David Culley former Louisiana coach
2005:
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - David Culley, the Eagles' wide receivers coach, has an unusual perspective on Donovan McNabb's quest to become the second African-American quarterback to win the Super Bowl.
Culley knows what McNabb has gone through to get where he is, and Culley may even know some things that go beyond what McNabb has experienced. In 1973, Culley was Vanderbilt's first African-American QB, one of the first men of his race to play that position in the Southeastern Conference.
Culley, who grew up in Sparta, Tenn. - between Knoxville and Nashville - went to academically oriented Vanderbilt, in Nashville, because the bigger football schools in the SEC didn't want him as a quarterback, he said yesterday. The offensive coordinator at Vandy, a fellow named Bill Parcells, promised he wouldn't have to switch to defensive back or wide receiver. So did the recruiter for Western Kentucky, a guy named Romeo Crennel, but Culley opted for the bigger-time conference.
"I got all kinds of racial slurs" playing road games throughout the deep South, said Culley, who said he preferred not to single out specific schools. "You got called the N-word all the time. '[N-word], you're not smart enough to do this. You need to be running and catching the ball.' "
Culley said he signed with Vanderbilt in part because it had integrated SEC basketball, signing a player named Perry Wallace.
"I knew going into Vanderbilt that race was not an issue and it was not an issue the entire time I was there," Culley said.
Culley, who said he played on a mostly white high-school team, said he was shielded a bit from the realities of the South in the early '70s by his high school coach, Dee Wallace. It was years later that Culley heard parents of his teammates had been upset to see Culley start ahead of a couple of white QBs.
Because his high-school experience was unremarkable, Culley said he was unprepared for how big a deal his presence at Vanderbilt became.
"All of a sudden, people started writing stories about it," Culley said. "It was never an issue on campus."
Culley said he's never discussed his experiences with McNabb, because he figures such matters aren't an issue for the Eagles QB, who grew up 20 years later in the suburbs of Chicago. But Culley acknowledged he had heard that McNabb went to Syracuse much for the same reason Culley went to Vanderbilt - because Syracuse promised he could play quarterback. McNabb has said other schools he wanted to play for, most notably Illinois, thought his athleticism could be better used elsewhere.
"Plus, I'm sure he knew Syracuse would throw the ball - you get labeled as an option quarterback, a running quarterback," Culley said. "That was another reason I went to Vanderbilt: We ran a pro-style offense."
A decade or so after his playing career ended, Culley was the quarterbacks coach at the University of Louisiana. He was recruiting an African-American QB who had offers to go to bigger schools, not necessarily as a quarterback. Culley said he was able to use his own experiences to persuade Brian Mitchell to play for him.
The rest of the story
By LES BOWEN
bowenl@phillynews.com
Quote
Texans Hiring David Culley to be Their Next Head Coach
Re: Texans Hiring David Culley to be Their Next Head Coach
Originally Posted by BeauCajun
