Portland State Magazine Spring 2007

Glanville-known as football's Man in Black, remembered for his success as an NFL coach in Atlanta and Houston, regarded as at least a little bit crazy-has PSU fans buzzing. out ofTurn 3 in Atlanta," he says. "My last race was at Michigan, and we were runnin' top four, top five all day. On that two-mile oval, you run 191 miles per hour all day. Runnin' 191 miles per hour is almost as good as bein' on the kickoff ream." He suffered severe burns in one race, but so what? "I was a French fry. They took skin out of my legs and put it in my arms. It's juse part of racin'," he says, casually. "You get back in the car and go again." legendary coaches George Allen (Washing– ton Redskins) , Paul Brown (Cincinnati Bengals), Paul "Bear" Bryant (Alabama) and Woody Hayes (Ohio State). He has long been on a first-name ba– sis with the kings and queens of coun– try music, from Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson to the late Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. He also loves the blues and Motown and spends a lot of time with John Mellencamp and Jerry JeffWalker. "Songwriters interest me," he says. "They can tell a total, complete story in three minutes." "I never thought I'd leave Georgia Tech," he says. But in 1977, he was recrui red by the Atlanta Free safety Micheal Dorsey (left) and linebacker Branden Brooks are learning coach Glanville's 3-4 defense this spring. Glanville's life story is a bit longer than chat. HE GREW UP in Perrysburg, Ohio, with his mother and older brother, Richard. His parents divorced when he was young. He starred in both football and base– ball as a boy. At Northern Michigan University, he stuck to football while majoring in physical education. After briefly teaching P.E., history, and driver's education at a high school in Ohio, he got his first college coaching job in 1967 as an assistant at Western Kentucky. From 1968 to 1973, he was at Geor– gia Tech, developing a reputation for coaching defense and stealing recruits from higher-profile schools. Glanville says he turned down job offers from 12 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE SPRING 2007 Falcons as defensive back coach. He lasted in the NFL through 1993, spending four-plus seasons as head coach of the Houston Oilers and four seasons as head coach of the Falcons. Atlanta fired him in '93 after his second consecutive 6-10 season. He knew nothing about TV, but Fox, which had just gained the rights to NFL games, enticed him and another rookie analyst, John Madden, into the broadcasting booth. A year lacer, Kansas City Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer wanted to hire Glanville as an assistant, but Glanville cold him he couldn't go back on his word to stay with Fox. He never got another shot at the NFL. "In my heart, ifl had to do it over again, I probably should have gone to Kansas City," he says. "Ir's funny how one yes or no changes the whole equation ." Glanville says he won't try to use Portland State as a steppingstone to something bigger. And retirement doesn't even sound like an option with him. "A teacher never quits teaching, a preacher never quits preaching. You are what you are," he says. GLANVILLE HAD BOUNDLESS energy then and still has it now. "I used to ask my mom, 'What did you do to make me like this, that I'm different, that every day I'm going 100 miles per hour?' She cold me she didn't do one thing, that from Day One it was wide open. And you know, it's never been shut down." That's the way he coaches, and that's how he expects his teams to play: wide open. His teams play hard and hit harder. "I've never had one player in my entire coaching career talk back to me or say they weren't going to do something I asked them to do. That's because I'm a teacher, and all our play– ers here at PSU will know that." -