friends here, and have great memories here.

Advice to other coaches? Burgess: If you win the game everyone wants to be your friend [Laughter]. That just comes with the job. If you can’t handle it, find something else to do.

Angela Morgan, Coach Burgess' daughter: There are so many things that I could say about my wonderful daddy. I don’t know where to start. Although my dad worked long hours, he was still always there for us. When he was home, he was just our dad. We didn’t sit around the dinner table and talk about football. He wanted to hear about what was going on in our lives.

Dad instilled in us the importance of loyalty, work ethic, and taking responsibility for our mistakes. There were no excuses in our house. He was also the first to encourage us to do better and be better.

Dad is one of the funniest people in our family. All of my friends loved my dad. He makes everyone feel like he has known them for years.

Greg Burgess, his youngest son, had a lot to say about his father as well: Most people thought that my Dad had Rick and me doing blocking and tackling drills from the time we learned to walk, but that is not true. My Dad never required us to play football or any sport, but if we chose to play, he wanted us to give it all we had! Dad is a great football coach and he loves the game, but his passion was the outdoors, and he shared so much knowledge with us.

My fondest memories growing up were the times we were in a boat fishing or in the woods hunting with Dad. Like I said, we were not required to play but my brother and I loved playing sports, and football was our favorite one to play. We grew up watching Oxford on Friday nights and dreamed of the day when we would be on the team playing for our dad. That time finally came and we had some of the best times of our lives.

Playing for your father can be hard, but he never coached us at home; what happened at practice stayed at practice. He might chew me out on the practice field, but when we got home and sat at the dinner table, it was never mentioned. My mom may have had something to do with that, because if anyone can keep him in line, it is her. As far as the practice or games, he treated us just like everybody else, he was hard on you but he cared about you, and if he chewed you out, before the day was over, he was going pat you on the back and encourage you about something you did well.

I was truly blessed to have Bill Burgess as my football coach, but more than that, I was blessed to have him as my dad, he taught me how to be a man and a father. He was my hero growing up, and he still is today.

Mickey Shadrix, childhood friend of Rick and Greg, and one of Coach Burgess’ players: It was a true honor to have played for Coach Burgess, and that becomes more and more clear to me the older I get. There just aren’t many more coaches left like him. Was he tough? Absolutely! He had that ability to get on you during practice...but then he would make sure he found you in the locker room after practice, put his arm around you and make sure you knew everything was okay before you went home.

A great story is the time Rick and a few friends and I did what we did every Thursday night before a football game on Friday—go eat dinner and then go shoot fireworks in front yards! On this night, one of our friends shot a bottle rocket out of the car we were riding in, a police officer spotted us, pulled us over, and said “follow me.” We ended up at the field house, where the officer called Coach Burgess, told him what happened, came back outside, and said “I’m going back to work, but I just called Coach and he said for y’all to wait here, so he’ll deal with this.” I remember waiting for what seemed like forever. Two amazing things happened in those moments: the officer trusted Coach Burgess to punish us accordingly, and he trusted him to make sure we would get home safely, and that Coach knew that making us wait for what seemed liked forever was going to have a drastic effect on our behavior. I don’t even remember what he did or said to us, but I do remember waiting.

Coach Burgess also understood that Friday nights were “pay day” for his players. He knew how hard his players worked Monday through Thursday, and that Friday night was our reward. He didn’t over-coach during the game. He prepared his players and then on game night he let them play.

Coach Burgess was humble...he was a team coach. It was always “we” when it was about the team...he treated every player the same. His players knew he cared about them as people and he had his players utmost respect. I wish we could have a few more Coach Burgesses today!

Robert Herring is a legend at Oxford. Often seen as the greatest coach in Oxford history

Robert Herring is a legend at Oxford. Often seen as the greatest coach in Oxford history by many, he took over as head coach at Oxford in 1985and qualified for the playoffs in all 14 seasons he was at the school.

The Yellow Jackets won the Alabama 5A classification state championship in 1988, 1989, and 1993. In 1988 and 1993, Herring’s teams finished with perfect 14-0 records. One of his two sons, Robert IV, was a quarterback during the two back-to-back state championships in 1988 and 1989. Records were set for total points in 1988 and 1989—records that were not broken until 2011.

In high school at Louisville, Mississippi, Coach Herring was a four-sport letterman, and he continued his football, basketball, and baseball careers as a freshman at Mississippi College. After a year at the college, he then transferred to Mississippi State to obtain his bachelor’s degree.

In 1969, he became the head football coach for Jones Valley High School in Birmingham, where he remained for four seasons. He spent the 1973 season as an assistant at North Alabama. In 1974, Herring returned to Mississippi, where he coached Winston Academy, a private school, to two state football titles in 1975 and 1983.

In 1984, Coach Herring returned to Alabama to become the head football coach for Oneonta. In his only season for the Redskins, he led the team to a 9-2 record and a playoff appearance. He took over as head coach for Oxford soon after the playoffs, and he continued the winning tradition that Bill Burgess had left for the Yellow Jackets. For the 14 seasons Herring coached, Oxford would create some of the greatest memories and triumphs it ever has created on the football field.

In all 14 seasons at the helm, Herring would lead his Yellow Jackets to the playoffs, and in eight of those seasons, he would lead them as region/area champions. Oxford won all three of its state championships while he was the head coach, and it finished with perfect records of 14-0 in 1988 and 1993. He was selected as Calhoun County Coach of the Year – by his peers – in 1986, 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1998, and was named the Alabama Sports Writers Association Coach of the Year for Class 5A in 1993. To add to his long list of honors he has received, he was the Southeast United States Athletic Director of the Year in 1996, he was elected to the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2001, is a member of the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame, and just recently had a scholarship named in his honor that will be given to an athlete at Oxford High School on a yearly basis.

How long did you coach, and what made you want to coach? I’ve coached 45 years, 14 of them as head football coach at OHS. When I was four or five years old, our dad would carry us to every football game. I actually liked basketball more than any other sport while I was growing up, but I guess I just fell in love with football after having all those memories of going with Dad. I grew up playing four sports, too: football, baseball, basketball, and track. Some of my friends were out deer hunting or bird hunting, but I was playing a sport!

How is coaching different from when you began to today? Back then, you had to coach everything. I was the head coach of basketball, an assistant for football, and I helped with baseball. You coached everything on a salary, and it was a little salary, too. Nobody made the money they make today, but you didn’t think much about that.

Was there a secret to your success at Oxford? I remember when the job opened at Oxford, and someone told me that the way to get the job there was to be recommended for it, and that’s what happened with me. It was a dream job, too. The kids would do whatever we asked them to do, and we worked them to death, but with one goal in mind from the first day I walked in: to win a state championship.

I had great assistant coaches and great players, too. I trusted my coaches, but I would tell them that I wanted to them to know more about their position than I did, so I challenged them.

What did you enjoy most about coaching? Any coach will tell you that he enjoys winning [Laughter], but I enjoyed seeing a player improve. It was always good to see coaches that work on the field with their players, especially those that are teaching their players instead of just working them out. That’s when kids become leaders.

How was Oxford when you arrived? Football was already established when I got here, and that’s where everybody wanted to be on Friday nights. We didn’t have to do much recruiting in the school, because everybody was playing football.

FOLKS WOULD BE STANDING AROUND THE TRACK TO WATCH THE GAME, AND THEY WOULD SIT IN THE STADIUM FROM THE TIME THE GATES OPENED THREE HOURS BEFORE THE GAME STARTED. THOSE WERE THE GOLDEN YEARS, WHEN WE HAD A TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITY AND LOCAL RIVALRIES LIKE ANNISTON AND WELLBORN.

What were Friday nights like during the football season? Folks would be standing around the track to watch the game, and they would sit in the stadium from the time the gates opened three hours before the game started. Those were the golden years, when we had a tight-knit community and local rivalries like Anniston and Wellborn. We were playing local teams the whole season which cause the crowds to be bigger and the games to be more intense. I even remember when the Wellborn head coach said in an interview on TV that they were playing us next week it was going to be a war. One of our players bought everybody dog tags and everybody wore fatigues to school on Friday. Our team was fired up, and so was the city, and we beat Wellborn bad that year.

Was there anything in particular that made your decision to move and stay in Oxford for over a decade easy? I loved that people expected us to win. They didn’t cut corners with us either; if they didn’t think we should’ve lost a game that we did lose, they’d be honest about it. They expected greatness, and we tried to deliver on that on Friday nights.

Were there any particular influencers in your life and career? I had great role models in high school – coaches that never used profanity but were tough on

us. My favorite coach was my basketball coach; I was a minute late to practice one time and I had to run 60 laps. I learned my lesson, and I appreciate that discipline still to this day. I even had a friend named Doug Wheeler, who was the most organized coach I had ever known. Everything he did was written down...from how you talk to coaches, to how you coach players, to how you treat their teachers, too. He called it “team management.” There was also Coach Andrews, who had a minute-by-minute plan for practice and gameday, just so his teams didn’t skip anything.

What was your family life like as a football coach? Coach Gann at Hoover told me, “Robert, your wife, Gail, is one in a million.” She never complained about me being on the field seven days a week, and it made my life easier. She was a cheerleader in high school, so at our ball games, she would still try to get folks cheering. We moved about seven times, and she was already ready to go if I was ready to go. She was always there for our two daughters and two sons if I was at football.

His son Ryan, Oxford’s current football coach, had some words to say about his father: Getting to grow up with a head football coach for a dad was like living a fantasy every fall. Watching Dad coach and getting to be around the players at practices and games was indescribable. I was his ball boy for years until I was one of his players. Playing for him was a blessing from The Lord. He spent seven days a week at the field house every football season. We joke now and tell people our mother taught us everything we learned in sports, but she definitely taught us how to be competitive and never quit. It’s quite funny that I still use things as a coach today that he was doing 30 years ago, and they still work. I hear “Your dad was the best coach I ever faced” from other coaches all the time. He was definitely a once-ina-lifetime coach, but more importantly, he was a great man and a Godly man. He and my mother taught my sisters, my brother, and me the power of the Holy Spirit and need to rely fully on Jesus in everything we do. I definitely drink from a well that I did not dig, and I am thankful for that!

Alton Craft, mayor of Oxford, who coached Herring’s 7th and 8th grade football team for his entire career at Oxford: Coach Herring told Sal [Gardner] and me, along with all the other coaches that coached with us, that he wanted us to teach the kids how to run, block, and tackle, and I’m glad we got a chance to help him throughout his years at Oxford. He called us the “building blocks” of his program, and we always considered that an honor. He was able to adapt, although I do remember a time when Sal and I went up to his office and we told him that we were going to put in a Spread Offense. Coach Herring said “that’s fine, y’all just don’t get in the Shotgun.” We still joke with him about that today, but he was fine with it when we started doing it, and he even incorporated it into his scheme a little. His ability to make changes during the game and at halftime were something that only a handful of coaches I’ve seen can do. I am thankful for his time at Oxford, and I am even more proud that I have the honor of calling him my friend.

Here’s one final question: has that tradition been continued?

We’ve had historic runs since Herring’s final season.

Coach John Grass has mirrored Coach Burgess: he took the Yellow Jackets to the semifinals and has taken over as head coach for Jacksonville State, winning five straight conference championships as well. The younger Coach Herring has led Oxford to undefeated regular seasons, and is close to bringing a title back to his hometown. These are almost carbon copies of the legacies of that Burgess and Herring left us.

Maybe we are close. Maybe their successful seasons on the football field have come back to us in a full circle.

The thing is, their teams were successful not only because they were great coaches, but their athletes have been successful after football because they were trained by two great, God-fearing men. Oxford High School and the City of Oxford are better places because of men like Bill Burgess and Robert Herring. Many of our traditions have stemmed from these two men, and we have continued to use their styles and philosophies as the building blocks of programs in and outside of the school system.

Thank you both, for your leadership, which has produced CEOs, successful coaches, doctors, lawyers, and even mayors. Henry Adams said it best: “a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” I think that’s true for Coach Herring and Coach Burgess. As my father – who was coached by one and coached with the other – raised me, so I will raise my children...their influence is already in three generations, so here’s to another generation that have Godly men influencing others, and to the generation after that, and the one after that, and on and on...