“I’m not quite sure when I realized football would be my ticket, but if it hadn’t been for football, I’m not sure what would have happened to me.” — Ray Perkins to author Keith Dunnavant in 2007′s The Missing Ring
Ray Perkins nearly lost his life 57 years ago playing football, but the legacy he built in the many years since left a lasting impression with those who knew him as a teammate, coach and friend.
Perkins, the former Alabama player and long-time college and pro coach, died Wednesday after a long illness, just three days after his 79th birthday. He’s best-known as the coach who both succeeded Paul “Bear” Bryant in Tuscaloosa and hired Bill Parcells in New York, and for his legendary intensity on the football field.
“You always knew where you stood with him,” said Curt Jarvis, who played for Perkins at both Alabama and with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL. “There was never any gray area. You never walked around wondering if he was pleased with you — he would always tell you. … As a player, you always respect those guys who don’t mince words.
“Coach Perkins was very misunderstood in a lot of ways, but he could be charming. Kind of like the coach we’ve got down there now at Alabama. He could turn it on when he wanted to turn it on.”
Born Dec. 6, 1941, in Petal, Miss., Perkins was a former high school dropout who enrolled at Alabama as a 20-year-old freshman in the fall of 1962. His football career — and his life — nearly ended due to a practice-field collision with teammate Billy Piper the following spring, resulting in a head injury that left Perkins hospitalized after emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain.
Perkins was back on the practice field less than a year later, moving from fullback to end to shield him from constant blows to the head. He became one of the best receivers in Alabama history, catching passes from Joe Namath, Steve Sloan and Ken Stabler, and teaming with fellow end Dennis Homan to give the Crimson Tide a devastating one-two punch at the position.
“They couldn’t cover both of us, so one of us was open,” Homan said. “They had to double one of us, so they’d go back and forth. I was blessed to have a man like Ray on the other side. But even more than that, we just became great friends. Our families spent a lot of time together after our playing days. He was very smart football-wise, and that’s why he went and coached in college and the pros. He knew the Xs and Os better than any teammate I ever had.”
After earning All-America honors as an Alabama senior in 1966, Perkins played five years in the NFL with the Baltimore Colts before going into coaching. He was hired at age 37 to take over the New York Giants, famously drafting Hall-of-Famer Lawrence Taylor in 1981 (when the Giants went 9-7 and made the playoffs) and taking a chance on the unknown Parcells as his linebackers coach and later his defensive coordinator.
It was after the 1982 season that Perkins returned to his alma mater, taking on the monumental task of replacing the retiring Bryant as head football coach. Bryant first stayed on as athletics director, but died less than a month after stepping down as coach.
“Coach Bryant’s death had been so sudden and those feelings were still so raw, that everything that Ray did was going to be scrutinized,” said author Keith Dunnavant, who covered Perkins the coach as a reporter and later wrote about Perkins the player in The Missing Ring. “He was put in a very difficult position. But he really laid a solid foundation and if he’d stayed at Alabama, he would have done quite well.
“But the guy that I feel like I know better is the guy I never knew. … Here’s a guy who came up very tough, had a very difficult home life. And he got to Alabama on just sheer will — he had the power of will.”
Ray Perkins (88) is shown with Joe Namath during his playing days at Alabama in the mid-1960s. Perkins, who succeeded Paul “Bear” Bryant as Crimson Tide head coach in 1983, has died at 79. (Photo courtesy of the Paul W. Bryant Museum)
Just 41 at the time, Perkins set about remaking the Alabama program in his own image. He took down Bryant’s legendary practice observation tower, scrapped the wishbone offense for a pro-style attack and fired many of his old coach’s trusted assistant coaches.
Joey Jones was a senior wide receiver on Perkins’ first team, and remembered how shocking it was when Bryant stepped down. But, he said, Perkins handled the transition by winning over the locker room first.
“It was tough on all of us at first, but I think after we got to know Coach Perkins, we realized we had a great man,” said Jones, who later played in the USFL and NFL and eventually became head coach at South Alabama. “He just won everybody over during that time. He was one of the best game-day coaches I’ve ever been around. And he was just a great person. … He had a great relationship with his players. He had that steely-eyed look and you thought maybe he was cold, but after you got to know him, you realized he was way different than that.”
Alabama traditionalists did not react well, particularly after Perkins’ first team lost to Auburn and his second finished 5-6 — the Crimson Tide’s first losing record since the season before Bryant’s arrival. But that 1984 Alabama team beat Auburn in a monumental upset, and the following year’s group knocked off Bo Jackson and the Tigers again on Van Tiffin’s last-second field goal.
The 1986 Alabama team finished 10-3, losing to Auburn 21-17, but beating Tennessee for the first time in five years and also scoring the Crimson Tide’s first-ever win over Notre Dame. After a season-ending win over Washington in the Sun Bowl, Perkins left abruptly to return to the NFL as head coach of the Buccaneers.
“Coach Perkins gave me a chance to be a part of the Alabama family, and for that I’m always going to be grateful,” said Roger Shultz, a member of Perkins’ final Crimson Tide recruiting class and later an All-SEC center. “Being there as a freshman, I was scared to death all the time. I remember one time he sat down with us at the lunch table, and I didn’t know what to do. … When I went to graduate school, my scholarship was one that he endowed. Through the years, we developed a good relationship. I was able to talk to him without wetting my pants. He’s always been there for all of us, even though I was just a freshman who played for him that one year.”
Though he stayed just four years in Tuscaloosa and never won as much as an SEC title, Perkins recruited and coached many of the greatest players in Alabama history. Among those who populated his rosters during those years and would go on to success in college and the pros were Cornelius Bennett, Bobby Humphrey, Derrick Thomas, Jon Hand and Mike Shula.
Jarvis was a highly recruited defensive lineman at Gardendale High School when Perkins got the Alabama job, and had been verbally committed to Pat Dye and Auburn. He said Perkins made priority recruits of him and Bennett — a star at Birmingham’s Ensley High School that same year, landing both for the Crimson Tide.
“I had always been an Alabama fan, but I had some concerns that Coach Bryant might not be there my whole four years,” Jarvis said. “But when Coach Bryant retired and they announced Coach Perkins was coming in, he did the press conference, and two hours later he’s at my house. … I actually think he went to Cornelius’ house first, but he told me ‘I know you’re committed to Coach Dye, but I want you to give me a chance. And let’s see what happens.’ I gave him a chance and he built a great relationship with my family. Eventually I realized, ‘I want to play for this guy.’”
Perkins spent four seasons in Tampa, then spent a year as head coach at Arkansas State before many years as an NFL assistant. He was Parcells’ offensive coordinator in New England from 1993-96, helping the Patriots reach the Super Bowl.
Perkins came out of retirement at age 70 in 2012 to coach at Jones County Junior College in his native Mississippi, coaching there for two years and another as a volunteer assistant at Oak Grove High School near Hattiesburg. He retired to the Tuscaloosa area in recent years, and had been working on a memoir off and on at the time of his death.
More reaction to Perkins’ passing:
Nick Saban, Alabama football coach
“The first thing I’d like to do is pass along, from the Alabama nation — all the folks, our family — our condolences to Ray Perkins’ family and friends. He served the University of Alabama with great class and integrity. He was a great coach and had a tremendous impact on the game. He was a really, really good person and a really good friend. I would just like to say that to all the folks out there relative to our feelings about Coach Perkins and all that he did to impact our game.”
John Mara, New York Giants president (via NJ.com)
“Ray was George Young’s first hire as general manager in 1979. I remember George saying, ‘He will make it very uncomfortable for our players to lose.’ Ray did a good job for us and got us into the playoffs in 1981 for the first time in many years. During the 1982 season, which was shortened due to a players strike, he announced he was leaving at the end of the year to go to Alabama, which he described as his dream job. He left behind a team that had Lawrence Taylor, Phil Simms and Harry Carson, among others and this was the nucleus of the group that would go on to great success in the 1980′s and win two Super Bowls. I always wondered whether he later regretted that decision. But he certainly left our team in much better shape than he found it in, including having Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick on his staff.”
Bill Parcells, former NFL coach
“I loved Ray and he was a very close friend of mine. I was very saddened by the news. He’s the only reason I was in pro football; he’s the one who brought me into the league. He was my friend. I worked for him at the Giants and then he worked for me at the Patriots. He was a great guy.”
