http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/07/30/sports/sports03.txt
FRITZ NEIGHBOR: Good idea, even if it wasn't his
By FRITZ NEIGHBOR of the Missoulian
Leaving tickets for Elvis Presley wasn't Jerry Glanville's idea. Nor was it is his idea to leave tickets for D.B. Cooper. To hear him tell it, coaching the Portland State Vikings wasn't his idea.
“Two guys I love asked me to go there,” said Glanville, while holding court at the Big Sky Conference Football Kickoff in Utah a couple weeks ago. “That was June Jones and Mouse Davis. Or I wouldn't have even applied for the job.”
Glanville applied and was hired to replace Tim Walsh, who left to join the Army football program, and it's been no looking back, only forward. OK, there's been some looking back. Glanville's history is just too good.
Asked about leaving tickets for Presley, Glanville reminds those present that it only happened once - “It's sort of got a life of its own,” he said - and that it was Jones' idea. They were with the Houston Oilers, and were set to play an NFL exhibition game against the Patriots in Memphis, complete with a halftime show about Presley.
“We were driving to practice in a pickup truck in Texas, and it comes over the radio that Elvis was spotted at a Burger King in Michigan,” Glanville said. “June says, ‘Geez, we ought a leave tickets for him at the game.' ”
The tickets left for Cooper, the daredevil skyjacker, came the same season in Seattle.
“The FBI had to have agents out there and all that, so we got in trouble, because they had to pay people to see if he showed up,” Glanville said. “And that was Nick Saban's idea.”
I know what you're thinking: Nick Saban has a sense of humor? Apparently so, and Glanville was witness to it.
He's been witness to a lot, from an on-field confrontation with Pittsburgh coach Chuck Noll, to an NFL strike that had him, in his opinion, on the way to the Super Bowl.
“Everybody knew, ‘This (the strike) is over,' ” he said. “I had a kid named Brent Pease, a quarterback out of the University of Montana, and he comes in and learns everything in a week, plays good.
“They had to end the strike, or I was going to win the Super Bowl. Because who wins in a strike? The best high school coach.”
When Portland State opens its season Sept. 1 at McNeese State, it will be Glanville's first head coaching job in the college ranks. It will be interesting to see what a 65-year-old former NFL coach brings to the table.
Portland State wasn't broken when Walsh left, having gone 7-4 in 2006. The Vikings will have new uniforms, a new offense - or old, since Davis returns with his run-and-shoot - and probably a new demeanor on the field and off.
Glanville doesn't have contact during practice, he says, but come Saturdays the architect of Houston's “House of Pain” will want some hitting.
And some fans.
“I think the city could make the school the best job in the country,” he said. “We've got 2.5 million people. What if I get two percent of the people to love what we're doing?”
He would have 50,000 fans, more than will fit in PGE Park.
“I want the guy who never went to college,” he said. “I want the guy who went to Texas.
“Not everybody who goes to a Notre Dame game went to school there.”
Glanville says, “I loved the Big Sky when I never thought of being in it,” and talks about checking the league scores on bus rides to NFL games, wondering how the Bobcats did, since he started his collegiate career at MSU in 1959.
Now the Man in Black is back in the league. Even if it wasn't his idea.
FRITZ NEIGHBOR: Good idea, even if it wasn't his
By FRITZ NEIGHBOR of the Missoulian
Leaving tickets for Elvis Presley wasn't Jerry Glanville's idea. Nor was it is his idea to leave tickets for D.B. Cooper. To hear him tell it, coaching the Portland State Vikings wasn't his idea.
“Two guys I love asked me to go there,” said Glanville, while holding court at the Big Sky Conference Football Kickoff in Utah a couple weeks ago. “That was June Jones and Mouse Davis. Or I wouldn't have even applied for the job.”
Glanville applied and was hired to replace Tim Walsh, who left to join the Army football program, and it's been no looking back, only forward. OK, there's been some looking back. Glanville's history is just too good.
Asked about leaving tickets for Presley, Glanville reminds those present that it only happened once - “It's sort of got a life of its own,” he said - and that it was Jones' idea. They were with the Houston Oilers, and were set to play an NFL exhibition game against the Patriots in Memphis, complete with a halftime show about Presley.
“We were driving to practice in a pickup truck in Texas, and it comes over the radio that Elvis was spotted at a Burger King in Michigan,” Glanville said. “June says, ‘Geez, we ought a leave tickets for him at the game.' ”
The tickets left for Cooper, the daredevil skyjacker, came the same season in Seattle.
“The FBI had to have agents out there and all that, so we got in trouble, because they had to pay people to see if he showed up,” Glanville said. “And that was Nick Saban's idea.”
I know what you're thinking: Nick Saban has a sense of humor? Apparently so, and Glanville was witness to it.
He's been witness to a lot, from an on-field confrontation with Pittsburgh coach Chuck Noll, to an NFL strike that had him, in his opinion, on the way to the Super Bowl.
“Everybody knew, ‘This (the strike) is over,' ” he said. “I had a kid named Brent Pease, a quarterback out of the University of Montana, and he comes in and learns everything in a week, plays good.
“They had to end the strike, or I was going to win the Super Bowl. Because who wins in a strike? The best high school coach.”
When Portland State opens its season Sept. 1 at McNeese State, it will be Glanville's first head coaching job in the college ranks. It will be interesting to see what a 65-year-old former NFL coach brings to the table.
Portland State wasn't broken when Walsh left, having gone 7-4 in 2006. The Vikings will have new uniforms, a new offense - or old, since Davis returns with his run-and-shoot - and probably a new demeanor on the field and off.
Glanville doesn't have contact during practice, he says, but come Saturdays the architect of Houston's “House of Pain” will want some hitting.
And some fans.
“I think the city could make the school the best job in the country,” he said. “We've got 2.5 million people. What if I get two percent of the people to love what we're doing?”
He would have 50,000 fans, more than will fit in PGE Park.
“I want the guy who never went to college,” he said. “I want the guy who went to Texas.
“Not everybody who goes to a Notre Dame game went to school there.”
Glanville says, “I loved the Big Sky when I never thought of being in it,” and talks about checking the league scores on bus rides to NFL games, wondering how the Bobcats did, since he started his collegiate career at MSU in 1959.
Now the Man in Black is back in the league. Even if it wasn't his idea.
