OT: Who am I (#2)
My college coaching career included stints at a future PAC10 school, in the Big Ten, and in the Big 8. I won a national championship with a legendary quarterback. I won 70% of my bowl games. One of my former assistants greatly influenced where a future NFL Hall-of-Famer would spend his pro career.
During an blowout victory in the late '60s against my team's most hated rival, the opposing coach flashed me the peace sign, apparently in hopes I'd call off the dogs. In response, I returned half of it. (Now that's a rivalry!)
And a play during a game I coached against Michigan resulted in a rule change the next year that is still in place.
Who am I?
Old or Dead
Not sure who the assistant you referred to is, though.
...done.
Blockquotes from Devine's Wikipedia page.
- Schools coached: MSU (Asst), ASU, Mizzou, ND
- Legendary QB coached to a national championship: Joe Montana (1977)
- Bowl record: 7-3 (.700)
- Former asst who incluenced a future hall of famer: ???
- Half of a peace sign:
After finishing 9–1 in 1969, a season capped off with a massive 69–21 win over KU that saw Jayhawk coach Pepper Rodgers showing the peace sign to Devine late in the game and Devine "return half of it", Missouri faced Penn State University in the 1970 Orange Bowl. The Nittany Lions entered the game with a 28-game winning streak, and extended the string by intercepting seven Tiger passes in a 10–3 defensive battle.
- Rule change:
Like Joe Kuharich before him, Devine was involved in a game while at Notre Dame whose ending resulted in a rule change still in effect today. On September 15, 1979, the Irish faced the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor in their season opener. With six seconds remaining, Michigan lined up for a game-winning field goal attempt. Notre Dame linebacker Bob Crable climbed up onto the back of opposing center George Lilja and was able to block the kick, preserving a 12–10 Irish victory. A new rule was implemented the following season that prohibited this tactic.
gave me unpleasant flashbacks.
and Michigan ties, etc:
Coach Devine has strong ties to the state of Michigan, coaching at East Jordan (big in manhole covers) High School way up in northern Michigan before joining former Fritz Crisler player and assistant Biggie Munn at Michigan State.
Devine moved on from East Lansing for a brief stint at Arizona State which led to the Missouri gig which he held for 13 seasons starting in 1958. One of Devine’s players at Missouri was Lloyd Carr,
...you don't say?
Born in Hawkins County, Tennessee, Carr moved with his family to Riverview, Michigan when he was ten years old.[1] Carr's picture is still shown in the Riverview Community High School gym lobby, where he quarterbacked the Pirates to a 1962 State Championship. A talented athlete, Carr played college football at University of Missouri, and later at Northern Michigan University (NMU) while earning his M.A. in education administration. He was a star quarterback at NMU and led the Wildcats to an undefeated season after transferring there from Missouri. He also received an honorary PhD from the University of Michigan shortly after retiring.[2]
I liked this bit on Rudy from Devine's Wikepedia page:
Devine was portrayed by actor Chelcie Ross in the film, Rudy. In the film, Devine is portrayed in a somewhat unfavorable light, acting as a hindrance to Daniel Ruettiger's dream of dressing for one game with Notre Dame. Devine was reported to be extremely angry with how he was portrayed in the film noting that he had planned to allow Rudy to play all along. He also maintained that none of the players laid down their jerseys on his desk as a form of protest and if anyone had, they would have been kicked off the squad [italics added].[1] Devine was asked by movie producers to allow his dramatized character to "play the heavy," to make the movie better. While Devine agreed, he later wrote that he didn't believe Ross' portrayal would be as antagonistic as it turned out in the finished film.[2]
Coach at Northwestern and
Colorado ??
Gary Barnett wasn't coaching in the 1960s, so it couldn't be him.
but then he started talking about the '60's...
I was tempted to put the reference to Carr's connections to Devine in, but I thought that might be too obvious a clue... you guys nailed it quickly anyhow, except for the one point about the assistant.
One of Devine's assistants at Arizona State was Frank Kush. Kush had played football at Michigan State, and I would guess it was when Devine was an assistant to Biggie Munn that he first met Kush. After Devine left ASU for Missouri, Kush succeeded him, and went on to great success. However, Kush quickly developed a well-earned reputation as an extremely tough coach, with coaching practices that would be frowned on today as abusive. Kush was eventually forced out of his position at ASU after a former punter filed a lawsuit in 1979 for the allegedly abusive treatment he received by Kush. Kush was fired not because of the lawsuit but for telling players and others in the program to lie on his behalf. While most ASU fans loved Kush because of all the victories, it's fair to say that fans, players, and coaches at competing schools weren't exactly big fans of Kush.
When John Elway was drafted after his career at Stanford was over, the team that drafted him was the Baltimore Colts. The coach of the Colts at that time was none other than Frank Kush. John Elway was familiar enough with Kush as a coach that he didn't want any part of playing for him, but his father Jack, a long-time coach himself, also loathed Kush and his coaching methods. That's why Elway publicly stated that he would never play for the Colts, at least as long as Kush was around. That led the Colts to trade Elway or his rights to Denver, and the rest is history.
* The part about Devine giving "half a peace sign" back to Pepper Rogers is one of the most hilarious things I've read about a college coach doing during the course of a game. I know everybody here and down in C-bus think of our rivalry as the most intense in the country, but from everything I've read, the hatred between Missouri and Kansas is just as nasty, if not worse. The big difference is that the games between UM and OSU have had a far greater impact on the college landscape due to the prominence of the two programs. Outside of Columbia and Lawrence, I don't very many people pay much attention to the game between Mizzou and KU.
...Don. I certainly remember Kush getting canned at ASU, but I didn't realize the Kush - Elway connection. Elway's decision makes much more sense now.
Mizzou - KU rivalry has real historical roots. See Bloody Kansas and the Lawrence Massacre during the Civil War. Those things make the Toledo War look absolutely silly by comparison.
To be honest, Elway's decision might have also been partially influenced by the nature of the cities involved. As a life-long west coast guy, I would imagine that Denver & environs would have been far more attractive to Elway as a place to live than a real old city on the eastern seaboard.
...but Kush was a grade A asshole and as you stated, Jack Elway knew the details.
What's ironic or sad about fans (not just college FB, but in every sport) is that Kush remained something of a hero on the ASU campus even after he was fired. He eventually went back to ASU as a fundraiser or gladhander, and he was welcomed back with both arms. I think they even put a statue of him up on campus or outside the stadium.
It's like Bill Laimbeer—if he was on your team, you loved him. If he was playing against your team, you wanted to shoot him in the parking lot after the game.
Closer to home, we all revere Bo and remember him with fondness and affection. I've met people from other B10 schools and one of my best friends is an ND grad, and they to a person thought Bo was also a grade A asshole. I think the same situation applies to Woody Hayes for Ohio State fans. My earliest football memories involving coaches are listening to my dad fulminate about what sunsabitches George Halas and Woody Hayes were.
It all comes down to victories. Fans don't care if the coach is sort of a jerk if it comes with lots of wins, but if you lose it doesn't matter if you make Sister Theresa look like John Wayne Gacy—you're still a bum.
...point. And the same physical violence that got Kush into trouble at ASU was certainly perpetrated by various well known and revered coaches of that era. It does come down to whether or not the coach is your grade A asshole or not.