By Chris Stevens
Archie “Gunslinger” Cooley, the coach who put together one of the greatest offenses in college football history, died Thursday at age 83.
Cooley was an HBCU lifer, playing at Jackson State from 1959-1961, graduating in 1962. After a high school head coach stint, he began his collegiate career as the defensive line and linebackers coach at Alcorn State before moving on to Tennessee State to serve as linebackers coach.
However, his first head coaching job at Mississippi Valley State would turn Archie Cooley into “The Gunslinger.”
Two significant athletes, quarterback Willie “Satellite” Totten and a receiver from Starkville named Jerry Rice, would become the stars of Cooley’s”Satellite Express” offense, a five-wide, no-huddle attack that would later be copied by the Houston Oilers of the NFL, known as the “Run N’ Shoot” offense.
Totten and Rice terrorized defenders during the 1984 season on the way to the Delta Devils’ first and only NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (then Division I-AA) tournament appearance.
Rice caught 112 passes for 1,845 yards, both FCS records at the time, and the 27 touchdown catches he hauled in were an all-division NCAA record. Totten spread the wealth around, throwing a then-NCAA record 58 touchdown passes until he was tied by Hawaii’s Colt Brennan in 2006.
Cooley finished his time at Valley with a 42-27-2 record before leading Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s transition from an NAIA school to a D-1 and SWAC program. Cooley finished 27-13-2 at UAPB and, after a brief stint at Norfolk State, was out of coaching until he took over at Paul Quinn University in 2000. His career mark as a coach was 83-75-5.
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