26 Facts About Erk Russell

Erskine "Erk" Russell was an American football, basketball, track and baseball player and coach.

Erk Russell was the defensive coordinator for the Georgia Bulldogs for seventeen years and head football coach of the Georgia Southern Eagles.

Erk Russell was the head coach at Grady High School in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1950s.

Erk Russell graduated from Auburn University where he earned ten varsity letters.

Erk Russell was the last four-sport letterman in the college's history.

Erk Russell died in Statesboro, Georgia, on September 8,2006, following a stroke at age 80.

Erk Russell's funeral took place two days later at Paulson Stadium with over 2,000 fans, friends, family, and former players present.

Erk Russell grew up playing football in Ensley Park and later at Ensley High School.

Erk Russell was notorious for his communication and motivational nature among his players.

Erk Russell came up with all sorts of folksy sayings that somehow seemed to work on the younger generation.

Erk Russell was the one who coined the phrase "Junkyard Dawgs" for Georgia's undersized defense.

Erk Russell came up with T-shirts that had "TEAM" printed in large letters and "me" in small letters.

Coach Erk Russell was a master motivator who did not forget that, as someone who molded young men in a university setting, he was a teacher first and foremost.

Erk Russell passed along life lessons, and not just defensive techniques, to his players and he knew how to get his message across to them.

When Len Bias died of an overdose in 1986; as head coach of Georgia Southern, Coach Erk Russell conveyed the dangers of drug use by throwing a rattlesnake on the floor in a team meeting to make sure his analogy would be remembered.

Erk Russell appeared in line to take over as Georgia's head coach when Dooley got a lucrative offer from Auburn, their alma mater.

Erk Russell was forced to build the program with a shoestring budget.

Erk Russell bought solid blue helmets and had his players put a stripe of tape down the middle.

Len Gravelson handled the defense, although Erk Russell was arguably the man in charge.

Erk Russell briefly cut his ties with Georgia Southern after head coach Mike Sewak fired his son Rusty from the coaching staff in 2004.

Erk Russell died on the morning of September 8,2006, after suffering a stroke while driving his car near his Statesboro home.

Erk Russell had addressed the football team on the night prior to his death.

Erk Russell frequented the store daily and was commonly seen there daily playing scratch off lotto tickets and smoking a cigar while sitting at a table with friends.

Erk Russell greeted fellow customers with a friendly smile and handshake that some say was much stronger than a man his age should have had.

Erk Russell claimed that his favorite brand of cigars were "OPs", which he joked stood for "other people's".

Erk Russell made a point to smoke a cigar after every Eagle victory that he was involved in.