Legendary Tennessee football coach Johnny Majors has died, his family and the school announced Wednesday. He was 85.
Jimmy Hyams, a longtime sports writer and radio host in Tennessee, published the following statement from Majors’ wife of 61 years, Mary Lynn Majors, on his blog Wednesday.
“It’s with a sad heart that we make this announcement,” Mary Lynn Majors said. “John passed away this morning. He spent his last hours doing something he dearly loved: looking out over his cherished Tennessee River.”
Majors coached at Tennessee from 1977-92, winning 116 games and SEC championships in 1985, 1989 and 1990. He underwent open heart surgery early in the 1992 season, and was forced out at the end of the year in favor of assistant coach Phillip Fulmer, who had been interim coach during Majors’ absence.
Majors’ greatest coaching success came at Pittsburgh in 1976, where he went 12-0 and won the national championship behind Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett. He left immediately after that season to replace Bill Battle as head coach of the Volunteers.
Majors also coached at Iowa State from 1968-72, and returned to Pittsburgh for four mediocre seasons following his tenure at Tennessee. Overall, he had a record of 185-137-10 in 29 years as a college head coach.
After a standout career at Huntland (Tenn.) High School, Majors was a star halfback at Tennessee from 1953-56. He was SEC Player of the Year in 1955 and 1956, and Heisman Trophy runner-up to Notre Dame’s Paul Hornung as a senior.
Majors was one of three brothers who played for the Volunteers, and the son of Sewanee football coach Shirley Majors. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987.