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SANTEE - By sheer coincidence, Willie Jeffries shares the same January 6 birthdate with another coaching legend, Lou Holtz.

Over the next two days, however, the South Carolina State coaching great will celebrate his “birthday” six months in advance. Along with former players, close friends and his wife, Mary, Jeffries will be feted as part of a birthday party weekend taking place at Santee Resort.

Following brunch and a round of golf Saturday morning, the celebration kicks off at 3 p.m. where Jeffries will get roasted by his former players, including Greg Holden and team captains from the two periods he coached at SCSU (1973-78; 1989-2001), and receive special recognition.

For event co-organizer John Alford, who played on the 1976 Bulldog team which won the Black College National Championship, Jeffries remains more than just a head coach.

“He was not only a coach,” Alford said. “He guided us through...we got to (South Carolina) State College, we were 18-19 years old and he made us do the right thing. Our first purpose there was to go to class and football was second. When somebody stores the importance of education to you to make sure you do the right thing, they become a father figure - that father figure away from home. And still, to this day, he gets that re spect and it never leaves.

“I don’t care what part of the country, what part of the world you go to, you run into somebody that went to South Carolina State, they’re going to mention Willie Jeffries - especially if you played for him. They love him.”

Along with honoring their beloved former coach, Alford said the former players will discuss plans to start action towards further commemorating their efforts and Jeffries. Specifically, Alford hopes to revive a movement to rename the gridiron at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium Willie Jeffries Field.

Years ago, the SCSU Board of Trustees turned down a financial offer from another group to rename the field after Jeffries. For all the accomplishments and contributions Jeffries has made to SCSU, Alford believes it’s a major oversight not to have any type of memorial or recognition in his honor.

“You’re talking about the winningest head coach there (at SCSU) and what’s on campus named after him? Nothing!,” he said. “There’s not even a statue not named after him. And all the prestige that he brought to South Carolina State, even when he was at Wichita State (where he was the first black head coach of a Division I program), even when he was at Howard, he still brought prestige to South Carolina State.”

Another topic of discussion among the former players will be increasing lobbyi ng efforts to increase SCSU player enshrinement in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. Alford pointed to such former Bulldogs as Phil Murphy, Barney Bussey, Marvin Marshall and Anthony Reed among those players he believed have been overlooked by the committee.

DID YOU KNOW?

Willie Jeffries is the only man to ever coached against both former Grambling head football coach Eddie Robinson and the University of Alabama’s Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant. While Jeffries lost the lone meeting against Bryant during his historic stint at Wichita State (38-0 in 1979), he split eight meetings with Robinson, including two Freedom Bowl contests which served as an All-Star showcase for football players at historically black colleges and universities during the 1970s.

Jeffries won both Freedom Bowl matchups while Robinson took four of six regular-season and postseason meetings.

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