Troy University Athletics
Blakeney Set For Hall of Fame Induction
5/27/2009 7:15:00 PM | Football
Larry Blakeney will enter his 40th year as a football coach this fall when he leads the Troy University Trojans onto the field.
While the season will in great part be the same as the previous 39, the thrill and excitement he will feel when he leads his team onto the field will be just at strong as it was the first time. The difference for Blakeney is when he leads the Trojans out against Bowling Green to open his 19th season, he will have a new title, one that has taken a lifetime to earn ? Hall of Famer.
Blakeney will join seven other distinguished honorees this Saturday evening when he takes his place as a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be held at the Sheraton Civic Center in the Birmingham Ballroom at 7 p.m. Tickets are available for $125 each and can be purchased by calling 205-323-6665.
Tickets are also available by clicking here.
Joining Blakeney in the class of 2009 are Steve Bolt, Tommy Brooker, Jimmy Key, Janelle Godfrey, Charley Hannah, Lee May and John Mitchell. The class will bring the total number of members of the Hall of Fame to 281, a list that includes five of the top 15 all-time athletes, according to ESPN.
The road to the Hall of Fame for Blakeney started in Gordo, Ala., where he played football, baseball and basketball. It was during those years as an impressionable youth when he was struck by the power of athletics.
“I played for a great man, Tommy White, who actually played on Coach Bryant's first national championship team at Alabama,” Blakeney said. “Coach White had a great influence over all of us back then. Being around him for four years, having some success as a team, had an effect on us, and a profound effect on me.
“That is what has always guided me, and brought me back to wanting to be a coach. I wanted to have that same effect on other people.”
But it wasn't just sports in Gordo that formed his foundation, it was the entire community.
“My mom and dad were great people, and both of them worked, but we were raised well by them,” Blakeney said. “There was always someone else around if we needed them ? preachers, teachers, coaches or just older guys in the neighborhood who set good examples. It was a good place to be raised.
“Growing up in Gordo set a lot of us up to be successful in college, not only in athletics, but in a lot of different areas. We had great teachers who made academics important to us. It was a great place, but I have been in a lot of other great places and around a lot of great people.”
Many of the biggest influences on Blakeney came from his time as both a player and coach at Auburn University. That list starts with legendary coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan, but includes Bobby Freeman, Doug Barfield and Pat Dye.
Blakeney played for Jordan and Freeman at Auburn, the latter as his quarterbacks coach, but Jordan's coaching style had the greatest impact on Blakeney's personal coach philosophy.
“Coach Jordan presented himself as a southern gentlemen, which he was, but he was also tough as nails,” Blakeney said. “He was, in my opinion, an innovative football coach. He was able to change and adapt to his personnel, which is something I think I learned from him. We've tried to do that here, to take what we have and make it as good as it can be.”
During his time as a player at Auburn, there was another coach in the state who Blakeney was able to learn from.
“You learned a lot from Coach Bryant if you were across the field from him or across from him recruiting,” Blakeney said.
But it was opportunities to beat the legendary coach that stand out as memorable games for Blakeney. In 1969, as a fifth-year senior, Auburn snapped a five-game losing streak to Alabama with a 49-26 victory. Years later, in 1982, Blakeney was on Dye's staff when Auburn snapped a nine-game losing streak to Alabama in Bryant's final season.
“I didn't play much in 1969, but I was on the team and labored through those losses until we won my fifth-year senior season,” Blakeney said. “As a coach, being on the staff that beat Coach Bryant to end a nine-game streak was tremendous. That was an exciting time at Auburn.”
Between his days as a player and coach at Auburn, Blakeney made an impact as a high school coach. He made three stops over seven seasons and, despite going to two schools with long histories of losing, he never had a losing season.
“My first coaching job was at Southern Academy in Greensboro and the families there became extended families for me,” Blakeney said. “At Walker High School in Jasper I took over a program that had lost 33 of 40 over four years. I moved on Vestavia where they had never won more than three in a season and we won five the first year and nine the second.”
But, after that second year at Vestavia, he got a call from Coach Barfield at Auburn, making his goal of becoming a college coach a reality. He spent the next 14 years at his alma mater, coaching first for Barfield and then for Dye.
“I had a goal to get into college coaching through coaching high school football and I was able to accomplish that through Doug Barfield and Pat Dye,” Blakeney said. “Doug Barfield gave me the chance and Pat Dye gave me a chance to stay on at Auburn.
“I truly treasure the opportunity I had to work for Doug Barfield and Pat Dye. Both were very good football coaches. The timing of the two was totally different. Coach Barfield went through some tough times and fought it for longer than anyone possibly could today, and Coach Dye came in there and ran with it and had a lot of success.”
The success under Dye included four Southeastern Conference titles and nine consecutive bowl trips. During his 14 years at Auburn, the Tigers compiled an overall record of 114-46-4, a winning percentage of better than 70 percent.
In 1991, Blakeney got a chance to run his own program and, for the last 18 years, he has been the face of the Troy program. During his tenure, Troy University football has grown from a Division II power, through Division I-AA into a three-time conference championship team in Division I.
“Coaching at Troy University has been the opportunity of a lifetime for me,” Blakeney said. “I've been at Troy long enough, and we have changed divisions, that it seems like I have had three jobs here instead of one. Troy is home and has been good to me. Hopefully, I have been good for Troy.”
Blakeney's record at Troy stands at 144-73-1, ranking him fourth on the victory list among all college coaches ever in the state of Alabama. Only Bryant (232), Cleve Abbott of Tuskegee (203) and Jordan (176) rank ahead of him, and all served as head coach in the state for at least seven more years.
At his current pace of eight wins per season, he'll catch Jordan early in the 2012 season.
“I hope that I still have some years left,” Blakeney said. “I am not ready to retire, even though I could. I still enjoy trying to work this puzzle out every year and help these kids grow into manhood.”
Blakeney said the thing that has always made it fun for him to come to work is the people who have worked for him. That continues today with a coaching staff he says is the best he has ever had.
“I don't even know where to start when it comes to guys who have worked for me,” Blakeney said. “We've had so many who have gone on to work in the SEC, ACC, NFL and other places ? some as assistants and others as head coaches.
“I am so proud of the staff that I have here now. In total, this may be the best staff I have ever had. These guys all understand the philosophy of the program, which is the players are number one, and they all understand our philosophy in recruiting. As far as the coaching part, they are very good at what they do. They are loyal to me and loyal to Troy.”
But, before he coaches another game for the Trojans, Blakeney will step up to a podium at the Sheraton Hotel in Birmingham on Saturday to be recognized for what he has already accomplished.
“I hope that I am calm on Saturday,” Blakeney said. “I am a reluctant recipient. I know it is a tremendous honor, but I also know how many people it has taken to put me on that podium.”
