Genma Speaks

Entrepreneur/ Writer/ Radio-Host

Friday, November 23, 2012

Coach Joe Gilliam at Woodmont Hills on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes


Update: Audio of Coach Gilliam at Woodmont Hills can be found here .

Living Your Best Life will broadcast a special show featuring keynote, Coach Joe W. Gilliam, Sr., at the Family of God at WoodmontHills speaker series; Loving God, Loving Others, Serving the World from 2008. Coach Gilliam spoke about "Good Diversity-Bad Diversity" and how his faith in God was the foundation of his life.


Join us on Saturday, November 24, 2012 to hear Coach Gilliam share lessons from chapters of his life. Hear him talk about his parents leaving the life of sharecropping in North Carolina for Steubenville, Ohio in the middle of the night in 1919 in order to provide a better life for their growing family. His parents were determined to find a better economic opportunities and to provide their children with an education.

In Ohio, Coach Gilliam excelled academically and in sports which allowed him to receive scholarships offers to college. But his intelligence and athletic skills did not shelter him from the harsh realities of life during the forties. Hear him share why he did not attend Ohio State University. That decision lead him to play for Indiana University's championship team. Although he played for a winning school, his experiences were painful, mentally and spiritually. His negative experiences as a collegiate athlete made Coach determined to coach, mentor, mold, teach, and train his players with fatherly guidance and positive values throughout his lifetime.

Hear Coach discussing a variety of topics as he answered questions from the audience. He reflected on his mother's enduring love; his devoted wife's influence on his life; his love of the classroom; his coaching at Tennessee State University; his relationship with Bill Parcell; how he barred the NFL from administering the wonderlic test to Ed "Too Tall" Jones and the 20 year repercussion on Coach Gilliam's coaching career; how race relations permeates sports, then and now; his insights from studying constitutional law and why only following God can change man's heart not legislative actions; and the importance of sharing good diversity-bad diversity experiences in order to learn from them.

You will also hear Coach share thoughts on women coaching football; mentoring young black males; and personal regrets from his own family life. Listen as his compassion for others is shown by how he cared for his athletes and their families long after they have stopped playing sports, collegiate or professionally.
Coach Gilliam with Coach Merritt in 1973
                                  
Coach Gilliam with players in 1980

Coach Gilliam with Bernard King @ 2007 TN Sports Hall of Fame Induction

For the legions of Coach Gilliam's players, students, adopted family and sports enthusiasts who lives Coach touched and for those who respected and followed his life closely; this show will empower, inspire, and motivate you to live your BEST life. 

Living Your Best Life can be heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST.

More About Coach Joe W. Gilliam, Sr. 


Joe Gilliam, Sr. will be remembered as one of the most respected football coaches in the history of the game. He began his intercollegiate football career at Indiana University, where he played on the Hoosiers' national championship football team. He then went into the armed services, and upon his discharge, enrolled at West Virginia State College, where he played both basketball and football. At West Virginia State College, he received All-American honors as a quarterback and earned a place in the Yellow Jackets' Sports Hall of Fame. Coach Gilliam began his 35-year coaching career on the high school level in Kentucky, where he earned the Kentucky High School Football Association's Coach of the Year title.

He went on to coach at Jackson State College in Mississippi where he helped lead the Tigers to two consecutive Black National Championship titles. From 1963-1981, Gilliam was the assistant head football coach and defensive coordinator for Tennessee State University. During this period, Tennessee State University had nine Black National Championship teams. In 1989, he took the helm as head coach for four seasons. As head coach, Gilliam was inducted into the TSU Sports Hall of Fame and was selected as Coach of the Year in the Ohio Valley Conference in 1990. His career record of 254-93-15 included coaching five undefeated teams and five teams that lost only one game. He coached 10 national championships teams and helped facilitate 144 players into the National Football League.

For several summers, he worked with the Arizona Cardinals' coaching staff as an offensive consultant. In later years, Gilliam conducted a summer youth football camp in Nashville, Tennessee to raise funds for his Joe Gilliam Foundation. Throughout his coaching career, Gilliam earned numerous awards including the All-American Football Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and the College Football Hall of Fame Contribution Award. Coach was a frequent guest speaker and sought-after lecturer at football clinics, on radio programs, and sports banquets.  He was widely renowned for his teams' abilities to employ his innovative offensive concepts and insights. (Bio: Coaches Choice/Edits: Genma Holmes)

Coach Gilliam was the author of four books.
Coach Gilliam's scholarship fund is held at TSU.
Franz Holmes tribute to Coach Gilliam can be found here .
Franz Holmes introduced Coach Gilliam and Golf Pro, James Paschal, was the moderator.
Special thanks to Woodmont Staff and Mona Knight, audio archivist at Woodmont Hills.

Photos Credits: Tennessean; Billy Kinglsey, Joe, Rudis, and Frank Empson; and Genma Holmes



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