Buck Mahoney
LEXINGTON — They came remember Monte Kiffin — not the legendary defensive coach — but instead, their former teammate, friend and the coach that led them to the state American Legion baseball championship.
Kiffin, the Lexington native who went on to mastermind the Tampa Two defense integral to the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl championship, was laid to rest in his hometown surrounded by family and friends from his youth.
“This is where his parents were. This is where he wanted to be. And this place was very special to him,” said his son, Lane, the head football coach at Ole Miss. “He loved coming back here. ... It was his favorite spot.”
Kiffin died July 11 in Oxford, Mississippi. A celebration of life was held July 20 in Largo, Florida.
Approximately 75 people attended the graveside service Sunday with more at a luncheon reception that followed. Some flew in from California and Virginia. The attendees included former Husker players when Monte Kiffin was Nebraska’s defensive coordinator, and Husker head coach Tom Osborne.
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“I think it was really neat. It’s really awesome to see so many people come out. He just touched so many different places for 84 years,” Lane said.
Lane said he found some of the details of the championship baseball team Monte coached at age 23 enlightening and new.
Monte Kiffin was “a very special man, a very special player and coach and I’m sure you all know that. And we’ll all miss him a lot,” said the Rev. Dave Irwin, a player on the 1963 state champion baseball team, who conducted the graveside service for the defensive coordinator for two NCAA champions at Nebraska and the Super Bowl winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But the day was devoted to the man they knew as a local celebrity.
“This was like being coached by our hero. Monte was our hero, is our hero,” Irwin said of that summer when Kiffin was a 23-year-old coach. ‘He knew how to talk to kids and how to get the most out of them.”
From his favorite hidden-ball trick, to his 1957 red Chevrolet convertible, to alterations to the car’s exhaust system to “make lots of noise,” to the pink suit he wore to a wedding, stories of Monte Kiffin’s youth filled the event.
There was talk of his athleticism on Lexington’s 1957 undefeated football team that allowed only one touchdown, that on the season finale. And the basketball game where he was credited with 37 points and 37 rebounds.
“Kiff was a guy who had so many great traits. He was a guy you wanted to emulate what he did,” his nephew, Dan Murphy said.
Murphy described Kiffin’s life as a train that picked up passengers at every stop during his long coaching career — a career in which the family knew he was “unjustly fired multiple times.”
In those events, Murphy said his uncle would would “get up and get back in the huddle,” and develop many of the coaching talents that would carry him throughout his career. He was known for putting people in the right places to maximize their skills, helping others succeed, and making inspiring speeches.
His former players said he always made it fun.
For family and friends, Kiffini was known for his infectious laugh and self-deprecating humor.
“He was a great storyteller. Part of the reason he was a great storyteller was because he had so many stories,” Murphy said. “What was great about his stories were that they slightly changed each time he gave them. ... He was entertained by entertaining you.”
Current Lexington football coach Jake Harvey said the Lexington team will wear a decal on its helmets this year with Kiffin’s initials, the number he wore at Lexington at the words, “Legends Never Die.”
“I don’t know if this younger generation knows how blessed we are as a community to have a Mick Tingelhoff and a Monte Kiffin come from the same place; both being in Rings of Honor and Halls of Fame. ... “We feel very blessed to be a part of his life and have him in ours and have him be an alumni of ours.
“The boys are very, very excited about it. We’re going to honor him, hopefully in the way we play. He was a great man. It’s the very least we can do.”
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