Thomas Guinne Goode (December 1, 1938 – October 8, 2015) 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 ...

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

, coach, and administrator from

West Point, Mississippi West Point is a city in Clay County, Mississippi, United States, in the Golden Triangle region of the state. The population was 11,307 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Clay County and the principal city of the West Point Micropolitan ...

. He is probably best remembered as the

long snapper In American football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a center on special teams whose duty is to snap the football over a longer distance, typically around 15 yards during punts, and 7–8 yards during field goals and extra point attempt ...

Jim O'Brien Jim O'Brien may refer to: Sports Basketball *Jim O'Brien (basketball, born 1950), American coach for Emerson College, Ohio State and Boston College *Jim O'Brien (basketball, born 1951), American player for the New York Nets and Memphis Sounds *Jim ...

's game winning

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

Super Bowl V Super Bowl V was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys to determine the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

that gave the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

a 16-13 victory over the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

Early life

Goode was born in West Point, Mississippi and attended West Point High School. During his time in high school he played football, basketball and ran track.EMCC's Goode announces retirement
/ref>

College

He played his college football at

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univers ...

, where he played both center and linebacker. He was a three time All-SEC selection from 1958–1960 and the school's first Kodak All-American in 1960.FORMER MSU FOOTBALL ALL-AMERICAN TOM GOODE PASSES AWAY, 76
He played in The Blue-Gray Game in 1960, the Senior Bowl in 1961, and the All-American game in 1961. In addition to his athletic achievements he was also selected as Mr. Mississippi State, and named to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities in 1961. Following his college career he was drafted by both the

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 ...

of the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

and the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Professional career

He spent four seasons with the

(

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

–

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

) before moving on to play for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

for four seasons (

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

–

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

). Goode was named the Dolphins' Most Valuable Player in 1967, the team's Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman in 1966 and 1969 and was named to the Pro Bowl in 1969. He played his final season with the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

where he was the

for

's game-winning

,Harris, Larr
"Tom Goode's Last Snap Was Best One"
''PressBox'' (Baltimore), December 2010 making him the first player from Mississippi State to win a Super Bowl.

Coaching career

Following his retirement from the NFL, Goode went on to serve as a coach at the college and professional levels. He began his coaching career at Mississippi State as the offensive line coach from 1972–75. He then went on to be the offensive coordinator for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League in 1976, and he served in the same capacity at Vanderbilt in 1977 before serving as the assistant head coach at Ole Miss from 1978 until 1982. In 1983, he became the offensive line coach at Alabama in before returning to MSU, as the offensive line coach for a second time from 1984–89. He then did a second stint as the offensive line coach at Vanderbilt from 1990 through 1991 before becoming the head coach and

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

at East Mississippi Community College, where he served from 1991 until retiring in 2003.

Personal

Goode was married for over 19 years to the former Sonia Buffington Foster of Canton Mississippi, and they were parents of three boys, Tommy, Michael, and Brin Foster, and two girls, Lessie (Goode) Belk and Sandi (Foster) May. They also had seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His biography entitled ''Guts, God, and the Superbowl'' was published by Zondervan Publishing House in 1974 and written by

Zola Levitt Zola Levitt (December 3, 1938 – April 19, 2006) was a Jewish believer in Christianity who founded Zola Levitt Ministries, in Dallas, Texas, in 1979. Ministry and religious works Known for his relatability, charisma and visits to evangelical churc ...

. He died on October 8, 2015.

References