University of Tennessee Athletics
VFL Charlie Coffey Passes Away
August 25, 2015 | Football
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. --Charlie Coffey, a letterman at Tennessee under General Neyland, a UT assistant coach under Jim McDonald and Doug Dickey, a head coach at Virginia Tech and successful businessman following his career in football passed away on Monday after a long battle with cancer at the age of 81.
A native of Shelbyville, Coffey had intended on going to work right out of high school, but his prep coach brought him to Knoxville for a football tryout under the guise of working a track meet and his football career took off from there.
Coffey lettered as a member of the Tennessee football team from 1953-55. After coaching stints at Southeastern Louisiana and George Washington, Coffey returned to UT to serve as the defensive line coach from 1963-65 under McDonald and Dickey.
He moved from his alma mater to Arkansas in 1965 to be the defensive coordinator under Frank Broyles, a five-year run that led to hos being named head coach at Virginia Tech in 1971.
Coffey brought a little but of Tennessee to Virginia Tech, emphasizing the orange park of the Hokies' color scheme as he worked to build the football program and the facilities in Blacksburg. He also changed the way VT played football.
Despite his defensive background, Coffey wanted his team to be one with a high-octane passing attack, long before that was the norm. In his second season in Blacksburg in 1972, Hokies quarterback Don Strock lead the nation in total passing and total offense en route to a 6-4-1 record.
The same year he started at Virginia Tech, Coffey invested in a trucking company back home in Shelbyville. The business proved to be so successful that Coffey stepped away from coaching at the age of 39 to return home with his family after the 1973 season.
In 1981, he founded his own company, Nationwide Express, which has grown to become one of the largest trucking companies in the country and has warehouses all over the United States.
Coffey, who battled cancer for the last four years, was honored with a service over Memorial Day weekend at First Christian Church in Shelbyville, fulfilling a "bucket list" item to see his whole family together at his home church again and to see it filled to capacity.
Coffey was honored by the Tennessee Letterman's Club at the Orange and White Game in 2005 with the Lettermen's Service Award. He was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
He was among the players profiled in the 2006 book Once a Vol, Always a Vol!: The Proud Men of the Volunteer Nation by Gus Manning and Haywood Harris.
Coffey's funeral will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at First Christian Church on Main Street in Shelbyville. The viewing will be at the church on Friday from 4-7 p.m. and also on Saturday from 12-1 before the service.
