Recognizing the greatness of TSU legend John Merritt
By Mike Patton
The Tennessee State Tigers host their 20th annual John Merritt Classic this Saturday at Nissan Stadium as they host the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.
The atmosphere around the game will be very festive, as there will be people tailgating all day leading up to the 6 pm CST kickoff. There will also be events surrounding the big game. The main thing, however, is the game and the game is definitely named for someone that is huge in Tennessee State history, John Merritt.
When people think of the most successful era of Tennessee State football, you cannot help but think of John Merritt. He coached at Jackson State before he coached at Tennessee State (which was known as Tennessee A&I at the time he coached there) and at Tennessee State, he was magical.
Merritt won seven Black college national championships during his 20 years as head coach of the Tigers. And not only did he win the national championships, but he had four undefeated seasons. That type of success as a coach is unprecedented, but it seems he never gets the type of recognition nationally that he should have gotten.
Even though Merritt is in the College Football Hall of Fame (inducted in 1994), it seems that outside of Nashville no one knows him. Everyone largely knows who former Grambling State head coach Eddie Robinson is, but Merritt’s accomplishments should be recognized on that level. Merritt was second to Robinson in black college national championships despite coaching almost three times fewer seasons.
Robinson was well known for putting a good number of players into the NFL, but Merritt is not slacking in that department either. Merritt coached players like Pro Football Hall of Famers Claude Humphrey and Richard Dent along with Ed “Too Tall” Jones and Joe Gilliam.
The John Merritt Classic is a huge event for Tennessee State and the city of Nashville, but more than that, the classic recognizes the coach who took Tennessee State to the highest level they had ever been.
John Merritt will always be a huge part of Tennessee State football history and on the 20th anniversary of the John Merritt Classic, the nation needs to realize that he was the best coach to ever coach football in the history of colleges in the Nashville area.