Archie Cooley, the exuberant architect of a passing-crazy offense at Mississippi Valley State College within the Nineteen Eighties that featured the broad receiver Jerry Rice, a future Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer, died on April 18 in Fort Price. He was 85.
His son, Dwight, mentioned that his father died in a hospital however that he didn’t but know the trigger.
Cooley — whom a sportswriter nicknamed the Gunslinger for the cowboy hats he wore and the offense he masterminded — was employed in 1980 as the pinnacle coach at Mississippi Valley State, a traditionally Black college in tiny Itta Bena. However it was not till the 1984 season that what he referred to as his “Satellite tv for pc Categorical” offense exploded.
With Willie Totten at quarterback, the Delta Devils lined up receivers in numerous configurations — amongst them double slots, 5 wideouts and all receivers on one aspect of the sector — that dared defenses to catch as much as Rice and his fellow receivers.
“We really feel we’ve the perfect receivers in faculty soccer,” Cooley advised The New York Occasions early within the 1984 season. “Individuals aren’t going to have the ability to double-team Rice close to as a lot this season.”
Cooley denied that he was working up the scores; it was simply, he mentioned, that his gamers, whether or not they had been starters or reserves, had been extremely proficient.
“If we’re speaking about information,” he advised The Occasions, “I may have left individuals in there and set information that will by no means be damaged.”
It was a prelude to a spectacular offensive season, wherein Mississippi Valley set N.C.A.A. Division I-AA (now the Soccer Championship Subdivision) information for, amongst different classes, factors per sport (60.9) and yards per sport (640.1). Totten averaged a file 455.7 yards a sport, and Rice set a file by averaging 168.2 receiving yards.
Totten and Rice linked on 27 touchdowns that season, a file for probably the most between one quarterback and one receiver. Rice caught 102 passes in 1983 and adopted that in 1984 with 103. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1985.
Writing on the social media platform X after Cooley’s demise, Rice referred to as him “an amazing buddy, coach, mentor and father determine, similar to Invoice Walsh,” his coach with the 49ers.
The Delta Devils completed the common season at 9-1 however had been trounced by Louisiana Tech, 66-19, within the opening spherical of the division playoffs.
“They whipped us good,” Cooley mentioned afterward, “like we normally do to individuals.”
Earlier than the 1985 season, there have been stories that Cooley can be the topic of a CBS tv film, with Fred Williamson, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs defensive again turned actor, within the lead position.
The movie was by no means made. However when it was nonetheless a chance, Cooley advised The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss.: “Perhaps it’s the way in which I carry myself. They are saying I’m flamboyant, outspoken and all that junk. In the event that they spend tens of millions on a film, I’ve to be one thing.”
Archie Lee Cooley Jr. was born on March 18, 1939, in Sumrall, Miss., and grew up in a authorities housing challenge in Laurel, about 40 miles away, along 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 had been lucky individuals,” Cooley advised The Clarion-Ledger. “Within the initiatives you had a fridge, a range, a rest room with a bathe.”
At Jackson State College, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in 1962, he performed middle and linebacker. After serving within the Military, he began his teaching profession at a highschool in Heidelberg, Miss., working with the soccer and women’ basketball groups. In 1971 he was employed as a defensive coach at Alcorn State College, and in 1974 he joined Tennessee State’s defensive workers.
He coached at Mississippi Valley for seven seasons. After ending his tenure with a 4-4-1 file within the 1986 season, he resigned to take the pinnacle teaching job on the College of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
After his finest season there, in 1990, when the Golden Lions had been 9-1, Cooley resigned as coach and athletic director when an investigation discovered that the soccer staff had dedicated greater than 40 guidelines violations, together with participant eligibility infractions. Cooley had stepped away from teaching for a number of video games in the course of the investigation.
The staff acquired the so-called demise penalty: It was suspended from enjoying for 2 years by the Nationwide Affiliation of Intercollegiate Athletics. The ban was later lower to 1 yr.
Cooley denied the allegations towards him and defended his stewardship of the soccer program to the varsity’s pupil newspaper.
“After I arrived in January 1987, Archie Cooley promised the college 4 issues,” he mentioned in 1991, utilizing the third particular person as he typically did. “One, to make the college nationally recognized; two, to place extra emphasis on training; three, to convey extra income to the varsity; and 4, to have gamers drafted within the N.F.L. And I really feel I’ve reached my targets.”
Cooley resurfaced in 1992 because the offensive coordinator at Southern College and A&M School in Baton Rouge, La., and the following yr as the pinnacle coach of Norfolk State College in Virginia. However he left after main the staff to a 3-7-1 file in his solely season, saying he was exhausted.
He later labored because the offensive coordinator at Texas Southern College in Houston and Carter-Riverside Excessive Faculty in Fort Price, earlier than taking his closing head teaching job in 2000 at Paul Quinn School in Dallas. He stayed till 2006, the ultimate yr of the staff’s existence earlier than the varsity disbanded it for monetary causes.
Like his different stops as a head coach, Quinn was a traditionally Black faculty.
Along with his son, Cooley is survived by 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 among Cooley’s proudest moments was Mississippi Valley’s 49-32 victory over his alma mater, Jackson State, in the course of 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 mentioned they needed to rating 30 factors to win,” he mentioned after the sport. “They needed to rating 50, as a result of we scored 49. I’m going to speak now ’trigger they’ve bought to stay with it for a yr.”
