Bulldawg Nation: Friday Night Lights

By Jack Welch
Copperas Cove AD/Head Coach

Several years ago the movie Friday Night Lights debuted. I knew several coaches in the movie and at a state coaching conference; I jokingly asked Scott Smith, the head coach at Odessa Permian and a character in the movie, why I wasn't in the movie. He said, "Jack, you are in the movie."

I did not think much about it until the fall when I went to watch the movie. At the beginning of the movie, there is a scene where the head coach and an assistant coach from Kansas Wesleyan University was in the Odessa Permian's quarterback's house.

After the movie, I googled Kansas Wesleyan University (KWU) and the website had an explanation of the scene.

Why did the writers use the KWU coach in that scene? I really do not know, but the buzz back then was how many Texas recruits KWU had on the team. I was the head coach at KWU in 1985 and 1986 and the collars of our coaching shirts had KWU embroidered on them, just like the movie. It was a fun time. I had great players and the reason there was so much a buzz about KWU having so many Texas players is because my father, Doyle, who recruited all over Texas.

When I took over as head coach in 1985, there were only three players returning.

Can you believe only three players were returning! Well the first year at KWU, the team started with 156 players and 98 were from Texas. The one Odessa Permian player that attended KWU was a great running back named Johnny Johnson. Johnny actually played for me at West Texas State University for two years and transferred to KWU in 1985, when I took the head job.

My father was a recruiting machine. Since he was retired, he could be on the road fulltime.
The college provided him with a car and an expense account. Although the expense reimbursements did not cover all of his expenses he had to pay for many of the expenses out of his pocket.

I was too young to really understand the sacrifice my father was making for me. At that time, I was the youngest head college coach in America at the age of 27 and I needed help with recruiting. Dad was so good in recruiting that the college asked him if he would recruit cheerleaders and a dance team as well. He did! By golly, before all was said and done, my Dad had recruited over 125 football players, 15-20 cheerleaders and about 65 dance team members. Dad personally recruited over 200 students to KWU.

Now the rest of the story! I was so excited about being a college head coach and working full speed that I did not learn until years later when I became the head coach at KWU, the school was in financial trouble and was about to close. KWU had less than 300 students in attendance and the faculty had missed two paydays during the school year. When the college saw how productive my Dad was in recruiting, they asked him to recruit other students to the university. At that time, the KWU did not even have a dance team. Therefore, Dad recruited girls to a "new" dance team program. Carol, my wife, became the dance team instructor. In our first year at KWU, the enrollment soared to almost 600 students. Years later the President of the university, Marshall Stanton, called and said there had been a top 10 list of miracles posted for KWU and that Dad and I were on the list. Well, I should not have been on the list, Dad was the miracle worker. He did all the work and made a huge difference for the football program and the entire University. In two short years, the football team experienced a complete turnaround. We inherited the nation's longest losing streak in college football and had a winning season in our second year. After two years, I took another head college coaching job and several of the KWU players transferred to Pittsburg State University (PSU) and played for Dennis Francione, now head coach at Texas State University. Several of the transfers started for the Gorilla football team at PSU in 1987 and won the NCAA Division II national title. Coach Francione asked me, how in the world we had that quality of players at a small NAIA university. I said DAD!

Every year, I watch the movie Friday Night Lights and that scene brings back the memory of my father. I was blessed and wished I could tell him how thankful I am to have had such a great dad, who sacrificed time, money and effort to help me be successful. After the Kansas Wesleyan University experience, Dad became a preacher and gave the same service to our Lord. I believe even better recruiting results were made in God's kingdom. If you have enjoyed reading this story, please do me a favor. Go tell your parents-THANKS. Dad passed away last year but I still say, "Thanks Dad!"

Thought for the week, "Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
Franklin P. Jones