Years ago, coaches paid modest sums

LITTLE ROCK — The late John Barnhill possibly was the first Arkansas Razorbacks football coach to stir much interest in what his salary might be. Even by 1945 standards, it wasn’t much.

Barnhill had coached the University of Tennessee line for Brig. Gen. Robert R. (Bob) Neyland through the 1930s and became interim head coach when the general went back on active duty during World War II. Barnhill took the Vols to seasons of 8-2, 8-1-1, 7-0-1, 8-1, and into the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl. He was proven, he figured, and had no intention of slipping back into an assistant’s role when the general returned to claim his job.

Arkansas fans eager for a “name” coach contacted him while on a hunting trip in eastern Arkansas. He met with a fans committee in Little Rock and put on a determined and successful stretch run to overtake Coach Red Drew of Alabama.

“I had been competing with Alabama all my life,” he said years later. “I was used to it.”

Barnhill accepted a five-year contract with Arkansas at $10,000 a year. Athletes like Clyde Scott and Leon (Muscles) Campbell pushed the Hogs to a Southwest Conference tie with Rice and a 0-0 tie with LSU in the 1947 Cotton Bowl. After five coaching years, Barnhill shifted into the role of full-time athletic director and trouble-shooter.

John Barnhill had a line that rarely failed to convulse listeners. At any mention of the University of Florida: He’d say: “How in the hell can anybody recruit in the Atlantic Ocean?”

Starting salaries, even for major football head coaches, seemed stuck between $14,000 and $15,000 as the 1950s approached.

Coach Bob Woodruff (and top assistant Frank Broyles) left Baylor for the University of Florida with a 10-year contract starting at $17,000, which at least one sports editor called a “princely sum” in 1950.

One survey in the early 1980s pegged the late Paul “Bear” Bryant’s annual earnings as $450,000 - his base pay accounting for less than a fourth of that figure. Radio and television benefits, speeches and endorsements.

No other coach was within $100,000 of Bryant’s income.

Barry Switzer, of Oklahoma, was runner-up at $270,000, followed by Jackie Sherrill at Texas A&M ($240,000) $226,000 for Lou Holtz, then at Arkansas, and Jerry Claiborne, Kentucky, rounding out the top five at $152,500.

The poll material was copyrighted in 1987. Not a millionaire in the crowd to that point, at least not on the surface.

Last week, new Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema pledged the Razorbacks and Gus Malzahn switched from Arkansas State to Auburn, where he’ll be head coach. No telling how many millions are bound up in these contracts.