- Jerry Claiborne
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Jerry Claiborne 
Sport(s) Football Biographical details Born August 2, 1928 Place of birth Hopkinsville, Kentucky Died September 24, 2000 (aged 72) Place of death Nashville, Tennessee Playing career 1946, 1948–1949 Kentucky Position(s) Halfback Coaching career (HC unless noted) 1954–1957
1958–1960
1961–1970
1972–1981
1982–1989Texas A&M (assistant)
Alabama (assistant)
Virginia Tech
Maryland
KentuckyHead coaching record Overall 179–122–8 Bowls 3–8 Statistics College Football Data Warehouse Accomplishments and honors Championships 1 SoCon (1963)
3 ACC (1974–1976)Awards Sporting News College Football COY (1974)
3x ACC Coach of the Year (1973, 1975–1976)
SEC Coach of the Year (1983)College Football Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1999 (profile)Jerry Claiborne (August 2, 1928 – September 24, 2000) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Virginia Tech (1961–1970), the University of Maryland, College Park (1972–1981), and his alma mater, the University of Kentucky (1982–1989), compiling a career college football record of 179–122–8. Claiborne was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1999.
Contents
Early years
Claiborne attended the Hopkinsville High School and the University of Kentucky and was named the College of Education’s Outstanding Senior. Claiborne played halfback under legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at the University of Kentucky. In 1950 he became the head football and basketball coach at Augusta Military Academy in Fort Defiance, Augusta County, Virginia. His teams won the Virginia State basketball championship in 1950 and the football championship in 1951. The following year he left to become Bryant’s assistant coach at Kentucky, following Bryant in the same capacity to Texas A&M and Alabama before he moved up to become a head coach.
Head coach
Claiborne was head coach for the Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1961 to 1970 with an overall record of 69–32–2. The Hokies would not be as successful in football again until current coach Frank Beamer, who played for Claiborne at Virginia Tech, built the program into a powerhouse in the mid-1990s.
When Claiborne began coaching at the University of Maryland, the Terrapins had only won nine games in the previous five years. Claiborne led Maryland to a winning season after only his second year with the team. He coached Maryland for ten years and ended with a 77–37–3 record, including an undefeated regular season in 1976, before losing to Houston in the Cotton Bowl Classic. Beginning in 1973, his teams made it to six consecutive bowl games. In 1980, he added one more bowl appearance for a total of seven. Under Claiborne, Maryland won the ACC Championship three times (1974, 1975, and 1976).
After the 1981 season at Maryland, Claiborne followed in the footsteps of Bear Bryant and went from College Park, Maryland, to Lexington, Kentucky; the home of the University of Kentucky. In Claiborne's case, Kentucky was his alma mater. The University of Kentucky had just come off of four straight losing seasons. They offered Claiborne the head coaching position largely to help clean up a program that had been racked by numerous recruiting violations during the tenure of previous head coach Fran Curci.
Claiborne took over as head coach of Kentucky in 1982. After starting with a losing season record of 0–10–1, he reached bowl games in his second and third seasons, posting records of 6–5–1 in 1983 and 9–3 in 1984 after which the Wildcats finished the season ranked #19 in the final AP poll. The Wildcats win in the 1984 Hall of Fame Classic Bowl over Wisconsin would be the Wildcats last until winning the 2006 Music City Bowl over Clemson. Claiborne led the Kentucky program for eight years, ending with an overall record of 41–46–3. He retired after posting a 6–5 record in the 1989 season.
Significant achievements
- Claiborne coached four Academic All-Americans and eighty-seven all-conference academics.
- Named the nation's Coach of the Year by the Sporting News in 1974.
- Named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year in 1983.
- Claiborne's Kentucky team won the College Football Association Academic Achievement Award for the highest graduation rate of 90% in 1989.
- The University of Kentucky named Claiborne into its Alumni Hall of Fame in 1992.
- In 1999 the Lexington, Kentucky's chapter of the National Football Foundation was named after Claiborne.
- Retired with a lifetime record of 179–122–8, ranking him fourth among active college coaches in victories when he retired.
Famous quote
It was Jerry Claiborne who said: "Sam Cunningham did more for integration in sixty minutes than Martin Luther King did in twenty years." [1] (After a 1970 42-21 loss in Birmingham to USC, and having Cunningham score two touchdowns and gain 131 yards, the integration of the Alabama football team was accelerated.)
Head coaching record
Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs Coaches# AP° Virginia Tech Hokies (Southern Conference) (1961–1964) 1961 Virginia Tech 4–5 2–3 7th 1962 Virginia Tech 5–5 2–3 6th 1963 Virginia Tech 8–2 5–0 1st 1964 Virginia Tech 6–4 3–1 2nd Virginia Tech Hokies (Independent) (1961–1964) 1965 Virginia Tech 7–3 1966 Virginia Tech 8–2–1 L Liberty 20 1967 Virginia Tech 7–3 1968 Virginia Tech 7–4 L Liberty 1969 Virginia Tech 4–5–1 1970 Virginia Tech 5–6 Virginia Tech: 61–39–2 12–7 Maryland Terrapins (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1972–1981) 1972 Maryland 5–5–1 3–2–1 3rd 1973 Maryland 8–4 5-1 2nd L Peach 18 20 1974 Maryland 8–4 6–0 1st L Liberty 13 13 1975 Maryland 9–2–1 5–0 1st W Gator 11 13 1976 Maryland 11–1 5–0 1st L Cotton 11 8 1977 Maryland 8–4 4–2 T–3rd W Hall of Fame Classic 1978 Maryland 9–3 5–1 2nd L Sun 20 1979 Maryland 7–4 4–2 T–2nd 1989 Maryland 8–4 5–1 2nd L Tangerine 1981 Maryland 4–6–1 4–2 3rd Maryland: 77–37–3 46–11–1 Kentucky Wildcats (Southeastern Conference) (1982–1989) 1982 Kentucky 0–10–1 0–6 T–8th 1983 Kentucky 6–5–1 2–4 4th L Hall of Fame Classic 1984 Kentucky 9–3 3–3 T–4th W Hall of Fame Classic 19 19 1985 Kentucky 5–6 1–5 7th 1986 Kentucky 5–5–1 2–4 T–4th 1987 Kentucky 5–6 1–5 T–7th 1988 Kentucky 5–6 2–5 T–8th 1989 Kentucky 6–5 2–5 T–7th Kentucky: 41–46–3 13–37 Total: 179–122–8 National Championship Conference Title Conference Division Title #Rankings from final Coaches' Poll.
°Rankings from final AP Poll.See also
External links
- Jerry Claiborne at the College Football Hall of Fame
- Jerry Claiborne at the College Football Data Warehouse
- Virginia Tech Hall of Fame
- Obituary in New York Times
Virginia Tech Hokies head football coaches E. A. Smyth (1892–1893) • Joseph Massie (1894) • Art C. Jones (1895–1896) • Charles Firth (1897) • J. Lewis Ingles (1898) • James Morrison (1899) • Davis (1900) • A. B. Morrison, Jr. (1901) • R. R. Brown (1902) • Charles Augustus Lueder (1903) • John O'Connor (1904) • Sally Miles (1905–1906) • C. R. Williams (1907) • R. M. Brown (1908) • Branch Bocock (1909–1910) • L. W. Reiss (1911) • Branch Bocock (1912–1915) • Jack E. Ingersoll (1916) • Charles Bernier (1917–1919) • Stanley Sutton (1920) • B. C. Cubbage (1921–1925) • Andy Gustafson (1926–1929) • Orville Neale (1930–1931) • Henry Redd (1932–1940) • James Kitts (1941) • S. D. Tilson (1942) • Herbert McEver (1945) • James Kitts (1946–1947) • Robert McNeish (1948–1950) • Frank Moseley (1951–1960) • Jerry Claiborne (1961–1970) • Charlie Coffey (1971–1973) • Jimmy Sharpe (1974–1977) • Bill Dooley (1978–1986) • Frank Beamer (1987– )
Maryland Terrapins head football coaches William W. Skinner (1892) • Samuel Harding (1893) • J. G. Bannon (1894) • No team (1895) • Grenville Lewis (1896) • John Lillibridge (1897) • Frank Kenly (1898) • S. M. Cooke (1899) • F. H. Peters (1900) • Emmons Dunbar (1901) • D. John Markey (1902–1904) • Fred K. Nielsen (1905–1906) • Charles W. Melick (1907) • William Lang (1908) • William Lang & Edward Larkin (1909) • Royal Alston (1910) • Charley Donnelly (1911) • Curley Byrd (1911–1934) • Jack Faber (1935) • Frank Dobson (1936–1939) • Jack Faber (1940–1941) • Clark Shaughnessy (1942) • Clarence Spears (1943–1944) • Bear Bryant (1945) • Clark Shaughnessy (1946) • Jim Tatum (1947–1955) • Tommy Mont (1956–1958) • Tom Nugent (1959–1965) • Lou Saban (1966) • Bob Ward (1967–1968) • Roy Lester (1969–1971) • Jerry Claiborne (1972–1981) • Bobby Ross (1982–1986) • Joe Krivak (1987–1991) • Mark Duffner (1992–1996) • Ron Vanderlinden (1997–2000) • Ralph Friedgen (2001–2010) • Randy Edsall (2011– )
Kentucky Wildcats head football coaches A. M. Miller (1892) • John Thompson (1893) • W. P. Finney (1894) • Charles B. Mason (1895) • Dudley Short (1896) • Lyman Eaton (1897) • W. R. Bass (1898–1899) • W. H. Kiler (1900–1901) • E. W. McLeod (1902) • C. A. Wright (1903) • Fred Schacht (1904–1905) • J. White Guyn (1906–1908) • Edwin Sweetland (1909–1910) • Prentiss Douglass (1911) • Edwin Sweetland (1912) • Alpha Brummage (1913–1914) • J. J. Tigert (1915–1916) • Stanley A. Boles (1917) • Andrew Gill (1918–1919) • William Juneau (1920–1922) • Jack Winn (1923) • Fred Murphy (1924–1926) • Harry Gamage (1927–1933) • Chet Wynne (1934–1937) • Albert Kirwan (1938–1944) • Bernie Shively (1945) • Bear Bryant (1946–1953) • Blanton Collier (1954–1961) • Charlie Bradshaw (1962–1968) • John Ray (1969–1972) • Fran Curci (1973–1981) • Jerry Claiborne (1982–1989) • Bill Curry (1990–1996) • Hal Mumme (1997–2000) • Guy Morriss (2001–2002) • Rich Brooks (2003–2009) • Joker Phillips (2010– )
Sporting News College Football Coach of the Year winners 1963: Royal | 1964: Broyles | 1965: Daugherty | 1966: Parseghian | 1967: Pont | 1968: Hayes | 1969: Royal | 1970: Ralston | 1971: Fairbanks | 1972: McKay | 1973: Switzer | 1974: Claiborne | 1975: Bellard | 1976: Majors | 1977: Holtz | 1978: Rogers | 1979: Mackovic | 1980: Dooley | 1981: Fry | 1982: MacIntyre | 1983: White | 1984: Wacker | 1985: Schembechler | 1986: Cooper | 1987: MacPherson | 1988: Holtz | 1989: No Award | 1990: Ross | 1991: James | 1992: Erickson | 1993: Bowden | 1994: Brooks | 1995: Barnett | 1996: Snyder | 1997: Price | 1998: Fulmer | 1999: J. Jones | 2000: Erickson | 2001: Friedgen | 2002: Tressel | 2003: Meyer | 2004: Tuberville | 2005: Paterno | 2006: Grobe | 2007: Mangino | 2008: Saban | 2009: Patterson | 2010: Kelly
Categories:- 1928 births
- 2000 deaths
- Alabama Crimson Tide football coaches
- Kentucky Wildcats football coaches
- Kentucky Wildcats football players
- Maryland Terrapins football coaches
- Texas A&M Aggies football coaches
- Virginia Tech Hokies football coaches
- High school football coaches in the United States
- College Football Hall of Fame inductees
- People from Hopkinsville, Kentucky
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