Remembering the Pirate: Legendary coach Mike Leach passes away

OXFORD, Miss. – Mississippi-born Jimmy Buffett and Mississippi State coach Mike Leach each kept a residence in Key West, Fla. And each man, thought of as a pirate in their respective professions, had a favorite haunt in the Conch Republic.

Buffett wrote a song years ago that mentions the locals’ bar.

“I went down to Captain Tony’s to get out of the heat; When I heard a voice call out to me, ‘Son come have a seat.’ I had to search my memory as I looked into those eyes; Our lives changed like the weather, but a legend never dies.”

Buffett was wrong.

Mike Leach died Monday. He was 61. He was a legend in many ways.

I must admit I only met the man one time. He was the offensive coordinator at Valdosta State in Georgia, and I was the sports information director at a school playing the Blazers in the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Prior to that game, VSU coach Hal Mumme had interviewed for the vacant Kentucky job. I approached him before the game to let him know a couple of sportswriters wanted to talk to him. He told me it was no problem as long as they did not ask him about the Kentucky job.

As I turned to walk away, a man in a VSU assistant coaches’ shirt tapped me on the shoulder. He told me they were in fact going to Kentucky. I asked how this man knew.

He simply said, “We told them what they needed to hear in Lexington. We know Kentucky football is what you do between going to Panama City Beach and Kentucky basketball. But you also would rather lose 49-42 than 14-7 and win some games along the way.”

We both laughed.

I went back to the press box and asked Valdosta’s SID Steve Roberts for a copy of his football media guide. I thumbed through it and found the picture of the man who had approached me. It was Leach.

I read his biography in the guide and learned he had never played college football. I read where he had graduated from Pepperdine Law School. I read of his love of history, including pirates. That must’ve rubbed off on Mumme as he closed out his VSU coaches’ show each week with a Buffett song.

That day, I learned about Leach’s offense. Valdosta threw the ball all over the place that day and advanced to the next round of the playoffs. The Blazers lost the next Saturday and two days later, Mumme, and Leach were at Kentucky.

The rest of the story is easy to document. Leach went to Oklahoma, got his first head coaching gig at Texas Tech, moved on to Washington State and wound up in Starkville.

Even though I went to Ole Miss and have covered the Rebels for years, I don’t mind Leach winning his final game just a few weeks ago in the Egg Bowl. After what he has given to college football, he deserved a sendoff like that.

Ole Miss now goes onto the TaxAct Texas Bowl where the Rebels will play Leach’s first team, Texas Tech. Each team should wear a Jolly Roger sticker on their helmets to honor the pirate. Each college team – regardless of classification – should do the same for a man that innovated the sport.

Mississippi State will play in its bowl game in the stadium that is home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Leach would have loved playing in a stadium that features a pirate ship above one of the end zones.

Buffett ended the aforementioned song with a line that foreshadowed the past few days where one day Leach was at football practice, the next in a hospital bed.

“We shot the breeze for hours as the sun fell from the skies; And like the sun he disappeared, before my very eyes.”

Captain Tony’s left Leach’s barstool vacant upon hearing of his death the other day.

No one’s sitting in Coach Mike Leach’s barstool at Capt. Tony’s Saloon in Key West tonight. Locals paid their respects to Leach, who died Monday night. He was 61. Key West was his favorite place. He’s one of a select number of people who have a named barstool here. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/nZzelo9bI4

— Gwen Filosa (@KeyWestGwen) December 14, 2022

Mississippi State, college football and the world will feel that vacancy much longer.

(Feature image credit: The Washington Post)