W.C. Gorden, legendary JSU coach and a most gentlemanly winner, dies at 90
By Rick Cleveland
Mississippi Today
Today is a football Saturday, a good day to remember the life of W.C. Gorden, the
College Football Hall of Fame coach who died Friday at the age of 90 in his adopted hometown of Jackson.
First thing’s first: W.C., whom I considered a good friend, was a terrific coach and a better person, always seeming on such an even, gentlemanly keel. He was a sports writer’s dream, a quote machine.
W.C., who knew a thing or two about winning, once told me what “victory” meant to him.
“Victory makes your coffee sweeter and your food taste so much better,” he said. “It makes your jazz sound smoother,
the sun shine brighter. It makes your wife look more beautiful. It even makes you sleep better and dream sweeter. Victory makes all the difference in the world.”
For most of his coaching life, Gorden’s coffee must have tasted mighty sweet and his wife was surely a knockout. Over 15 seasons at Jackson State’s head coach, his Tigers won 119 games, lost just 48 and tied 5. In the SWAC, they won 79 and lost 21.
Let’s put it this way:
Deion Sanders would love to be so successful.
And here is the stat of this football week: During Gorden’s 15 seasons at the helm, Jackson State won eight conference championships. In the 28 seasons since, the Tigers have won three.
He won those championships in the SWAC’s heyday, when
Eddie Robinson was the head coach at Grambling, when Marino Casem, The Godfather, was coaching at JSU’s arch-rival Alcorn and, for a while there, Archie Cooley, The Gunslinger, was at Mississippi Valley. Gorden, nicknamed The Jazzman for the music he dearly loved, just won.
Gorden won eight SWAC championships in 15 seasons at Jackson State. The Tigers have won three SWAC titles in the 28 seasons since.
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