Grant Garland Teaff (; born November 12, 1933) is a former

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 wi ...

player and coach. He served as the head coach at

McMurry University McMurry University is a private Methodist university in Abilene, Texas. It was founded in 1923 and named after William Fletcher McMurry. The university offers forty-five majors in the fields of fine arts, humanities, social and natural science ...

(1960–1965),

Angelo State University Angelo State University is a public university in San Angelo, Texas. It was founded in 1928 as San Angelo College. It gained university status and awarded its first baccalaureate degrees in 1967 and graduate degrees in 1969, the same year it too ...

(1969–1971), and

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...

(1972–1992), compiling a career college football record of 170–151–8. In his 21 seasons as head coach of the

Baylor Bears football The Baylor Bears football team represents Baylor University in Division I FBS college football. They are a member of the Big 12 Conference. After 64 seasons at the off-campus Baylor Stadium, renamed Floyd Casey Stadium in 1989, the Bears ope ...

team, Teaff's teams won two

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

titles and appeared in eight

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

s. His 128 wins are the most of any coach in the history of the program. Teaff was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2001.

Early career

Teaff played football at Snyder High School in Snyder, Texas. He continued playing at the college level for San Angelo Junior College (now

) and then for

in Abilene, Texas. When McMurry head coach Wilford Moore was hired to coach for

Lubbock High School Lubbock High School is a 5A high school serving grades nine to twelve in Lubbock, Texas, as part of the Lubbock Independent School District, The school was founded in 1891 as the first high school in Lubbock County. Lubbock High School preda ...

in 1956, Teaff became his assistant. He then moved on to be an assistant at McMurry University from 1957 to 1959. Teaff began his head coaching career at McMurry in 1960, serving there until 1965. Among his players were future Pittsburgh Steelers split end Dick Compton and future San Diego Chargers offensive lineman Ernie Park. After a stint as an assistant coach to J. T. King at Texas Tech, Teaff became the head coach at Angelo State University from 1969 to 1971.

Baylor

In 1972, Teaff was hired by

. Baylor originally hired

Rudy Feldman Rudolph A. Feldman (born c. 1932) is a former American football player, coach, and executive. He served as the head football coach at the University of New Mexico from 1968 to 1973, compiling a record of 24–37–2. Feldman played college footb ...

from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

, but Feldman quit after one day, leaving the job to Teaff. The Baylor football team had been 7–43–1 in the five seasons preceding Teaff's arrival. Teaff quickly built Baylor into a competitive team and in 1974, Baylor won eight games and captured the

title for the first time since 1924. In the process they defeated the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

, 34–24, after rallying from a 24–7 halftime deficit. It was Baylor's first victory over Texas in 17 years. The 1974 season and the win over Texas are commonly referred to as the "Miracle on the Brazos," named after the Brazos River near the Baylor campus. In 1978, Teaff led his team to another unforgettable win. His 2-8 Baylor Bears were set to play #9 ranked

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Many of the Bears were injured and they were expected to lose. To compensate for the loss of healthy players, Teaff introduced what is now known as the

Wildcat formation Wildcat formation describes a formation for the offense in football in which the ball is snapped not to the quarterback but directly to a player of another position lined up at the quarterback position. (In most systems, this is a running back, b ...

. To motivate his team, Teaff told them a story of two fishing Eskimos. One was an excellent fisherman, reeling in one catch after another, while the other couldn't land a single fish. The frustrated Eskimo asked his companion for the secret to successful fishing. His friend replied by pulling a worm out of his mouth, saying "you've got to keep the worms warm!" With this story, the coach let his team know that winning may cause momentary discomfort, but if they were able to put that aside for 60 minutes, the end result would be worth it. Teaff told his team "this game is yours”, pulling a worm out of his mouth. The Bears went on to win the game 38-14, finishing the season 3-8. Teaff remained Baylor’s head football coach until 1992, compiling a winning record and winning the Southwest Conference title for the last time in 1980. His teams won the 1979 Peach Bowl, the

1985 Liberty Bowl The 1985 Liberty Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game held on December 27, 1985, in Memphis, Tennessee, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. The 27th edition of the Liberty Bowl featured the Baylor Bears of the Southwest Conference (SW ...

, the 1986 Bluebonnet Bowl, and the

1992 John Hancock Bowl The 1992 John Hancock Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 1992 at Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas. The game pitted the 1992 Baylor Bears football team, Baylor Bears against the 1992 Arizona Wildcats football team, Ariz ...

, his final game as coach. His teams also earned invitations to the

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

and

1981 Cotton Bowl Classic The 1981 Cotton Bowl Classic was the 45th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, January 1. Part of the 1980–81 bowl game season, it matched the ninth-ranked Alabama Crimson Tid ...

, the

1983 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl The 1983 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game that featured the Baylor Bears and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Background Oklahoma State finished 4th in the Big Eight Conference in their second bowl appearance in three ...

, and the 1991 Copper Bowl. His Baylor teams were notable for success against the University of Texas, finishing with a 10–11 record against the Longhorns. By comparison, in the 15 seasons preceding Teaff's arrival and the 15 years following Teaff's departure, Baylor had a 1–29 record against Texas.

Later life and family

After retiring from coaching, Teaff became executive director of the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

in February 1994, which is an organization headquartered in

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

. The AFCA represents coaches across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and is often consulted by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

and the media regarding rule changes and developments that take place in college football. Teaff and his wife have three daughters.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Teaff, Grant 1933 births Living people American football linebackers Angelo State Rams football coaches Angelo State Rams football players Baylor Bears athletic directors Baylor Bears football coaches McMurry War Hawks football coaches McMurry War Hawks football players Texas Tech Red Raiders football coaches High school football coaches in Texas College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Scurry County, Texas Sportspeople from Waco, Texas Players of American football from Texas