My friend and high school teammate, former Alcorn State and NFL great Willie “Todd” Young, passed away here in Jackson last week. The 60-year old, who coached for nearly twenty years in the state’s high school football ranks, was eulogized in grand fashion Monday, as hundreds paid tribute to this coaching giant.
Young a 6-5, 270 offensive tackle, played five seasons in the NFL after a stellar career at Alcorn. He was drafted in the third round by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1970. He went on to play with O. J Simpson and the Buffalo Bills for two years and was on the 1973 Championship Miami Dolphins team that finished the regular season 12-2 and that beat Minnesota 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII.
Interestingly, Young is among a half dozen or so Mississippians who have won a NFL Super Bowl Ring. He retired from the League in 1975 after being traded to the Oakland Raiders.
Young’s athletic journey began at Jackson’s Brinkley High School, a brand new high school in 1959. But in just two short years the Eagles of Brinkley High had begun to make a name for it’s self in both football and basketball. By 1961 Brinkley had won the city Championships in football and basketball. And a year later Brinkley, along with Hattiesburg’s Rowan, were dominating the Southern Division of the Big-8 Conference and vying for the state Championship in football. “Big Todd” as I have always called him, was a junior varsity player on the team at that time…big, strong and eager to learn but as gentle as lamb. Thus his football legacy had begun.
Former Kansas City Chief’s great Noland “Super Gnat” Smith, and also a Brinkley High school product of the early 60’s Championship era and a Tennessee State Alumni, remembered Young as a ninth grader. “You know Todd was in the group of young guys who came along behind us. We knew we had some outstanding young players who had great potential and talent and with the caliber of coaches we had in coach Mcbeth (Tyree) and coach Alexander (Charles), I knew Todd would go on to represent Brinkley High School well,” Smith said. Brinkley, in it’s short 11 year existence as a high school, producded three NFL stars, with the other one being Green Bay’s Ollie P. Smith.
Smith, who is a member of Hope Springs Baptist Church where coach Young served as a deacon, said his death came as a surprise to him because he saw him help with the baptizing a week earlier at the church. “It was a big shock to me, but as shown by the outpouring at his funeral, he lived a life that was a testimony of his strong religious belief, his caring and love for his family and his players. It also reflected how much so many people, young and old and from all walks of life, appreciated him.”
Young coached at several Mississippi high schools, compiling an 89-76-3 record at Velma Jackson, Greenville’s Wesson and Lanier. He put Velma Jackson on the high school football map and won a Class 2-A Divisional Championship in 2001 while at the Camden (Miss.) School.
Jackson Provide’s High School coach Willie Collins, the dean of JPS coaches has known Young since his playing days and coached against him. “He was a great college and NFL player and an excellent coach who could motivate his players. And he enjoyed working with young athletics… he was a tremendous teacher.”
Young Stepped down from coaching after the 2006 season at Lanier because of health reasons but continued to teach physical education at Jim Hill High School. He said at the time, “I needed to be in a situation where I could still relate to young people and tell them the difference between right and wrong and to point them in the proper direction.”
He was inducted into the Alcorn State University Hall of Fame in 2001.
Former Jackson State football coach W. C. Gorden, who attended the funeral, remembered Young as a player at Brinkley High School.
Gorden was the coach at Eva Gordon High in Magnolia (Miss.) from 1961-1965. “He had all the tools back then…tall with big arms, big hands, big shoulders and a big body. He was a good football player but with a respectable and humble manner… and that was very impressive to me.”
A dream of his was to be the head football coach of his Alma Mater. He told me in 1998 before Johnny Thomas was selected as the coach that he would have taken the job for nothing. “But they (Alcorn) never called me,” he said. Of course he never put he name in pot either. But what if…just what if he had? It certainly couldn’t have been any worst.
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