In 1945, three years after barely surviving a
bout with brain cancer, Gaither became head coach at Florida A&M
University in Tallahassee. The school's president couldn't get
anyone else to take the job.
He coached at the school for 25 seasons, compiling
a 203-36-4 record, the highest winning percentage (.844) of anyone
who has coached more than 13 seasons of college football.
Born in 1903 in Dayton, Tenn., Gaither wanted
his players "mobile, agile and hostile." By the 1960s,
he had established such an elaborate pipeline in Florida that
he didn't bother to recruit anywhere else.
Gaither's greatest innovation was the Split-Line
T formation, which appeared in 1963 and was soon imitated by virtually
every successful coach. His proudest moment came Nov. 29, 1969,
when his Rattlers defeated the University of Tampa, 34-28, in
the South's first interracial college football game.
His passion and his motivational skills set Gaither
apart. He wasn't above hiding an onion in his handkerchief to
work up tears for a pre-game pep talk. No onion was necessary
after a loss.
By the time he retired in 1969, Gaither was as
much an institution as Florida A&M itself. Forty-two of his
players had gone on to the NFL. Gaither never had any intention
of going anywhere.
Before he died at 90 in 1994 in Tallahassee,
he told his biographer, George E. Curry:
"I run into so many people who have no deep
sense of morals -- people who got a price tag on them, who'd sell
their soul. I want to find the man who has no price tag on him.
I'm not for sale."
-- Dick Scanlon
Recommended reading: "Jake Gaither: America's Most-Famous
Black Coach" by George E. Curry (Dodd Mead, 1977). Buy
it Now!
