Kirk Coker etched his phonetically fierce name into FSU history as the only walk-on to start a game at QB under Coach Bobby Bowden. Along the way Kirk earned that scholarship he craved. His story reads like a Hollywood script, a plot from We are Marshall or Facing the Giants. Instead of Rudy, how about Kirk?
The 6’ 180 lb. 19-year-old out of Perry, FL transferred from the University of North Alabama in 1983. It took insistent begging on Kirk’s part to persuade his parents to let him sell his truck and try out as a walk-on at FSU.
Kirk’s love for the Seminoles started with his dad, Elmer Coker, a football coach himself, a man of intelligence, integrity and compassion. Elmer Coker loved the boys he coached.
Growing up, Coach Coker drove the family to Doak Campbell Stadium for gridiron matches. He made it an educational time for his family. Kirk and younger brother, Travis, found their love for football in Tallahassee.
Coach Coker was a high school head coach for 21 years. Hard work, great effort and character prevailed over football technique and strategy, though Coach Coker emphasized those topics as well. But life lessons and spiritual development always predominated. Coach Coker was proudest of the young men he helped to become successful fathers, husbands and employees. Building men, that was Coach Coker’s goal.
Notwithstanding the Leo Durochers of the world (“nice guys finish last”), Coker-style coaching breeds success. Coach Coker proved it. He won a state championship and consistently brought home the sportsmanship award from the Football Officials Association.
It surprised no one, then, that Kirk Coker was drawn to Bobby Bowden. Elmer Coker and Bobby Bowden shared a coaching mindset that should, but often does not, permeate coaching and parenting everywhere. Before Coach Coker and Coach Bowden met, they shared life goals – to love God, to love family and to shape young boys into godly men. Along the way, as these coaches plied their trade and worked their magic, young men became a team.
T-E-A-M
Selflessness and hard work are the ingredients for success in football. And in life. Coach Bowden outlined the virtues he saw in Kirk Coker in a letter to Kirk’s parents, Coach Elmer and wife Pat. Bobby Bowden assured them that Kirk worked hard and displayed a mature patience when walk-on Kirk found himself buried in a depth chart redundant in blue chip QBs. Playing time looked extremely unlikely. But Kirk persevered, knowing that, if the opportunity came, he had to be ready. Coach Bowden expressed an admiration for a young man driven to be his best even if others might never see his gains. Though all knew that Kirk had transferred from what could have been a multi-year starting job at Division II power UNA, Coach Bowden assured Elmer and Pat Coker that Kirk’s transfer was the right choice.
Time and circumstance provided Kirk the opportunity he craved. (Many, Kirk’s family included, would say it was no happenstance that Kirk got his chance. To them, God gave Kirk the opportunity.) And Kirk made the most of it. Kirk started three games in 1984, leading the Seminole offense against South Carolina, Tennessee Chattanooga and Florida. Kirk also played extensively, and threw for three TDs in a 52-44 win at Arizona State. Kirk Coker, the walk on from Perry, helped pave the way to The Dynasty that was FSU football from 1987 to 2000. Who can say, but without Kirk Coker, that dynasty might never have happened. And it all started in a backyard in Taylor County, Florida, with a little boy playing football under the watchful eye of a godly father, one who guided him to a godly coach on the campus of Florida State University.
God indeed works in mysterious ways.
Man can build many things in this world, bridges, roads, fellowships. Man can destruct or construct the people around them. Coach Coker and Coach Bobby Bowden chose the latter. They constructed young men, often young men whom fate had rudely deprived of constructive fathers. Such coaches are unfortunately rare. But when one finds such a coach, one finds a fountain, a stream from a spiritual well stocked by an Eternal Source. Such coaches quench the thirst of boys and girls with a desperate need. There is no higher calling.
Travis Coker, Kirk’s younger brother, says Kirk never needed that truck after all. Coach Elmer Coker and Coach Bobby Bowden drove Kirk Coker everywhere he needed to go.
Today, Kirk Coker is retired from the United States Marine Corps. A Lieutenant Colonel and an eternal Marine, Kirk completed two combat tours in the Middle East, leading fellow Marines and special forces into harm’s way. He and his family still bleed garnet and gold.
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