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Woody's Ramblings
Friday, December 7, 2012
By Woody Peele |
'Curse of
the Pirate' strikes again
By
Woody Peele.
©2012 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
The grass may be greener
on the other side of the fence, but for football coaches who leave East
Carolina, it turns out to be a graveyard.
The latest victim of what
some fans might call “The Curse of the Pirate” occurred last week when
South Florida put the axe to Skip Holtz, who led East Carolina to two
Conference USA championships before suddenly skipping out of Greenville.
Holtz and the Bulls suffered through one of the worst seasons in
football this past season.
Holtz had left East
Carolina to be closer to his and his wife’s families in Florida. Of
course, with USF's buyout of his contract, he probably doesn’t have to
worry about how to live for the next few years.
I first came to Greenville
back in 1964 when Clarence Stasavich was the head coach with the
Pirates. He eventually was the first coach to leave that profession that
I covered, stepping off the sidelines to become ECU's fulltime athletic
director, a position he held until his death.
Stas compiled a 50-27-1
record as he led the Pirates to three straight nine-win seasons and
three consecutive bowl games as the school moved up from the NAIA to the
NCAA ranks.
In 1970, Mike McGee was
hired as the new coach, leading the Pirates to a 3-8 record in his lone
year on the job. He left to take the head coaching job at his alma
mater, Duke, where he posted a losing record before moving into a
successful career in administration.
Sonny Randle (22-10), who
had been an ECU assistant under McGee, was handed the Pirates' reigns
and, after a first-year losing season, followed up with two Southern
Conference championships. Bbut the Pirates were ignored by the bowls
those two years.
At the end of Randle’s
third year, grateful Pirate fans gave him a new car, which he promptly
drove to his alma mater, Virginia. His coaching stint in Charlottesville
turned into a debacle and a losing record. He later left the coaching
ranks for the broadcast booth.
When Randle took off, the
Pirates turned to a Georgia assistant, Pat Dye, who in six seasons
posted a 48-18-1 mark. His teams won one Southern Conference title
before ECU left that league for a 20-year run as an independent. He also
took the Pirates to the Independence Bowl where they beat Louisiana Tech
35-13.
During his stay in
Greenville, Dye was courted by a number of other schools, including N.C.
State. He resigned to have a shot at the Wolfpack position. When that
faded, he moved on to Wyoming, spending a year there before being hired
at Auburn.
At Auburn, Dye became the
only former Pirate coach to land on his feet, enjoying a successful
career before retiring.
When Dye left ECU, the
Pirates turned to one of their own in Ed Emory, who recorded a 26-29
record as he led the school for the next five years. After two losing
seasons, Emory led the Pirates to two outstanding seasons, 7-4 and 8-3.
In the latter, the three losses all came on the road in Florida. The
Pirates fell to Florida State, 47-46, to Florida, 24-17, and to national
champion Miami, 12-7. Despite those thrillers and an impressive season
the included wins at N.C. State and Missouri, the Pirates were again
ignored in the postseason.
Emory’s final team went
2-9 and he was fired after the 1984 season. He never again held a head
job in college, but finished out his career as a highly successful high
school coach.
Former Furman coach Art
Baker was next in the Pirates’ hopes for the future. As the head man for
the Paladins, Baker had been a big winner, but his four seasons at ECU
were not so successful as his teams went 12-32. Despite the fact that
Baker was well-liked, he also got the axe and never held another head
coaching position.
The Pirates then turned to
Bill Lewis as their next coach. In three seasons, Lewis’s Pirates went
21-12-1, including a 37-34 Peach bowl victory over N.C. State that
capped off an 11-1 season in 1991, earning the Pirates their first Top
10 AP ranking.
Again, however, the grass
on the other side of the fence beckoned and Lewis left for Georgia Tech.
After one good year, things went downhill and Lewis was eventually
fired. He, too, never served as a head coach again.
Steve Logan, a Lewis
assistant at ECU, then began what would be the longest tenure for a head
coach of the Pirates, staying 11 years before he was let go. His teams
went 69-58 and six of those years were winners. Five times East Carolina
went bowling under Logan.
But after going 4-8 in
2002, Logan was cut loose by the Pirates, again never holding a head
coaching position in college again. In the years since, his positions
have included NFL assistant and broadcast analyst.
ECU then turned to another
assistant coach in John Thompson, who lasted two seasons before being
fired. His 3-20 record was the worst modern mark for the Pirates. Like
many of his predecessors, Thompson hasn’t held a head coaching job since
then.
That brought on Skip
Holtz, who had been the head coach at Connecticut and held several
assistant jobs. After a 5-6 opening season, Holtz posted four straight
winning seasons, taking the Pirates to bowls in each of those, twice
capturing the Conference USA championship.
After the 2009 season,
Holtz left for South Florida, where his 2012 team went 2-10 and he
became the latest to feel the wrath of the Pirate.
Now the Pirates are led by
Ruffin McNeil, an ECU graduate, who has led the team to a 19-18 mark
going into next week’s New Orleans Bowl against Louisiana-Lafayette, his
second bowl appearance since taking the job.
When he assumed the helm
of the program that he was a part of during the Pay Dye era, McNeill
vowed that he would stay at East Carolina and would not seek to climb
that fateful fence. “They’ll have to fire me to get rid of me,” he said.
E-mail Woody Peele.
PAGE UPDATED
12/07/12 03:38 AM.
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