Two football coaching icons passed away in the Monroe area last week, a devastating time for coaches, players, fans and media with longtime roots in North Louisiana football.
We lost two terrific coaches, and personable people, in a three-day period — first Pat Collins, 84, on Thursday, January 12, and then Jerry Arledge, 83, on Saturday. Both were deeply respected.
It is touching that they both left us at almost the same time because their lives and football careers were so parallel.
First, both had wonderful spouses and families.
Both were from the Shreveport area and they were teammates in college football, both offensive guards (and at times linebackers) at Louisiana Tech in the 1959-63 time frame, Collins a senior a year ahead of Arledge (1962 and ’63). A look at the roster of that time shows they were almost the identical size (5-foot-10, about 192 pounds).
They both were outstanding defensive coaches in high school and then college (line and linebackers). Both spent some years as Louisiana Tech assistant coaches, and both became head coaches — Collins at several high schools (Ouachita, West Ouachita and Longview, Texas) after a notably time at Northeast Louisiana University; Arledge, after assistant coach jobs several places, at West Monroe High.
Another commonality: After retiring from coaching, they were athletic directors for a short time at the high-school level — Collins at Longview, Arledge at West Monroe.
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Collins was the last living member of Louisiana Tech’s football coaching staff of the 1970s — one of the best staffs in the university’s storied football history.
Pat was the linebackers coach, and basically the defensive coordinator (although he never had that title officially).
He was an outstanding recruiter — particularly in the Shreveport-Bossier area, where he grew up in a rough-tough West End neighborhood in the Fair Park High School area.
He was a smallish but rugged offensive guard at Fair Park (a senior on the 1958 district championship team) and then at Tech (1960-62), where he was a tri-captain as a senior. He then went into coaching, first at Airline High School (1965-66) and joined the new Tech coaching staff in 1967.
Head coach Maxie Lambright put together a brilliant, enthusiastic and extremely successful staff, with outstanding seasons in 1968 and ’69 when Terry Bradshaw blossomed at quarterback, and then a Division II national championship-caliber unit, particularly from 1971 to 1974.
Now all that staff has passed on: First, Lambright at only age 55 in 1980. Then Pat “Gravy” Patterson in 2007 at 73, E.J. Lewis in 2021 at 93, Wallace Martin in 2021 at 79, Mickey Slaughter in 2023 at 81 … and now “Collie” at 84.
It was expected that Slaughter would be Lambright’s successor as head coach in 1979, but he chose to go into private business. Collins was the other apparent successor, but he was not chosen.
Instead, he moved a little east to join John David Crow’s staff at arch-rival Northeast Louisiana, and eventually became the head coach there, with tremendous success, highlighted by the 1987 Division I-AA national championship, a team quarterbacked by future Super Bowl starter Stan Humphries, a Southwood High product.
Pat was a personable, interesting character, demanding and active on the practice field, a players’ coach (and friend) off it. Very cooperative and media-friendly, a pleasure to deal with for sports media types. (His mother worked for years in the advertising department at The Shreveport Times.)
He was voted for induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, and enjoyed its annual enshrinement activities. His son Mike also became a football coach, in college and now back in high school as head coach at Neville.
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Arledge was from Oil City — just north of Shreveport — and played in the early years of North Caddo High School. Like Collins, he was recruited to Louisiana Tech to play for head coach Joe Aillet and offensive-line coach Jimmy Mize.
Arledge first returned to North Caddo to coach, and his career began to develop at Fair Park in the early 1970s. He then joined head coach A.L. Williams’ staff at Northwestern State, heading up the defense, and moved with A.L. to Tech from the 1983 season to 1986. He was a part of winning programs at each place, helping the 1984 Bulldogs reach the national championship game, but his greatest success came in 31 seasons at West Monroe (1992-2022).
Guiding the defense for head coach Don Shows, Arledge was a part of 262 of Shows’ 279 victories at the school. That included eight state championship teams — West Monroe had never won a state title in its first 40 years — including three in a row (1996-98), the last two undefeated seasons.
Although he never desired to be a head coach, Arledge succeeded the retiring Shows in that job, and his teams won nine district titles in 11 years and twice were the state runnerup.
Arledge, incidentally, also was a talented handyman who could build houses and fix most anything that needed fixing.
Collins was the more demonstrative, excitable coach; Arledge was more soft-spoken and less emotional. Both were masterful at teaching fundamentals and making scheme adjustments during games.
Common factors: Young men loved playing for them, and fellow coaches thought highly of both men.
Bottom line: Both were winners in every way, and they are fondly remembered.
Contact Nico at nvanthyn@aol.com
NOTE – Pat Collins’ funeral is today in Monroe. Jerry Arledge will be remembered Saturday at a celebration of life gathering Saturday in West Monroe.