KNOXVILLE — A legendary figure in the University of Tennessee’s storied history has passed away.
College Hall of Fame player and former Tennessee football head coach Johnny Majors died Wednesday.
He was 85.
Majors first came to UT as a player in 1953, where he played for the legendary Bowden Wyatt, a Tennessee alumnus who is in the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. Majors also played for coach Harvey Robinson on Rocky Top.
Majors was a single-wing tailback for the Volunteers where he shined as both a runner and a passer. He also returned kicks and punted for the Vols.
He was an All-America standout in in 1956. That same season, he was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. Majors finished second to Notre Dame’s Paul Hornung, who played on a 2-8 team. The Vols went 10-1 and won the Southeastern Conference championship.
Majors, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987, was a two-time SEC Player of the Year in 1955 and 1956.
Professionally, Majors played briefly for the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes.
Later that year, he returned to Rocky Top where he served as a graduate assistant coach under Wyatt.
Majors later coached the backfield at Tennessee between 1958-59.
He then served as a defensive backs coach at Mississippi State and as an assistant coach at Arkansas under the legendary Frank Broyles.
In 1968, he got his first head coaching job at Iowa State, where he guided the Cyclones for five seasons. In Ames, he had a record of 24-30-1.
In his two campaigns there, Majors guided the Cyclones to back-to-back bowl games, losing in the Sun Bowl. Iowa State went 8-4 that year. The following year, he went 5-6-1 and lost in the Liberty Bowl.
In 1973, Majors went to Pittsburgh. He coached the Panthers for four seasons. He led them to the national championship in 1976. That year, he coached the legendary Tony Dorsett, who won the Heisman Trophy. Pittsburgh went 12-0 that season.
Majors then took over as head coach at Tennessee, where he coached from 1977-92, winning three SEC titles in 1985, 1989 and 1990.
He was the SEC Coach of the Year in 1985.
At UT, Majors compiled a record of 116-62-8.
He was forced to resign in Knoxville in 1992.
He would return to Pittsburgh for his final four seasons of coaching, He went 12-32 upon returning, but later served as an athletic administrator for the Panthers.