Archie Cooley, Soccer Coach Often called ‘the Gunslinger,’ Dies at 85

Archie Cooley, the exuberant architect of a passing-crazy offense at Mississippi Valley State College within the Nineteen Eighties that featured the vast receiver Jerry Rice, a future Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer, died on April 18 in Fort Price. He was 85.

His son, Dwight, mentioned that his father died in a hospital however that he didn’t but know the trigger.

Cooley — whom a sportswriter nicknamed the Gunslinger for the cowboy hats he wore and the offense he masterminded — was employed in 1980 as the top coach at Mississippi Valley State, a traditionally Black college in tiny Itta Bena. But it surely was not till the 1984 season that what he referred to as his “Satellite tv for pc Specific” offense exploded.

With Willie Totten at quarterback, the Delta Devils lined up receivers in varied configurations — amongst them double slots, 5 wideouts and all receivers on one aspect of the sphere — that dared defenses to catch as much as Rice and his fellow receivers.

“We really feel we now have the very best receivers in faculty soccer,” Cooley instructed The New York Instances early within the 1984 season. “Folks aren’t going to have the ability to double-team Rice close to as a lot this season.”

Cooley denied that he was working up the scores; it was simply, he mentioned, that his gamers, whether or not they had been starters or reserves, had been extremely gifted.

“If we’re speaking about information,” he instructed The Instances, “I might have left folks in there and set information that may by no means be damaged.”

It was a prelude to a spectacular offensive season, by which Mississippi Valley set N.C.A.A. Division I-AA (now the Soccer Championship Subdivision) information for, amongst different classes, factors per recreation (60.9) and yards per recreation (640.1). Totten averaged a report 455.7 yards a recreation, and Rice set a report by averaging 168.2 receiving yards.

Totten and Rice linked on 27 touchdowns that season, a report for essentially the most between one quarterback and one receiver. Rice caught 102 passes in 1983 and adopted that in 1984 with 103. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1985.

Writing on the social media platform X after Cooley’s dying, Rice referred to as him “an excellent pal, coach, mentor and father determine, identical to Invoice Walsh,” his coach with the 49ers.

The Delta Devils completed the common season at 9-1 however had been trounced by Louisiana Tech, 66-19, within the opening spherical of the division playoffs.

“They whipped us good,” Cooley mentioned afterward, “like we often do to folks.”

Earlier than the 1985 season, there have been studies that Cooley can be the topic of a CBS tv film, with Fred Williamson, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs defensive again turned actor, within the lead position.

The movie was by no means made. However when it was nonetheless a risk, Cooley instructed The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss.: “Perhaps it’s the best way I carry myself. They are saying I’m flamboyant, outspoken and all that junk. In the event that they spend tens of millions on a film, I’ve to be one thing.”

Archie Lee Cooley Jr. was born on March 18, 1939, in Sumrall, Miss., and grew up in a authorities housing mission in Laurel, about 40 miles away, together with his father; his mom, Bernice; and 6 siblings. His father labored at a Masonite manufacturing facility, and his mom labored in an elementary-school cafeteria.

“We had been lucky folks,” Cooley instructed The Clarion-Ledger. “Within the tasks you had a fridge, a range, a toilet with a bathe.”

At Jackson State College, from which he graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in 1962, he performed heart and linebacker. After serving within the Military, he began his teaching profession at a highschool in Heidelberg, Miss., working with the soccer and women’ basketball groups. In 1971 he was employed as a defensive coach at Alcorn State College, and in 1974 he joined Tennessee State’s defensive workers.

He coached at Mississippi Valley for seven seasons. After ending his tenure with a 4-4-1 report within the 1986 season, he resigned to take the top teaching job on the College of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

After his finest season there, in 1990, when the Golden Lions had been 9-1, Cooley resigned as coach and athletic director when an investigation discovered that the soccer group had dedicated greater than 40 guidelines violations, together with participant eligibility infractions. Cooley had stepped away from teaching for a number of video games through the investigation.

The group acquired the so-called dying penalty: It was suspended from taking part in for 2 years by the Nationwide Affiliation of Intercollegiate Athletics. The ban was later reduce to 1 12 months.

Cooley denied the allegations towards him and defended his stewardship of the soccer program to the college’s scholar newspaper.

“After I arrived in January 1987, Archie Cooley promised the college 4 issues,” he mentioned in 1991, utilizing the third individual as he typically did. “One, to make the college nationally identified; two, to place extra emphasis on training; three, to deliver extra income to the college; and 4, to have gamers drafted within the N.F.L. And I really feel I’ve reached my targets.”

Cooley resurfaced in 1992 because the offensive coordinator at Southern College and A&M Faculty in Baton Rouge, La., and the subsequent 12 months as the top coach of Norfolk State College in Virginia. However he left after main the group to a 3-7-1 report in his solely season, saying he was exhausted.

He later labored because the offensive coordinator at Texas Southern College in Houston and Carter-Riverside Excessive College in Fort Price, earlier than taking his closing head teaching job in 2000 at Paul Quinn Faculty in Dallas. He stayed till 2006, the ultimate 12 months of the group’s existence earlier than the college disbanded it for monetary causes.

Like his different stops as a head coach, Quinn was a traditionally Black faculty.

Along with his son, Cooley is survived by his spouse, Georgia (Reed) Cooley; his daughters, Lisa Cooley Thomas and Trayce Jasper-Monagan; six grandchildren; many great-grandchildren; his sisters, Betty McCarthy, Lois Ellis and Ruth Harris; and his brothers, Richard and Larry.

One in all Cooley’s proudest moments was Mississippi Valley’s 49-32 victory over his alma mater, Jackson State, through the 1984 season — its first over its rival in 30 years. As the sport ended, he joyfully paraded alongside the sideline, waving a college banner.

“Jackson State mentioned they needed to rating 30 factors to win,” he mentioned after the sport. “They needed to rating 50, as a result of we scored 49. I’m going to speak now ’trigger they’ve obtained to dwell with it for a 12 months.”