Strange: Majors at home for fourth quarter

Photo by Tracey Trumbull
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Johnny Majors, shown in this 2006 photo.

CROSSVILLE—- Johnny Majors is coming home. On Aug. 1, he and wife Mary Lynn will once more become Knox County residents. They’re moving back into the same Topside neighborhood they left nearly 15 years ago.

But that’s only half the story. The Majors are leaving home, too. And it’s tough.

“Of the last 34 years, 18 of them we’ve been in Pittsburgh,’’ Majors said Sunday between swings at Lake Tansi Golf Course. “Sixteen of the last 34, we’ve been in Tennessee.

“I’ve always felt like I had two homes.’’

Pittsburgh and Tennessee, the two great chapters in the life and football career of John Terrill Majors. The two homes.

Tennessee was home first. Majors grew up in Middle Tennessee and went on to become a star player for the Vols, the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1956. He left an assistant-coaching job at UT in 1959 to build a résumé.

Pittsburgh was home from 1973-76. He transformed the Pitt Panthers from doormats to national champions.

Then it was back to Tennessee in ’77, to rebuild the Vols. That chapter lasted 16 years but came to an abrupt and acrimonious ending in 1992.

Back to Pitt in ’93 for Act II, the final four years of a coaching career, followed by a campus consulting assignment.

And now he and Mary Lynn are pulling up stakes one last time. For the first time in his life, a move isn’t necessitated by a career challenge.

“When I moved before, I always had to go recruit,’’ he said. “I was too involved to have time to think.

“This is the first time I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. I’m in the fourth quarter of my life at 72, but I’m not coming back to Tennessee just to die.’’

He was quite lively Sunday, shuttling between tee and green at the par-3 15th hole. He mingled with each foursome passing through in the Johnny Majors Invitational, an event he was persuaded to renew several years ago.

“This team has got talent,’’ Majors told one group after a couple of tee shots landed on the green. “I feel like I’ve got Reggie White and Tony Dorsett on the same team.’’

Again, the two homes.

“We never really had any plans to stay in Pittsburgh forever and we never really had any plans to move back to Tennessee,’’ Majors said.

“Why come back now? I don’t know. You’ve already asked a tough question.’’

Pittsburgh has diversity and culture. Too, Majors feels considerable gratitude to the school that twice reached out to him in times of need.

Tennessee, though, has a strong pull. He mentioned the weather. He mentioned the wealth of friends from border to border, a cross-section of whom played golf with him Sunday.

“I love Tennessee, always have,’’ he said.

And, of course, Tennessee has family. There are siblings, a son, a daughter and grandchildren.

That’s enough to trump the deep wound left by being forced out his job at UT in ’92, an ordeal that left him feeling betrayed by the powers-that-be, including his former assistant and successor, Phillip Fulmer.

Fifteen years haven’t necessarily healed the wound, but here in the fourth quarter Majors has learned to live with it.

Several times Sunday, he referred to “that other thing” and quickly moved on. No bitter rhetoric.

“I have nothing negative about the people of Tennessee, or the people who represent the university,’’ he said. “And I’ve kept in contact with a lot of people I respect.’’

Speaking of contact, now that he’ll be living just across the river, what will his association be with the program with which he has such a bittersweet history?

“I haven’t looked that far ahead,’’ he said. “I’ll play it by ear.’’

He talked about traveling back roads, visiting country stores, rekindling relationships.

Saturdays in the fall, that’s still a blank slate.

“I don’t know,’’ he said. “I’ll make that decision later.’’

Then a familiar twinkle crept into the blue eyes:

“I sure don’t plan for my fourth quarter not to be a good one.’’

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.