The man who introduced the football world to Jerry Rice has died.
Archie Cooley, the former Mississippi Valley State University head coach who was one of the first in football to operate out of a no-huddle, five wide receiver attack, passed away on Thursday, according to family members.
The Associated Press reported Cooley’s death on Thursday, as well (Archie Cooley, the college football coach whose innovative offense launched Jerry Rice, has died).
Cooley, born in Sumrall, Mississippi, near Hattiesburg, played at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi, a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) program, and then became a head coach at Mississippi Valley State in 1980, where he utilized Rice at wide receiver and Willie Toten as his quarterback.
Rice had 112 catches for 1,845 yards and 27 touchdowns in 11 games in the 1984 season, a playoff season for the Delta Devils, who averaged almost 61 points a game that season – a record that still stands. Toten threw 58 (!) touchdown passes that year
Rice was drafted the following year by then-head coach Bill Walsh and the San Francisco 49ers and went on to set every major wide receiver record in the National Football League, win three Super Bowls and become a Pro Football Hall-of-Famer.
Cooley, nicknamed “The Gunslinger” because of his penchant for wanting to throw the ball rather than run it, also coached at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Norfolk State, and after a seven-year retirement, returned to coaching in 2000 to found a football program with Paul Quinn College in Dallas.
According to Mississippi’s main state newspaper of record, The Clarion-Ledger, Cooley’s record at MVSU was 42-27-2. He was 27-13-2 at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and his career record as a head coach was 83-78-5.
Cooley was 85 years old. Funeral arrangements are pending.
