Broyles produced glory days for Arkansas football

FAYETTEVILLE — About 10 years after Arkansas joined the Southeastern Conference, my favorite stumper trivia question involved naming the first Razorback legend to win football player of the year honors in the league.

To be clear, only one Razorback player ever won it. Darren McFadden did it twice.

I've asked the question enough – sometimes on statewide radio – that it no longer takes long to get a correct answer. Many now know that Frank Broyles was the SEC football player of the year at Georgia Tech in 1944.

And, “legend” is the right word for Broyles, for 19 years the head coach at Arkansas and more than a half-century the most famous person in Arkansas. Sports in Arkansas and the name Broyles went together. I would argue that not even the governor was as well known in the state. Actually, it was never Broyles, but Frank, or Coach Broyles.

If you said Frank, all knew the topic. It was Razorbacks. If you said Coach Broyles, it was more than likely football.

It wasn't just the state of Arkansas, either. Steve Loy, former Arkansas golf coach, travels the country (and world) as golfer Phil Mickelson's agent. Recounting his life story to new associates, Loy never has to say more than “I worked for Coach Broyles.” Where is understood.

Merv Johnson played for Broyles at Missouri, then followed him to Arkansas to begin turning out great offensive lines that would win national championships for Broyles, Dan Devine (Notre Dame) and Barry Switzer (Oklahoma).

“What Frank did at Arkansas is incredible, from winning games in football, building facilities as coach and athletics director and hiring coaches,” Merv Johnson said. “He put Arkansas on the map, in everything. You look at all the men he recruited or hired – all of those who won national championships and Super Bowls – and all those that have been successful in business, it's a record no one can match.

“Most importantly, Frank did it with class, dignity and character that you don't see everywhere. There is no telling how many tried to hire him – some to run companies -- and he never left, or probably even thought seriously about leaving.”

Jimmy Johnson was one of the great ones that Broyles recruited as a player and hired as a coach. He won a national championship as a player in 1964 under Broyles, as a college coach at Miami and then won two Super Bowls at Dallas. Others did as well and the trademark of all was intelligence. The '64 team was genius level in many places, starting with Jimmy.

“I think we did have smart players,” Jimmy Johnson said. “But what caused that was smart coaches in the early '60s recruiting smart players. That's what Frank wanted.

“I think our '64 team was full of intelligent people. Look at how many of them became successful after college football. All of them. It wasn't an accident. Frank's assistants found those qualities and recruited to them.

“I did that as a coach. I wanted intelligence around me, especially players. Dumb players make dumb mistakes. Our team in 1964 didn't make any dumb mistakes. I always told my assistant coaches, 'If I ever take a dumb player, hit me in the head with a hammer.' I said it over and over and I learned that from Frank.”

There were smart players who would become smart coaches. If he couldn't promote from within to build his wonderful staffs, Broyles would lure the best from across the country.

Jim Lindsey, one of his great captains, was a veteran NFL player for the Minnesota Vikings under Bud Grant. He said he always looked at NFL coaching staffs, constantly comparing them to what Broyles had at Arkansas. The UA staffs measured up to the great NFL staffs in every way.

“I'd rate what Coach Broyles had as good as any staff I saw in the NFL,” Lindsey said. “They took advantage of what I thought was an intellectual team and coached them to play greater than the football talent. You had some genius type IQ levels on our team starting with Jimmy Johnson.”

Johnny Majors was one of the great Broyles assistants. He later would win a national championship as head coach at Pitt. He is proud to be on the list of dozens of assistants who later became head coaches at some level of college or NFL. He didn't have the list in front of him when he did an interview at a golf charity event in Bryant three years ago. But he came pretty close to nailing it off the top of his head.

"Do you know how many Frank Broyles assistants went on to become head coaches?" said Majors, who was head coach at Iowa State, Pitt and Tennessee after serving for four years as a Broyles assistant.

It's around 40 with many coaching elite schools like Barry Switzer (Oklahoma), Fred Akers (Texas), Doug Dickey (Tennessee, Florida), Hayden Fry (Iowa), Jim Mackenzie (Oklahoma), Jimmy Johnson (Miami), Jackie Sherrill (Texas A&M), Pepper Rogers (UCLA), Ken Hatfield (Arkansas, Clemson).

It's one of the many tricks to what Broyles did right in over 50 years as coach (19 seasons, 144-58-5, seven SWC titles, 1964 National Championship) and athletic director at Arkansas. He hired the nation's top assistants and helped them move on to become head coaches. And, you learned all areas of the game, including the kicking game and how to recruit.

"Coach Broyles knew offense, he knew defense, he knew the kicking game," Majors said. "He had a great background because he was a great player at Georgia Tech. He punted, passed, ran and played defense. He was a great athlete. Winning meant a lot to him. He was extremely competitive.

"No coach could ever have a better training than prior to getting your first head job than I did with my four years with Frank Broyles from '64 through '67 before I became head coach at Iowa State in '68."

I love the story that former Oklahoma State coach Pat Jones told about his first recruiting trip with Broyles in 1975. Jones had eaten just before getting on the plane. When they reached the home and a big meal was prepared by the prospect's mother, Broyles whispered to Jones, "Eat and make sure you get several plates. You will like it and I don't care how much you just ate."

Broyles knew all facets of the game, but Majors said it was always clear that he was a CEO type as head coach. Assistant coaches knew they would coach without interference from Broyles, although he made sure they were teaching proper technique. Broyles was also heavily involved in scheme selection and implementation.

"Coach Broyles hired you to do a job and he let you do it," Majors said. "He let you do your job on the field. He certainly had a tremendous amount of input.

"Frank Broyles, without question, was one of the brightest people to ever coach college football. He was one of the greatest coaches of all time."

Broyles was always tinkering with his staff and told assistants that they should learn both sides of the ball. That was the way it was for Majors. He joined the staff in 1964, when the Hogs won the national title, as secondary coach and eventually coached offense, too.

"I got to coach defense three years and offense one year," Majors said. "Frank Broyles was extremely bright and he wanted you to learn all areas. He prepared you to be a head coach."

Majors learned many lessons from Broyles. The red-haired Broyles was sometimes fiery.

"Coach Broyles had a temper and he let it out when it was appropriate," Majors said. "But one great thing about him, Coach Broyles didn't let it boil. He got it out of his system. The next hour he would be friendly.

"He didn't like people disliking him. He got the point across and was very quick to get back to the main job at hand. He forgave very quickly and he was understanding."

Case in point, Broyles is friends with some coaches that he fired or left with bad feelings, like Eddie Sutton and Lou Holtz.

Majors said he learned much from Broyles, including both tactical expertise and technical coaching points. Majors said he played single-wing tailback at Tennessee (where he finished second in the Heisman Trophy race) and was not equipped as either a secondary coach or an offensive backfield coach when he arrived in Fayetteville.

"I coached corners when I first got to Arkansas and Coach Broyles taught me the proper technique," Majors said. "He knew it and showed me the exact way to coach corners.

"Then, when he moved me over to the offensive backfield in '67, I was coaching something I hadn't hardly done since high school, how to make a handoff or take a snap. So Coach Broyles taught me proper technique for all of that.

"His ability to coach technique was outstanding. He was as good as anyone in the specifics of technique. I learned so much from Coach Broyles."

Majors inherited a great secondary when he arrived at Arkansas in the spring of 1964. He had Ken Hatfield and Billy Gray as the halfbacks, Charlie Daniel as monster (strong safety) and Harry Jones at free safety.

Things ended smoothly with all those shutouts, but nothing was easy to start the season when the Hogs slipped by Oklahoma State, 14-10. Then there was a 31-22 comeback victory in week two against Tulsa.

"The first year at Arkansas, I remember vividly," Majors said. "We had somewhat of a struggle in Little Rock with Oklahoma State and then against Tulsa. The Oklahoma State game was close. And we beat Tulsa, 31-22, after trailing, 14-0.

"I got introduced to the passing game very quickly as a defensive backfield coach. Tulsa had Jerry Rhome and Howard Twilley. They were 20 for 28 that day, but we won the game because we kept them out of the end zone most of the time."

The Hogs figured it out and eventually got a great pass rush from the likes of tackles Loyd Phillips and Jim Williams, and ends Bobby Roper and Jim Finch, and nose guard Jimmy Johnson.

"I did some shaking and was quite nervous when I was introduced to the Southwest Conference passing game," Majors said. "But we matured every week and that may be the greatest disciplined team of all time.

"I'm pretty sure that that team still holds the record for fewest turnovers and fewest fumbles. It was phenomenal. When you don't turn the ball over – no fumbles or interceptions on offense – you are going to win."

The Hogs had just 14 total turnovers, just six lost fumbles. Eight of those turnovers came in the first three games. There were almost none in that streak of shutouts to end the season.

"We shut-out the last five opponents," Majors said. "Harry Jones touched it twice as the safety man and returned two interceptions for touchdowns. And we led the nation in punt returns.

"We not only didn't beat ourselves on offense – with discipline on offense, which comes from Coach Broyles and assistant coaches – but on defense. To shut out the last five and to score on defense on interceptions and punt returns, it's one of the greatest teams in American football as far as not beating yourself and having a great defense."

The Broyles way was to be innovative. Seldom did Broyles stand pat. He was always looking for an edge, former assistant Ken Turner said.

"If someone was doing something good, Coach Broyles sent someone in the spring to talk to them," Turner said. "He sent me to North Carolina to check their kicking game and he sent me to Alabama about receivers. He did that with all of our coaches. We'd go talk business with them and come back before spring practice.

"He did let you coach, but he knew more football than any head coach I ever worked for. He'd hire you to coach, but he would say, 'Well, we might ought to do this.'”

Houston Nutt was the last football coach hired by Broyles and marveled at his vision as an athletics director. Nutt said he helped him understand Xs and Os at times, but he also made sure to provide the tools for him to be successful.

"He came to me and said what do you need to win," said Nutt, who said he began the discussion with how they would improve their goal line offense.

"No, not Xs and Os - what do you need? I said maybe a team room. He said, 'I'll call Jim Lindsey on Monday. What else?' I said, 'Maybe a weight room.' He said Jim will get you that, too.

"No, Frank told me, what you really need is a new stadium. We need more than 55,000, he told me. He said, 'We are going to get you 100,000 seats. I talked him out of that. Well, all you had to do is go right down Razorback Road and see all of the things he did, his vision."

There was also ability to motivate or provide confidence as Broyles mentored his coaches as an administrator.

"The night before the Cotton Bowl against Texas, I got back to my room at 10:45 and there was a message from Coach Broyles," Nutt said. "So we talked on the phone. He said, 'Houston, enjoy tomorrow. It's the Cotton Bowl against the University of Texas and your team is prepared and your team will see the confidence in your eyes.' I hung up the phone and knew we were going to win.

"I am telling you, he always had vision. He hired Eddie Sutton. He hired the first African-American basketball coach in the South in Nolan Richardson. I'm telling you there are lots of Tigers and Bears, but there is only one Razorback. There may be lots of CEOs with vision, but there is only one J. Frank Broyles."

Broyles was known for his ability to innovate. My father, Orville Henry, was one of his closest friends and told me stories about how the Hogs would be trotting out new schemes or systems from one year to the next, taking advantage of rule changes. One of the great thrills was riding in the back seat of the station wagon on Sunday mornings to the Little Rock airport to pick up “Coach Broyles” before his TV replay show. I heard stories about innovation.

There were also intimate details of the previous day's game shared on the ride to and from the airport, but the first thing would always be to check on all members of the family. Then, quickly there would be a heads up about the plan for the next week, something you knew with confidence was going to work.

I recall at age 10 learning from Coach Broyles that the Hogs would win at Austin the next week “because we are not playing everyone two ways, like Texas. Our players have been specializing since last spring when the NCAA changed the rules. We are ready and have an edge that Texas does not. Darrell (Royal) is still playing his best both ways. That edge will be the difference.”

And it was. The 14-13 victory the next week at Austin was celebrated across the world by Arkansans and it was the same way on Jan. 1, 1965, when the Hogs beat Nebraska 10-7 for an 11-0 record and the program's first national title.

That stamped it. Forever, Frank Broyles would be known to all in Arkansas.