history-sc's best season

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Winning with consequence

Less than five years after USC's only 10-win season in 1984, the coaches who had directed the success were only a memory

By BOB GILLESPIE

Senior Writer

They stare back at you from the 20-year-old photograph: some smiling, others looking resolutely determined, still others with unfathomable expressions. All wearing identical black pants and white shirts with "USC Gamecocks" logos on the left breast, except for the man in the middle of the front row in black shirt and cap, his face almost Mona Lisa-like in its inscrutability.

So alike. So very different.

Jim Washburn studies the group. He finds himself, second row, third from left. Chuckles at his piercing eyes and pursed-lip semi-smile, the man he was so long ago.

He flips the photo to a visitor to his office deep inside the NFL Tennessee Titans' complex outside Nashville. "Remember that 1983 staff?" he asks. "Pretty good football coaches, huh? Won 10 games in 1984, 'Black Magic,' all that?"

The visitor nods. "Know how many of those guys are still coaching now?" Washburn asks, then taps himself on the chest with his index finger. "You're looking at him."

Two decades have passed since Joe Morrison and his coaching staff rode out of New Mexico and hit South Carolina with the force of a stampede. They inspired the terms "Fire Ants" and "Black Magic," made "2001" an electrifying anthem for fans at Williams-Brice Stadium on autumn Saturdays. And they won: a school-record 10 games in 1984, eight each in 1987 and 1988.

MORE  

Where head coaching reputations go to die

Legacies of the Joe Morrison era (1983-88)

Mike Bender - The Big Man

Keith Kephart - The Strong Man

Bill Michael - The old man

Tank Black - The Hustler

Tom Kurucz - The Loner

Frank Sadler - The Veer Wizard

Tom McMahon - The Role Model

Tom Gadd - The Taskmaster

Jim Washburn - The Survivor

Ricky Diggs - The Late Addition  

But also in 1988, they left USC saddled with an ugly legacy as the school where the term "steroids abuse" first came to national light. Less than a year later, Morrison was dead, nearly half his staff was under criminal indictment, and the others were long gone.

Today, for many Gamecocks fans, it is almost as if they all vanished without a trace.

Of course, they did not. The 10 assistant coaches could scatter to the far corners of America, but they seemingly couldn't outrun the star-crossed fates that followed them.

Washburn ticks off names now, a litany of tragedy, heartache.

Defensive coordinator Tom Gadd and secondary coach Tom McMahon? Both dead of cancer before age 56, joining Morrison, who suffered a fatal heart attack at 51.

The three coaches who pleaded guilty in 1989 to involvement in the steroids scandal, triggered by an October 1988 Sports Illustrated article authored by USC lineman Tommy Chaikin that recounted "rampant" steroids use by players? Strength coach Keith Kephart and tight ends coach Tom Kurucz saw their coaching careers all but ended, while Washburn, the defensive line coach, spent years in coaching and financial purgatory before reaching the NFL.

Running backs coach Ricky Diggs? A painful divorce, health problems and a turbulent professional life. Linebackers coach Bill Michael and offensive line coach Mike Bender? Each nearly lost his wife, one to cancer, the other to an impatient motorist.

And most infamous of all, receivers coach Tank Black, who became the national poster child for unscrupulous player agents, now in prison for crimes ranging from fraud to money laundering.

Others associated with the program also had misfortune. Bob Marcum, the athletics director who hired the staff, lost his wife, Cecile, to cancer. Terry Lewis, those teams' trainer, died last fall at 58 of a heart attack. Morrison's widow, JeVena, died in 1995.

Only Washburn still draws a paycheck for coaching football, albeit at the profession's highest level. He chuckles at that: "(In 1989) I would've been the least likely to ever coach again."

Today, much of that era is relegated to dusty shelves. But reminders live on: whenever "2001" blares as the Gamecocks charge onto the field, or a USC fan wears black. And when the Gamecocks are compared to the best of the past, it's against two standards: the 1984 team, and the 1987 squad that had perhaps the most talent ever at USC.

The men who fashioned both those teams have traveled myriad paths since, been dealt innumerable blows. This is their story.

THE WILD BUNCH

In December 1982, Bob Marcum was looking for a head football coach - again. Marcum, hired in 1981 to replace Jim Carlen as athletics director, had chosen former Carlen assistant Richard Bell. But USC had finished 4-7 that season, including a loss to Furman, and Bell was soon out.

Originally, Marcum knew Joe Morrison only by reputation, as the New York Giants' all-pro back turned college coach. But the two men had become friendly three years earlier, when they met at the Walter Camp All-American banquet in New Haven, Conn.

When Bell was released, another NFL legend, Sam Huff, suggested that Marcum contact Morrison, who had just finished a 10-1 season at New Mexico. Morrison, as it turned out, was ready to jump.

"We played Hawaii the last game of the season, a chance to win the WAC (Western Athletic Conference), and there's 19,000 in the stands," Washburn says. The Lobos won, but no bowl bid came. "Afterward, Joe said, 'That's it.' We were gone."

For Morrison, who had coached 10 years at Chattanooga and New Mexico, USC represented the big time. A visit to Columbia and 72,400-seat Williams-Brice Stadium sold Morrison. That night, in the bar of the Carolina Inn, he and Marcum wrote out a rough contract on a cocktail napkin.

The staff Morrison brought to USC was diverse at a time when most were homogenous. Washburn, offensive coordinator Frank Sadler, Bender and Black were Southerners. Kurucz and Kephart were from the Midwest. Gadd, hired from Utah when New Mexico defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn succeeded Morrison there, and McMahon were West Coast guys. Diggs, recently at The Citadel, was from Pennsylvania.

Ages ranged from Black's 26 to Sadler's 47; Michael, the linebackers coach and the lone holdover from Bell's staff, was the old man at 48. Two African-American assistants were at least one more than most staffs had at the time.

They arrived wearing jeans and cowboy boots, plopped down in a khakis-and-loafers environment, oblivious to the stir they would soon cause.

"We'd been coaching out where no one cared who we were (New Mexico)," Washburn says. "Joe liked to go out and drink beer together the night before a game, so he asked someone where a good place was."

That night, the staff wound up at a club in northeast Columbia. When a local asked Washburn, "Isn't that Joe Morrison?" the assistant said, "Yeah, but keep it quiet, he just wants to hang out and listen to music."

Instead, the man grabbed a microphone and announced their presence to patrons. "Then they played the fight song, and next thing you know, the place fills up," Washburn says. "That's when we realized we weren't in Albuquerque any more."

Morrison's staff was even a bigger hit once football began. The 1983 team finished 5-6, highlighted by a 38-14 rout of Southern Cal. Fans had found a hero in the taciturn Morrison, who exuded mystery and danger with his head-to-toe black clothing and ubiquitous Marlboros. A staff of heroes, too.

"People felt they could reach out and touch Joe," Marcum says. "(Fans) rallied to that staff. It was an easy group to get close to. They were down-to-earth, and good coaches."

Not everyone was so enamored. "That (staff) was the biggest bunch of odd-balls and misfits I've ever been around," says Allen Mitchell, who played quarterback from 1983-85. "They were all over the map as far as personalities.

"They came together and for a while, boom, we were a big hit. But it's like a rock band that isn't able to go on (indefinitely). It was a quick hit and the chemistry was right in 1984. But it was somewhat of a sinking ship after 1986."

BLACK MAGIC, DARK DAYS

Ah yes, 1984. That season, the Gamecocks raced to a stunning 9-0 start, knocking off Georgia, Notre Dame and Florida State, and were ranked No. 2. Even an upset loss to Navy, which kept them out of a national title game, failed to dampen enthusiasm.

"We thought we were something," Washburn says. "I was at the State Fairgrounds, and some guy shakes my hand, says 'Washburn, way to recruit!' I look, and there's four $100 bills in there.

"I mean, I made $31,000 my first year, and in 1984, my bowl bonus was $7,500, (almost) a fourth of my salary. I thought, this is unreal."

Not long after that 1984 season, Morrison told his coaches that Arizona State wanted to hire them. "Let's go around the table, everyone spit out what they think," Morrison said.

Most wanted to stay. USC was about to reap a bumper recruiting crop, including All-America quarterback Todd Ellis. The next-to-last coach to speak was Michael, the old man of the staff.

"This is the first time South Carolina has won 10 games, and it'll probably be the last time," Michael said. "Once you've done something you've never done before, you need to get out."

A few days later, Morrison decided to stay put. It was, in retrospect, a decision that would come back to haunt everyone.

In 1985, USC finished 5-6, but a recruiting class featuring All-American quarterback Todd Ellis, receiver Ryan Bethea and others promised great things in the future. It didn't happen in 1986, though; the Gamecocks, despite chances to win eight games, went 3-6-2 with the rookie Ellis at quarterback.

That triggered the first in a series of coaching changes. Morrison hired old friend Joe Lee Dunn, who had succeeded him at New Mexico, as defensive coordinator to replace Gadd. Though Morrison offered him another job, Gadd quit and returned to Utah.

In 1987 and 1988, with Ellis passing to Sterling Sharpe and Bethea, and Harold Green rushing for more than 1,600 yards, the Gamecocks posted back-to-back 8-4 seasons. But a disastrous 30-13 loss to LSU in the 1987 Gator Bowl soured that season's ending. So did revelations of Morrison's illegitimate daughter when the mother, Barbara Button, sued for child support.

After the season Morrison, committed to the new pass-heavy offense, forced out Sadler, a veer advocate, as offensive coordinator. That, in turn, led to the departure of Black, who quit to go into business when Morrison named Al Groh, rather than Black, as Sadler's replacement.

In mid-1988, the Gamecocks began 6-0 before a shocking 34-0 loss at Georgia Tech. A week later, the reason for that loss hit newsstands: the Sports Illustrated report on steroids use and involvement by the coaching staff. Morrison, his coaches and most players had known the story was coming out the week before.

An investigation by Fifth Circuit Solicitor James Anders was announced. Soon, most of the remnants of Morrison's original staff were gone: Washburn to Purdue, Bender to Rice. Only Diggs and McMahon remained.

The steroids scandal had already claimed Marcum, who was fired by then-USC president James Holderman for supposedly running a bogus drug-testing program (Marcum in 1990 sued USC for wrongful termination and was awarded more than $232,000). And Morrison? The "man in black," still beloved by fans, watched his six-year-old program come under siege, with little support from a new athletics director, King Dixon

Says Marcum: "Joe was never comfortable (at USC) after I left. He felt there was an effort to get him out of there.

"He told me, 'I think it's time for me to get out of here. I'll probably take an NFL assistant's job.' Joe never defined what he was talking about, but the level of cooperation had started to erode."

What Morrison might've done became moot on Feb. 7, 1989. He had played a Sunday night racquetball game at Williams-Brice. Afterward, he collapsed in the shower. Cynics would say later the coach saved USC the trauma of whether or not to fire him.

"No doubt in my mind, (the steroids scandal) killed Coach Mo," says former quarterback Mike Hold. "He was under so much stress, and he didn't have a great heart (Morrison underwent an angioplasty several years earlier). There was so much pressure on the guy."

Ten weeks later, on April 19, 1988, Gadd, Washburn, Kurucz and Kephart were indicted on steroids charges. The first three eventually pleaded guilty to reduced charges; Gadd decided to stand trial and, on June 21, was found innocent.

And then, suddenly, it was over. Less than five years after USC's only 10-win season, the coaches who had directed that success were only a strange, mixed memory.

Where did they go? What did they do? Now, we find out.