Theodore Lemuel Jefferies (November 8, 1908 – January 2, 1985) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player and coach. Jefferies was an alumnus of the

Centenary College of Louisiana Centenary College of Louisiana is a private liberal arts college in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1825, it is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi Rive ...

, which he graduated from in 1929, as president of the student body and as "candidate for a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree. He served as head coach at Wichita Falls High School from 1933 to 1943, taking the school to its first state championship in 1941. Jefferies later coached at Lamar University, at a time when the school was still a

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in su ...

. In 1947, he became head coach at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Among his former players was later

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

and

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

coach Bum Phillips and

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

coach

R. C. Slocum Richard Copeland Slocum (born November 7, 1944), is a former American football player and coach. He served as the interim athletic director at Texas A&M University from January through June 2019, and previously served as the head football coach ...

. Slocum played for Jefferies at Stark High School in

Orange, Texas Orange is a city and the county seat of Orange County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 19,324. It is the easternmost city in Texas, located on the Sabine River at the border with Louisiana, and is from Houst ...

. Mr. Ted, as he was called, came out of retirement to coach in Orange. In Slocum's senior season, 1962, Jefferies took Orange to the state semifinals.

Head coaching record

College

References

Additional sources

External links

* 1908 births 1985 deaths Centenary Gentlemen football players Lamar Cardinals football coaches Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks football coaches High school football coaches in Texas Junior college football coaches in the United States People from Jacksonville, Texas {{1930s-collegefootball-coach-stub