Pepper Rodgers

pepper rodgers
Franklin C. “Pepper” Rodgers, one of college and professional football’s all-time most innovative and colorful personalities, died Thursday evening at Reston Hospital Center in Reston, VA from complications after sustaining a fall at his home. He was 88 years old.

Few people have enjoyed the wonderful life and success that Pepper Rodgers achieved, both on and off the gridiron. His was a life well lived, but it certainly didn’t come easily for him. Pepper’s football life is a story underscored by extreme loyalty to his players and coaches, and a ‘never say quit’ philosophy. In a recent interview prior to the 2018 Sugar Bowl, where he was inducted into the first Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame class, Pepper said, “I had a lot of chances to throw it in when things didn’t go exactly as I wanted. The most important thing I have learned in my life is that you can’t win if you quit…It doesn’t mean that you will be an All-American, it just means you aren’t going to let someone else decide for you how fit you are. You gotta be ready for when your time comes.”

Pepper Rodgers’ lasting impact on football is not just about wins and losses (101-93-2 combined as a college and pro head coach) or championships. Rather, Pepper’s rightful place in college and professional football history has been assured through the innovation and the ‘ahead-of-his-time thinking’ he brought to the game, as well as the admiration of the scores of men who had the privilege to play or coach under “Peppah.'' He was a successful football coach because he was a truly inspiring and caring man who taught his players and coaches to never quit no matter what the obstacles.

Pepper often cited the career successes of his assistant coaches and former players as his proudest legacy. Some of the greatest names in college and professional football got their starts as assistants on Rodgers’ staffs at UCLA, Georgia Tech and Kansas. In fact, Terry Donahue, and Steve Spurrier got their first coaching jobs from Pepper; Carl Peterson, John Cooper, Jerry Glanville, Doug Weaver, Don Fambrough, Dick Tomey, Dave McLain, Ed Emory, Dave Fagg, Homer Smith, Sandy Buda, Charlie Taffe, Bill Curry and so many other great coaches also served as assistants on Pepper’s staffs.

Pepper taught his players and coaches the values of responsibility and discipline. He taught them that there were more important things in life than football, starting with family, education, and personal reputations.

Pepper also demonstrated a lifelong loyalty to his former players and assistant coaches. Throughout his life, Pepper used the phone to reach out and chat with his former players, coaches and associates. He was known for methodically going through his Rolodex to reach out to his former players and coaches, doing his best to keep up with their lives and jobs, while offering encouragement and assistance.

Pepper was ahead of his time in many aspects of the modern game of football. Pepper was a “players coach” at a time when many of the big names in coaching were often unapproachable. He prided himself on having strong relationships with his players – opting to treat them as men. He never lost sight that they also were young men playing a game. A free spirit, Pepper coached the way he thought would get the most out of his players. He was often dubbed a rebel, but hindsight shows that he was ahead of his time in so many ways.

Rodgers was among the very first, if not the first, to bring TV cameras onto the sidelines and into locker rooms at halftime and the first coach to allow a female reporter, Rheta Grimsley Johnson of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, into the locker room. He also changed the dynamic of coaches’ Sunday morning TV shows, transforming them from low-rated rehashes of game film to provocative talk show formats. He’d often include celebrities from the business, political and sports worlds, and engage them in spirited debates. More often than not, Pepper’s controversial wishbone offense and its reliance on the running game generated the liveliest give and take. In one memorable 1979 show, Presidential contenders Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, as well as actress Dyan Cannon, pressed Pepper on why his teams didn’t pass the ball more often!

Pepper developed star quarterbacks such as Bobby Douglas at the University of Kansas and Heisman Trophy winners Steve Spurrier at Florida and Gary Beban at UCLA. Additionally, Pepper tutored 15 All-Americans, including John Riggins, Bobby Douglas and John Zook of Kansas; Kermit Johnson, Al Oliver, Jimmy Allen, Dave Dalby, Efren Herrera, James McAlister and Fred McNeill of UCLA; and Randy Rhino, Lucius Sanford, Don Bessilieu, Eddie Lee Ivery and Leo Tierney of Georgia Tech. Pepper was also well known for his colorful quotes. He was a sportswriter’s dream in that regard. After his UCLA Bruins whipped Stanford 59-21, setting a conference record 621 yards on the ground, a reporter asked Rodgers about his team’s lack of passing. He answered, “The four most important things in life to me are fast backs, big linemen, beautiful women and good music. At two in the afternoon, it’s fast backs and big linemen. After six, its beautiful women and good music. And, hot damn if it ain’t after six!”

***

Franklin Cullen Rodgers, Jr. was born on October 8, 1931 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Louise and Franklin C. Rodgers Sr.

A three-sport athlete at Brown High School in Atlanta, he was all-state in each. Pepper often said he was a better basketball player than football player, having won a state championship in that sport. He also excelled at tennis and golf. Pepper could sing, play the ukulele and harmonica, and even tap dance! After graduating from Georgia Tech, he flew jets as an Air Force pilot, including the F-105 Thunder Chief (nicknamed the “THUD”); he appeared in movies, on television, and was also an acclaimed author. “Fourth and Long Gone,” a novel published in 1985, is a bawdy tale of his experiences as a college football coach and recruiter. At the time of Pepper’s passing, the book was being turned into a screen play. He also wrote an autobiography: “Pepper,” written with Al Thomy.

And what about that nickname Pepper? Blame Pepper’s grandfather, who named him after Pepper Martin, the feisty infielder of Gas House Gang fame, who played in the 1930s for the St. Louis Cardinals!

Rodgers played college football at Georgia Tech under legendary head coach Bobby Dodd. Pepper was part of Georgia Tech’s most glorious football era, helping the Jackets to a 32-2-2 record during the ’51, ’52 and ’53 seasons as place kicker and quarterback. Earning the reputation as the quarterback people said ‘couldn’t do anything but win,’ Pepper started only six games in his college career, but he made the most of them. In three of those games, Pepper led his team to victories in the Orange Bowl in 1952, where is undefeated 12-0 team won a share of the national championship, and the Sugar Bowl in both 1953 and then 1954, where he won MVP honors after leading Tech to a 42-19 victory over a West Virginia club that included future NFL Hall of Famer Sam Huff. In that game, Rodgers completed 16 of 26 passes that included three touchdowns. He also kicked four extra points and a field goal.

After his playing days, Pepper embarked on a storied college and professional coaching career. He often said, “I always knew I wanted to be a coach.”

After graduating from Georgia Tech in 1954, and assistant coaching stints at the the Air Force Academy, University of Florida and UCLA, Pepper became one of the youngest head football coaches in the country when he was named to his first head coaching position at the University of Kansas in December of 1966. His 1968 team was the first nine-win team in 60 years of Kansas football, winning the Big Eight Conference title and a berth in the 1969 Orange Bowl. Rodgers was twice named Big Eight Coach of the Year at Kansas, and was Runner-Up National Coach of the Year in 1969.

Pepper then took over for his mentor Tommy Prothro at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1971. After a two-win first year in Westwood, he guided UCLA to a 17-5 record the next two seasons, including an 8-3 record in 1972, finishing 17th in the nation and 9-2 in 1973, finishing 9th in the nation. In 1972, running the wishbone offense, his Bruins were the top team in PAC-8 Conference history, while ranking second nationally. With junior college transfer quarterback Mark Harmon in 1972, the Bruins upset top-ranked and two-time defending champion Nebraska in the season opener, snapping the Huskers' 32-game unbeaten streak.

Then, Pepper’s alma mater Georgia Tech came calling. Pepper departed Westwood and an almost certain dynasty in the making at UCLA for his alma mater Georgia Tech. He was hired as the sixth full-time head football coach in Tech history in December of 1973. Despite facilities that hadn’t been improved since his playing days, Pepper compiled a record of 34-31-2 in six seasons as the Tech head coach. He saw 24 of his players selected in the NFL draft including a pair of first round selections in 1978 in Eddie Lee Ivery and Kent Hill. Pepper was dismissed in 1979 after going 4-6-1, despite steering Tech through several difficult years when the university left the Southeast Conference to become an independent.

It would be four years before Pepper coached again. In 1984 he became the first and only head coach of a team that could have been named for him, the Memphis Showboats, joining the professional coaching ranks for the first time. There he compiled a 19-19 record, and helped to launch the professional career of another future NFL Hall of Famer, Reggie White.

After the USFL folded, Pepper used his considerable marketing and communications talents to spearhead a bid for an NFL expansion franchise for the city of Memphis, working with an ownership group first headed by Fred Smith of FedEx, then later William “Billy” Dunavant of Dunavant Enterprises. Pepper worked tirelessly on this quest, packing the Liberty Bowl multiple times for exhibition games, but in the end the bid failed, largely because Memphis was judged not to have the demographics nor an adequate facility to support and house an NFL franchise.

The Canadian Football League's Memphis Mad Dogs came to town in 1995, and once again, Pepper answered the call. His team finished 9-9 in its first year, but the team folded after only one season.

Five years later, Pepper was tapped to serve as the Washington Redskins Director of Football Operations from 2001 to 2004. At age 69, Pepper was considered for the Redskins' head coaching position before Norv Turner's eventual firing during the 2000 season.

When asked by a reporter 25 years ago how he would like to be remembered, Pepper said, “I wouldn’t want someone to write on my gravestone that Pepper Rodgers won this many games and lost this many... I want them to say that Pepper Rodgers coached football, but he was a nice fellow.”

For his exploits as a player and coach, Pepper was inducted in the Georgia Tech, Georgia Sports, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and the University of Kansas Halls of Fame.

One former player of Rodgers’ who went on to be an athletic director at a major college football power said, “Coach Rodgers ranks at the top of football coaches I have been affiliated with. He was an innovator, a teacher, a mentor, an entertainer and one of the best football minds ever to coach college football.”

After retiring from football, Pepper and his wife Livingston made their home in Reston, VA.

Pepper is survived by his loving wife of 45 years, Janet Lake Livingston, known as Livingston Rodgers; sons Rick (Nicole), Kelly and Kyle; daughter Terri (Randy); six grandchildren Elizha, Christopher, Morgan, Avery, Franklin III and Catherine Egan; and one great-granddaughter Zooey.

There will be a celebration of Pepper’s storied life at a later time when we can gather together.

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  1. I’m sorry to hear other passing a pepper Rodgers it was a charismatic coach and person. I remember meeting him during meet the Showboats in Memphis. After my son got his picture taken with the showboat cheerleaders we ran into coach pepper and he said why don’t you get your picture taken with a couple of these big old boys one of the guys was Ken Smith . I remember Ken saying and telling us now that’s what a football coach should be. Thank you Pepper for putting in the effort to get us a football team rest in peace

    • RIP Coach. You gave us (the Tech Class of 1977) some great football memories in the mid 70’s. You were truly one of a kind. You loved the student body and the student body truly loved you.

  2. From all Brown High School, Atlanta, Alumni, our deepest condolences to the family of one of our superstars and most respected Rebel…. May his memory and legacy live on and May he Rest In Paradise❤️

  3. I was a freshman at Tech when Coach Rodgers came back to GT in 1974, over the next couple of years I ran into Coach many times while walking to and from classes. He was always approachable, friendly and willing to strike up a conversation. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that had this opportunity but those short conversations really did help me get through my time at Tech. I never had a chance to thank Coach for his time so I’d like to thank him now and let everyone know that he was a hell of a nice fellow! …RIP Coach! ….Mark U.

  4. Dear Livingston and the rest of the Pepper Rodgers family: My wife Valerie and I are lifelong Georgia Tech sports fans. Although we never knew Pepper personally, he was by far our favorite of all the coaches we’ve had at Georgia Tech. We loved him because of his unique philosophy: all business on the field, and all fun ‘n good times off. Which, we have learned from him, is the best and only way to go in the coaching profession. We also loved Pepper because he was always the same, from his playing days to his coaching days at the collegiate and professional levels, and on through during his retirement. He was always delightfully young, and he kept that same youthful enthusiasm to the end. He truly epitomized the Georgia Tech spirit. Please allow Valerie and I to share with you a section of one of our favorite poems, about a young runner, written by the English Victorian poet A.E. Housman in 1896. Entitled “To an Athlete Dying Young,” the appropriate section reads as follows: Now you will no longer swell the rout Of lads who wore their honours out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man. Pepper’s name will never die. We loved the man; we will always remember him; and we are now telling our children about him. With our deepest condolences, Jim and Valerie Wood

  5. I played for Coach Rodgers at Georgia Tech. He was very much a player’s coach and loved the game. I will always have great memories of playing for Coach. RIP

  6. RIP Coach Pepper Rodgers! I’m honored that you called me a few years ago. I thank you coming to Memphis to take my Father to University OF Kansas in 1965 to continue higher education and to play football and run track at the college level due to Memphis State not allowing any Afro American on there team in 1965. Thanks for giving my Father a chance to play for you and taking the 1968 Team to the Orange Bowl. Thanks for my talking Maynard Bird Henry, as a little girl. HENRY could say “Rock Chalk Jayhawk, KU”better than a cheerleader…lol Thanks for entrusting my parents, John “Johnnie”Jackson and Velma to babysit your children during your time at KU. Thanks for making your way back to Memphis years later to coach the Memphis Showboats! What a wonderful time that was! Prayers of peace and comfort to your Family. Honored to go back to Univ. KANSAS with my dad for his 50th reunion of the 1968 Orange Bowl Team. What a great group of guys you got to coach. Just like the picture “Once a Jayhawk, ALWAYS a Jayhawk” Rock Chalk JAYHAWKS KU? #orangebowl? #Jayhawkforlife #KUALUMNI #kufootball #kurelays


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