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RIP Johnie Cooks

thatsbaseball

thatsbaseball

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May 29, 2007
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I've always thought pro football is like life as far as being successful (being the right place at the right time) and I've always thought Johnie Cooks was the kind of player that had he been in just the right place for him he could have had a HOF type career. He was that kind of talent. R.I.P. Big Guy. You were an awesome player and awesome representative of our university.
 
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TaleofTwoDogs

TaleofTwoDogs

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Jun 1, 2004
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Great player and great guy. Only 64 years old. If memory serves he was State's first consensus All-American.
RIP big guy.
 
TaleofTwoDogs

TaleofTwoDogs

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AROB44 said:
Not sure about that....DD Lewis, Jimmy Webb, and I'm sure I left someone out.
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Glen Collins in 1981 same year as Johnie. DD & Webb were named to several selector list but Johnie made AP and UPI which were the sport's standard back then.
 
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MSUDOG24

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Mar 31, 2021
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TaleofTwoDogs said:
Glen Collins in 1981 same year as Johnie. DD & Webb were named to several selector list but Johnie made AP and UPI which were the sport's standard back then.
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Agree, much like "NC claimed" there were a lot of AA lists back in the day but if you made AP and/or UPI it was legit. Both, no doubt. Not sure it's all that different than today with every website/Twitter account that comes out with some list or another. I often think, who is this/are these people? So who is the standard today?
One of the big things back in the day was to be on the Bob Hope special and run out in your uniform with helmet tucked under your arm and a joke with Bob. I swear Stan Black did that but when I try to Google it I can't confirm. Only that he made Playboy AA. Am I crazy?
 
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hdogg

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Nov 21, 2014
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He was one of the first players whose name I knew as a kid, and a favorite for years. Rip and thanks for giving a kid a good reason to love MSU football.
 
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dudehead

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An old friend close to MSU football told me that a key ingredient in Coach Sherrill’s success was Cooks. I don’t know about that but I damn sure loved to watch him play the game.
 
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knock him out john

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dudehead said:
An old friend close to MSU football told me that a key ingredient in Coach Sherrill’s success was Cooks. I don’t know about that but I damn sure loved to watch him play the game.
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He played for Coach Tyler and Bellard. Was he referring to recruiting players?
 
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HeCannotGo

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Feb 23, 2011
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This one hits hard. I was in second grade during State's magical 1980 season. When playing pick-up games in the neighborhood, my friends and I would pretend to be college players. We got into furious arguments over who would be Johnnie Cooks. Even the stupid kids who were Ole Miss fans wanted to be Johnnie Cooks.
 
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dudehead

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knock him out john said:
He played for Coach Tyler and Bellard. Was he referring to recruiting players?
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The story I heard is that he was some sort of assistant coach/player liaison on JWS's staff and was very instrumental in the player/coach relationships on those teams. He was described to me as a key element of JWS's success at State and when Cooks left is when the worm began to turn for JWS's teams at State. I have no idea if it's true and didn't try to verify anything, but it's consistent with what I understood about the kind of man he was.
 
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