- George Doherty
Infobox person
name = George E. Doherty
image_size =150px
caption =Football coach George Doherty
birth_date = birth date|1920|9|5
birth_place = Canton, Madison County,Mississippi , USA
death_date =death date and age|1987|12|31|1920|9|5|
death_place = Natchitoches,Natchitoches Parish ,Louisiana
occupation = Coach; Football player
spouse=Mary Jeanne Doherty
children=George Michael "Mike" Doherty
religion=Roman Catholic
footnotes=(1) Doherty played for several professional football teams before he finally signed with theBuffalo Bills in 1947.(2) Before taking over the football coaching position at
Louisiana Tech University , Doherty excelled with the Minden High School team inWebster Parish .(3) Doherty's last position was with Louisiana Tech's football rival,
Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, a team that he led to a Gulf South Conference championship.(4) Doherty is honored through the naming of the George Doherty Wing, which houses the Northwestern State football offices in Natchitoches, and the George Doherty Football Scholarship.
George E. Doherty (
September 5 ,1920 -December 31 ,1987 ) was aNational Football League player from 1944-1947, who thereafter was the defensive coach of theLouisiana Tech University Bulldogs in Ruston and the head coach of theNorthwestern State University Demons in Natchitoches from 1972-1974.Early years and education
Doherty was born in Canton, the seat of Madison County in central
Mississippi , where he successfully played football inhigh school . He then attendedMississippi State University (then College) in Starkville for a year. He subsequently transferred to Louisiana Tech, where he played as aright tackle with the Bulldogs for three seasons in the Louisiana Intercollegiate Conference. In 1945, he procured hisbachelor of science degree inmechanical engineering from Tech. He also obtained amaster's degree from George Peabody College inNashville, Tennessee , which qualified him to teachmathematics at the secondary school level.National Football League
Doherty played professionally, first, with the former
Brooklyn Tigers in 1944, when he was declared "Rookie of the Year". He was twice named to the NFL "All Pro" team. He continued with the formerBoston Yanks in 1945, the formerBuffalo Bisons and the former New York Yankees in 1946, and finally with theBuffalo Bills inBuffalo, New York , in 1947.While he was in
California playing the formerLos Angeles Rams (1946-1995), Doherty claimed to have kissed theactress Carole Landis , sat besideJoan Caulfield on a bench, visited in the home of thecrooner Bing Crosby , and been feted at theBrown Derby restaurant by the celebrityDon Ameche .High school coaching
After he left professional football, Doherty began coaching in 1948 at Stamps
High School in Stamps in Lafayette County (pronounced LEH FAY ETTE) in southwesternArkansas . There he turned around a winless year into two district championships and one second-place statewide.In 1950, he came to Minden, the seat of
Webster Parish in northwesternLouisiana , where he taughtphysical education and mathematics, includinggeometry , and coached the Minden High School Crimson Tide through 1957, mostly during the principalship of his close friend Wayne Wynn Williams, Sr. (1917-2000). When Doherty arrived, MHS had won only one football games in the past three seasons. Doherty turned things around to the extent that the Crimson Tide won the 1952 district championship with a 9-2 record. "We went from the bottom of the list to the top of the list in a short time," Williams, who served as the parish superintendent from 1973-1978, recalled. In 1953, the Crimson Tide again won the district championship with a 9-2 record. The final game, played onThanksgiving Day afternoon against the in-parish rival, the Springhill Lumberjacks, was particularly gratifying to Doherty because the Springhill team then included futureHeisman Trophy winner,John David Crow . Minden under Doherty also defeated arch-rival Haynesville (northernClaiborne Parish ) for the first time in a quarter century. In 1954, with a 13-1 record, the team won the state championship. That was followed by another district championship in 1955 and a second state championship, again with a 13-1 record, in 1956. One of Doherty's players in 1956 wasBilly Joe Booth , who later starred forLouisiana State University inBaton Rouge and then played for nine years with theOttawa Rough Riders of theCanadian Football League . Shreveport sports writers began referring to Minden as the "Home of the Champions".After the first state championship in 1954, Doherty accepted the head coach position at 3-A
Bolton High School in Alexandria, the seat ofRapides Parish , but he stayed just three days and promptly returned to the 2-A Minden High School. Williams said that Doherty had the penchant for making an average player into a great player: "It seemed every year, he was getting five to nine players ascholarship to Tech. Sometimes they even referred to Louisiana Tech as 'Minden Tech'."Louisiana Tech coach
Doherty left MHS in 1957 to become the defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech, a position that he held until 1966. While at Tech, his teams set six school records and won or held five Gulf States Conference championships. Williams' son,
Wayne Williams, Jr. , like his father a Webster Parish school superintendent, played under Doherty at Tech as did Ronnie Brown, also of Minden who became an educator and principal. Williams, Jr., described his former coach as "a very intense man on the football field and off the field one of the nicest and calmest persons you could meet." While the defensive coach at Tech under Joe Aillet, Doherty had aheart attack , was sidelined, and temporarily replaced by Jimmy Johnson, later the coach of the University of Miami Hurricanes and theMiami Dolphins .Later years in Natchitoches
In 1967, Doherty accepted the same defensive coordinator position at Tech's football rival, Northwestern State. In 1972, Doherty was promoted to head coach and led the NSU to an 8-2 record and the Gulf South Conference championship. He retired in 1974, with a 15-17 record at Northwestern. Doherty was also a
fisherman , who spent hours onBlack Lake inNatchitoches Parish . W. W. Williams recalled that the two often fished but never on Sunday. Doherty's wife, Mary Jeanne Doherty (born ca. 1924) taught English at Minden High School and Louisiana Tech. The couple had a son, George Michael "Mike" Doherty (bornMarch 22 ,1952 ) of Lafayette. [Net Detective, People Search] Doherty lived in Natchitoches during his retirement years. He died of a heart attack onNew Year's Eve 1987. He is honored through the naming of the George Doherty Wing, which houses the NSU football offices in Natchitoches, as well as the George Doherty Football Scholarship.Some two hundred persons, including former and current coaches and former players under Doherty, attended services in the Immaculate Conception
Catholic Church in Natchitoches.References
reflist}] http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi?lastname=Doherty&firstname=George&start=101
http://www.mindenmemories.net/Jeff Clemons, sports editor, "Doherty" More than a coach," "
Minden Press-Herald ", January 3, 1988http://www.nfl.com/players/search?category=name&filter=george+doherty&playerType=historical
http://www.databasefootball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=DOHERGEO01
http://www.billsbackers.com/1947.htm
http://www.nsudemons.com/storyPF.asp?ID=2360
http://www.nsudemons.com/pages/info/nsuAA.asp
http://www.mindenmemories.org/Campus%20Life.htm
"Doherty was revered as a 'gentleman'", "Shreveport Times", January 3, 1988, p. 7C
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