Return of the Football Fossils

Book excerpt: After losing its entire football staff in a cyberspace cheating scandal at mid-season, Southwestern State turned in desperation to six former coaches who retired in the Phoenix area. These recycled coaches leaped at the chance to return to the game they loved and missed. The six: Dan Devine, Frank Kush, Darryl Rogers, Chuck Fairbanks, Al Onofrio and Jack Mitchell. Never in their coaching careers had these six Football Fossils had as much fun as they did in Southwestern’s final six games. With no worries about job security and no hesitancy in expressing themselves, the Fossils thumbed noses at alumnae busy bodies, stuffy academic people, spoiled players and obnoxious media representatives. They delighted in running old trick plays they dared not use with their jobs on the line. They validated an old axiom that nothing is new in football by borrowing frequently from strategy and speeches used in their heydays. They won over doubting players and suspicious fans with their devil-may-care approach. And they won games. Heck, they even took on college's ruling body, the NCAA. And they became heroes to the Geritol-for-lunch bunch.