Former Kansas football coach Pepper Rodgers dies at the age of 88
Pepper Rodgers, head coach of the the 1968 Kansas Jayhawks football team, which fell to Penn State, 15-14, in the 1969 Orange Bowl, has died at the age of 88.
“He passed away two hours or so ago. He was a great guy. (He) loved KU,” Terry Donahue, an assistant coach on Rodgers’ KU coaching staff, told The Star at 9 p.m. on Thursday.
According to Los Angeles Times beat reporter Ben Bolch, “Rogers fell in his home bathroom Saturday (in Virginia) and suffered arterial bleeding that preceded a stroke and heart attack. He was removed from life support today. Only two family members were allowed to be with him in his final hours because of restrictions related to COVID-19.”
The Jayhawks, who went 9-2 during that magical ’68 season, had a roster that included John Riggins, Bobby Douglass, John Zook, Ron Jessie and Larry Brown. That squad tied Oklahoma for the Big Eight title. Since then, the only other conference title came in 2007 when KU tied for first in the Big 12 North Division.
Rodgers is known for hiring a star-studded 1968 KU coaching staff that included: John Cooper, who went on to be head coach at Ohio State, Donahue (UCLA), Don Fambrough (Kansas), Dave McClain (Wisconsin) and Dick Tomey (Arizona).
Rodgers, who was born in Atlanta (his full name is Franklin Cullen Rodgers) was head coach at KU from 1967 to 70. He was just 35 years old when hired by former KU athletic director Wade Stinson. At the time Rodgers had experience as an assistant coach at Air Force, Florida, Virginia and UCLA.
He compiled a 20-22 record at KU. Included was a 9-2 mark in 1968, a 5-5 record in 1967, 1-9 in 1969 and 5-6 in 1970.
Rodgers left Kansas after the 1970 season to coach UCLA. He had a 19-12-1 record in three seasons as coach of the Bruins. His 1972 UCLA team went 8-3 and 1973 team 9-2.
He went on to coach at his alma mater, Georgia Tech (1974-79), where he went 34-31-2. His career college record as a head coach was 73-65-3.
Rodgers also went on to coach the Memphis Showboats of the USFL and Memphis MadDogs, a team that played in the Canadian Football League one season (1995). With the Showboats, he was the first professional coach of Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White.
He also served as director of football from 2001 to 2004 in the NFL for Washington. At 69, he was considered for Washington’s head coaching position but did not get the job.
Rodgers returned to KU during the 2016 season to spend his 85th birthday at Memorial Stadium where the Jayhawks lost to TCU 24-23.
Rodgers was known as a colorful personality as a coach.
“If football came down to personality, Franklin “Pepper’’ Rodgers never would have lost a game,” wrote I.J. Rosenberg for the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper in 2015. “The former Atlanta high school star, Georgia Tech quarterback and head coach has lived a life of Riley (a carefree, comfortable, and thoroughly enjoyable way of living) that even Riley would have envied, and wherever Pepper goes he is still the life of the party,” Rosenberg added.
“Pepper Rodgers did cartwheels on the field. He drove his Harley onto the sidelines. He had his own talk show. He sometimes wore a wig. He played a guitar for the team. He sang Christmas carols on television. And damn he could coach some option football,” Spencer Stueve, UCLA athletics historian, wrote on Twitter.
Stueve also posted a quote of Rodgers, who once said in Pepper’s own autobiography: “If I weren’t coaching football, I might be dancing on a television reality show. I could have been a tap dancer. Or a vocalist. But not a clarinetist.”
Rodgers was a star quarterback/kicker at Georgia Tech.
Playing for Bobby Dodd, his three teams (freshmen were ineligible) went 32-2-2 and won a piece of the national championship in 1952. As a junior in ’52, he threw a TD pass and kicked a field goal in Tech’s 24-7 Sugar Bowl win over Mississippi that completed a 12-0 season.
Rodgers was named MVP of the Sugar Bowl his senior season after throwing three touchdown passes in a win over West Virginia in his last game at Tech. He was selected by Baltimore in the 12th round of the 1954 NFL Draft but instead spent five years as a pilot in the Air Force.
He also in 1985 wrote the book, “Fourth and Long Gone’’, a fictional account based on the character named “Charles Forrest Buck.’’
“Things never got boring under Pepper,” KU radio color announcer David Lawrence told The Star, recalling Rodgers stories told by Lawrence’s coach at KU, Fambrough. “He was a ball of fire. Coach Fambrough really liked him. Pepper is one of those guys who always looked young. He was full of life. Coach spoke so highly of him,” Lawrence added.
This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Former Kansas football coach Pepper Rodgers dies at the age of 88."
