Jerry Claiborne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jerry Claiborne | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Title | Head coach | |
| College | Virginia Tech, Maryland, Kentucky | |
| Sport | Football | |
| Career highlights | ||
| Overall | 179-122-8 | |
| Coaching stats | ||
| College Football DataWarehouse | ||
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||
| 1961-1970 1972-1981 1982-1989 |
Virginia Tech Maryland Kentucky |
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| College Football Hall of Fame, 1999 (Bio) | ||
Jerry Claiborne (August 2, 1928 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky – September 24, 2000 in Nashville, Tennessee) was a college football coach, most notable as the head coach at Virginia Tech, Maryland, and his alma mater of Kentucky. Claiborne was famous for being a winner, taking over historically under achieving teams and turning them into winners, as well as teaching his players to become excellent students.[1] He retired with an overall record of 179-122-8.
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[edit] Early years
Claiborne attended the Hopkinsville High School and the University of Kentucky and was named the College of Education’s Outstanding Senior. Claiborne played halfback under legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at the University of Kentucky. Claiborne became Bryant’s assistant coach at Texas A&M and Alabama before he moved up to become a head coach.
[edit] Head Coach
Claiborne was head coach for the Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1961 to 1970 with and overall record of 69-32-2. The Hokies would not be as successful in football again until current coach Frank Beamer, who played for Claiborne at Virginia Tech, built the program into a powerhouse in the mid-1990s.
When Claiborne began coaching at the University of Maryland, the Terrapins had only won nine games in the previous five years. Claiborne led Maryland to a winning season after only his second year with the team. He coached Maryland for ten years and ended with a 77-37-3 record, including an undefeated regular season in 1976, before losing to Houston in the Cotton Bowl. Beginning in 1973, his teams made it to six consecutive bowl games. In 1980, he added one more bowl appearance for a total of seven. Under Claiborne, Maryland won the ACC Championship three times (1974, 1975, and 1976).
After the 1981 season at Maryland, Claiborne followed in the footsteps of Bear Bryant and went from College Park, Maryland, to Lexington, Kentucky; the home of the University of Kentucky. In Claiborne's case, Kentucky was his alma mater. The University of Kentucky had just come off of four straight losing seasons. They offered Claiborne the head coaching position largely to help clean up a program that had been racked by numerous recruiting violations during the tenure of previous head coach Fran Curci.
Claiborne took over as head coach of Kentucky in 1982. After starting with a losing season record of 0-10-1, he reached bowl games in his second and third seasons, posting records of 6-5-1 in 1983 and 9-3-0 in 1984 after which the Wildcats finished the season ranked #19 in the final AP poll. The Wildcats win in the 1984 Hall of Fame bowl over University of Wisconsin-Madison would be the Wildcats last until winning the Music City Bowl in 2006 over Clemson. Claiborne led the Kentucky program for eight years, ending with an overall record of 41-46-3. He retired after posting a 6-5 record in the 1989 season.
[edit] Head Coaching Record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Tech (Independent) (1961 – 1970) | |||||||||
| 1961 | Virginia Tech | 4-5-0 | |||||||
| 1962 | Virginia Tech | 5-5-0 | |||||||
| 1963 | Virginia Tech | 8-2-0 | |||||||
| 1964 | Virginia Tech | 6-4-0 | |||||||
| 1965 | Virginia Tech | 7-3-0 | |||||||
| 1966 | Virginia Tech | 8-2-1 | L Liberty | ||||||
| 1967 | Virginia Tech | 7-3-0 | |||||||
| 1968 | Virginia Tech | 7-4-0 | L Liberty | ||||||
| 1969 | Virginia Tech | 4-5-1 | |||||||
| 1970 | Virginia Tech | 5-6-0 | |||||||
| Virginia Tech: | 61-39-2 | ||||||||
| Maryland (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1972 – 1981) | |||||||||
| 1972 | Maryland | 5-5-1 | |||||||
| 1973 | Maryland | 8-4-0 | L Peach | 20 | |||||
| 1974 | Maryland | 8-4-0 | 1st | L Liberty | 13 | ||||
| 1975 | Maryland | 9-2-1 | 1st | W Gator | 13 | ||||
| 1976 | Maryland | 11-1-0 | 1st | L Cotton | 8 | ||||
| 1977 | Maryland | 8-4-0 | W Hall of Fame Classic | ||||||
| 1978 | Maryland | 9-3-0 | L Sun | 20 | |||||
| 1979 | Maryland | 7-4-0 | |||||||
| 1980 | Maryland | 8-4-0 | L Tangerine | ||||||
| 1981 | Maryland | 4-6-1 | |||||||
| Maryland: | 77-37-3 | ||||||||
| Kentucky (Southeastern Conference) (1982 – 1989) | |||||||||
| 1982 | Kentucky | 0-10-1 | |||||||
| 1983 | Kentucky | 6-5-1 | L Hall of Fame Classic | ||||||
| 1984 | Kentucky | 9-3-0 | W Hall of Fame Classic | 19 | 19 | ||||
| 1985 | Kentucky | 5-6-0 | |||||||
| 1986 | Kentucky | 5-5-1 | |||||||
| 1987 | Kentucky | 5-6-0 | |||||||
| 1988 | Kentucky | 5-6-0 | |||||||
| 1989 | Kentucky | 6-5-0 | |||||||
| Kentucky: | 41-46-3 | ||||||||
| Total: | 179-122-8 | ||||||||
| National Championship Conference Title Conference Division Title | |||||||||
| †Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season. | |||||||||
[edit] Significant Achievements
- Claiborne coached four Academic All-Americans and eighty-seven all-conference academics.
- Named the nation's Coach of the Year by the Sporting News in 1974.
- Named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year in 1983.
- Claiborne's Kentucky team won the College Football Association Academic Achievement Award for the highest graduation rate of 90% in 1989.
- The University of Kentucky named Claiborne into its Alumni Hall of Fame in 1992.
- In 1999 the Lexington, Kentucky's chapter of the National Football Foundation was named after Claiborne.
- Claiborne was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
- Retired with a lifetime record of 179-122-8, ranking him fourth among active college coaches in victories when he retired.
[edit] Famous quote
It was Jerry Claiborne who said: "Sam Cunningham did more for integration in sixty minutes than Martin Luther King did in twenty years." [2] (After a 1970 42-21 loss in Birmingham to USC, and having Cunningham score two touchdowns and gain 131 yards, the integration of the Alabama football team was accelerated.)
[edit] See also
| Preceded by Frank Moseley |
Virginia Tech Head Football Coach 1961-1970 |
Succeeded by Charlie Coffey |
| Preceded by Roy Lester |
University of Maryland Head Football Coaches 1971-1981 |
Succeeded by Bobby Ross |
| Preceded by Fran Curci |
University of Kentucky Head Football Coaches 1982-1989 |
Succeeded by Bill Curry |
[edit] External links
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