Majors, "Johnny" (John T.)
Football
b. May 21, 1935, Lynchburg, TN
A triple-threat tailback at the University of Tennessee, one of the last schools to use the single wing rather than some version of the T formation, Majors was an All-American in 1956. He played for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1957 and then became an assistant coach at several schools.
Majors was named head coach at Iowa State University in 1968. He had only a 24-30-1 record in five seasons there, but his 1971 and 1972 teams both went to bowl games. In 1973, he went to the University of Pittsburgh, which had had nine straight losing seasons. His 1976 team won all 11 regular season games, beat Georgia 27-3 in the Sugar Bowl, and was ranked first in the nation.
After compiling a 33-13-1 record in 4 seasons at Pittsburgh, Majors returned to his alma mater as head coach in 1977. He had a 116-62-8 record in just over 15 seasons there. A heart attack forced him to miss the last four games of the 1992 season, and he was replaced, though he wanted to keep the job.
Majors was re-hired by Pittsburgh in 1993. He retired after four losing seasons. Overall, his teams won 185 games, lost 137, and tied 10.