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My friend Andrew Johnson brought me a CD that Billy Carter had made with music from the 1970's . On the CD was the song "if You Could Read My Mind" which was a pretty big hit by Gordon Lightfoot in the early 70's. It got me thinking about that time in my life while I was I was in high school and playing football at Miller. I had three different head coaches during my football career at Miller and looking back on it now I can truly say that I was fortunate to play for all of these men. They were all very different but all very successful.
My freshman and sophomore years my coach was Mack Wood. We had just won the state championship the year before and I can tell you that I learned a lot of football in a hurry. Football practice was tough and long. We had good teams both years but nothing like the state championship team of '69. We practiced in full pads every day but Thursday and I can tell you that practice was mostly about survival. I was the scout team running back in 1971 and it was not unusual for me to carry the ball 40-50 times in a day against our first defense. But it toughened me up and I was able to do some things in football that made me feel good about my self. I thought that if I could play football at TRM for Mack Wood I could do anything. I had great respect for Coach Wood. He was very professional, good with offense and knew how to teach the game. From Coach Wood I learned that football was a tough game and it was meant to be played by tough people. If you don't do the tough things, your team will suffer. You have to teach blocking and tackling and you can't do it in shorts. There have been some years when I wondered if we had done enough tough things and if Coach Wood would approve. After I started coaching we played each other a few times and I always enjoyed talking to him when I would see him. He always offered good advice to me. After he retired he would always call me during the playoffs and would come by to see me if he came to Brewton. He left Miller after the 1971 season and I was concerned about him leaving because I knew we would be a good team as long as he was the coach. The one thing I can tell you for sure is that I grew up a lot during those two years under Mack Wood.
When Coach Wood left we hired Larry Rampey to replace him. He was from the Anniston area and I believe that this was his first head coaching job. He had been a defensive coach and track coach at Walter Wellborn. As soon as he got here in February he put us on the track and started running us and all of us had sore legs. Coach Rampey showed me the importance of work ethic and building confidence in players. He put us to work harder than ever in the weight room and out on the track. I can remember everyone looking forward to the season because we were in such good physical condition. In the spring of that first year he spent countless hours with Alan Baker and myself working on track events after everyone else had long gone home. I still use the same running program that he used in 1972 and it has always helped increase our speed and toughness. We lost to Andalusia at midseason in '72 and went into the Neal game knowing we would make the playoffs if we won (it was a different time and only 8 teams made the playoffs). But we were beat up at running back and lost to Neal 22-6. I felt like we let him down. I loved being around Coach Rampey. He had these gold rimmed glasses and drove an old red pick up truck. To be honest, he was just a little crazy and I guess all of us coaches have a little of that in us. ( He got us some boxing gloves and we boxed in the off season). Everyone had confidence in his leadership and we really thought we were going to make another playoff run in my senior season of 1973. My mother woke me up on a Sunday morning in February 1973 to tell me that he had been killed in a car accident. It was devastating to think that we had lost our leader and it was a very sad time in Brewton. They chartered a bus and took the team to Glencoe to his funeral. I remember someone....his brother I think.....came onto the bus and thanked us. He talked about how happy he was in Brewton and how much he loved coaching at Miller. I have never had anyone who I had known for such a short time that affected me as much as Larry Rampey. I used much of his coaching philosophy when I became a coach and his influence has been part of our program for a very long time. I loved playing for him and I believe he would have achieved great things as a coach. He and T.R. Miller were perfectly suited for each other.
Frank Cotten had been an assistant coach at Miller since 1966 and he was the perfect choice to replace Coach Rampey. We all loved him...he was funny and had this ability to make you want to play for him. I still remember how nervous he was before our first game that fall. He taught me the importance of motivating and inspiring players to play beyond their capabilities. Playing for Frank Cotten was this emotional experience that everyone enjoyed. He got as excited about the games as we did and his enthusiasm was contagious. Coach Cotten was a great defensive coach but not because he was better at strategy or teaching tackling than the next guy ( but he was pretty good at both of those). He could take an average player who was a little slow and a little small and convince him that the guy in front of him could not block him. He was a master psychologist and for 8 years he kept the Miller Tigers playing hard. We had a great team in '73, losing to Andalusia 14-8 but winning the rest. We made the playoffs and won our first playoff game against Mortimer Jordan 35-12, but lost to John Carroll in the semi finals 10-0. My high school football career ended and I had no idea that I was being prepared for a career in coaching. I couldn't have had better training. After I went to college I remember talking to Coach Cotten and he told me that you would be pretty successful in coaching if you could get them to play hard every Friday night. After 33 years of coaching I can tell you that he was 100% correct.
We coach because we cannot play anymore. If I could still play I would. But coaching keeps us close to the game we love. Several of our former players have gone into coaching and I hope that the lessons they have learned will take them a long way. And I will be happy knowing that the toughness of Mack Wood, the character and confidence building of Larry Rampey and the inspiration of Frank Cotten will continue to be a part of high school football in the state of Alabama.
