Archie Cooley, the cheerful architect of a passing-crazy offense at Mississippi Valley Condition College within the Eighties that featured the broad receiver Jerry Rice, a month Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer, died on April 18 in Castle Use. He was once 85.
His son, Dwight, stated that his father died in a medical institution however that he didn’t but know the motive.
Cooley — whom a sportswriter nicknamed the Gunslinger for the cowboy hats he wore and the offense he masterminded — was once rented in 1980 as the pinnacle schoolmaster at Mississippi Valley Condition, in modest Itta Bena. But it surely was once no longer till the 1984 season that what he referred to as his “Satellite Express” offense exploded.
With Willie Totten at quarterback, the Delta Devils coated up receivers in diverse configurations — between the two of them double slots, 5 wideouts and all receivers on one aspect of the farmland — that dared defenses to catch as much as Rice and his fellow receivers.
“We feel we have the best receivers in college football,” Cooley advised The Fresh York Occasions early within the 1984 season. “People aren’t going to be able to double-team Rice near as much this season.”
Cooley denied that he was once operating up the rankings; it was once simply, he stated, that his gamers, whether or not they have been starters or reserves, have been extremely gifted.
“If we’re talking about records,” he advised The Occasions, “I could have left people in there and set records that would never be broken.”
It was once a prelude to a impressive offensive season, during which Mississippi Valley poised N.C.A.A. Category I-AA (now the Soccer Championship Subdivision) information for, amongst alternative sections, issues in keeping with sport (60.9) and yards in keeping with sport (640.1). Totten averaged a report 455.7 yards a sport, and Rice poised a report via averaging 168.2 receiving yards.
Totten and Rice attached on 27 touchdowns that season, a report for probably the most between one quarterback and one receiver. Rice stuck 102 passes in 1983 and adopted that during 1984 with 103. He was once drafted via the San Francisco 49ers in 1985.
Writing at the social media platform X upcoming Cooley’s loss of life, Rice referred to as him “a great friend, coach, mentor and father figure, just like Bill Walsh,” his schoolmaster with the 49ers.
The Delta Devils completed the usual season at 9-1 however have been trounced via Louisiana Tech, 66-19, within the opening spherical of the category playoffs.
“They whipped us good,” Cooley stated in a while, “like we usually do to people.”
Ahead of the 1985 season, there have been stories that Cooley will be the topic of a CBS tv film, with Fred Williamson, the Kansas Town Chiefs defensive again became actor, within the top function.
The movie was once by no means made. But if it was once nonetheless a chance, Cooley advised The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Pass over.: “Maybe it’s the way I carry myself. They say I’m flamboyant, outspoken and all that junk. If they spend millions on a movie, I have to be something.”
Archie Lee Cooley Jr. was once born on March 18, 1939, in Sumrall, Pass over., and grew up in a central authority housing undertaking in Laurel, about 40 miles away, together with his father; his mom, Bernice; and 6 siblings. His father labored at a Masonite manufacturing facility, and his mom labored in an elementary-school cafeteria.
“We were fortunate people,” Cooley advised The Clarion-Ledger. “In the projects you had a refrigerator, a stove, a bathroom with a shower.”
At Jackson Condition College, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s level in 1962, he performed heart and linebacker. Later serving within the Military, he began his training profession at a highschool in Heidelberg, Pass over., operating with the soccer and women’ basketball groups. In 1971 he was once rented as a defensive schoolmaster at Alcorn Condition College, and in 1974 he joined Tennessee Condition’s defensive body of workers.
He coached at Mississippi Valley for seven seasons. Later finishing his tenure with a 4-4-1 report within the 1986 season, he resigned to tug the pinnacle training process on the College of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
Later his easiest season there, in 1990, when the Yellowish Lions have been 9-1, Cooley resigned as schoolmaster and athletic director when an investigation discovered that the soccer workforce had dedicated greater than 40 laws violations, together with participant eligibility infractions. Cooley had stepped clear of training for a number of video games right through the investigation.
The workforce gained the so-called loss of life penalty: It was once suspended from enjoying for 2 years via the Nationwide Affiliation of Intercollegiate Athletics. The stop was once next trim to at least one pace.
Cooley denied the allegations towards him and defended his stewardship of the soccer program to the varsity’s scholar newspaper.
“When I arrived in January 1987, Archie Cooley promised the university four things,” he stated in 1991, the usage of the 3rd individual as he now and again did. “One, to make the university nationally known; two, to put more emphasis on education; three, to bring more revenue to the school; and four, to have players drafted in the N.F.L. And I feel I’ve reached my goals.”
Cooley resurfaced in 1992 because the offensive coordinator at Southern College and A&M School in Baton Rouge, L. a.., and the then pace as the pinnacle schoolmaster of Norfolk Condition College in Virginia. However he left upcoming the workforce to a 3-7-1 report in his simplest season, announcing he was once exhausted.
He next labored because the offensive coordinator at Texas Southern College in Houston and Carter-Riverside Top College in Castle Use, earlier than taking his ultimate head training process in 2000 at Paul Quinn School in Dallas. He stayed till 2006, the overall pace of the workforce’s lifestyles earlier than the varsity disbanded it for monetary causes.
Like his alternative stops as a head schoolmaster, Quinn was once a traditionally Lightless school.
Along with his son, Cooley is survived via his spouse, Georgia (Reed) Cooley; his daughters, Lisa Cooley Thomas and Trayce Jasper-Monagan; six grandchildren; many great-grandchildren; his sisters, Betty McCarthy, Lois Ellis and Ruth Harris; and his brothers, Richard and Larry.
One in all Cooley’s proudest moments was once Mississippi Valley’s 49-32 victory over his alma mater, Jackson Condition, right through the 1984 season — its first over its rival in 30 years. As the sport ended, he joyfully paraded alongside the sideline, waving a college banner.
“Jackson State said they had to score 30 points to win,” he stated upcoming the sport. “They had to score 50, because we scored 49. I’m going to talk now ’cause they’ve got to live with it for a year.”