Johnny Majors is coming home again.
Without the fanfare of his last return to Knoxville - when he came back to coach the Vols in 1977 after winning at national championship at Pittsburgh - Majors revealed in a story in Tuesday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he is leaving that city to come back to Tennessee.
Majors had an illustrious career as a single-wing tailback at UT that culminated with a runnerup finish in the race for the Heisman Trophy in 1956. He returned as a coach, 1977-92, leading the Vols to three SEC championships and one of their most memorable victories, a 35-7 romp over Miami in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1986.
At age 72, he is making the move to Tennessee to be near his family. He has a sister, Shirley Ann, and a brother, Bob, in Chattanooga and another brother, Larry, near Sewanee. The Majors' son, John Ireland Majors, and daughter, Shirley Ann, are in Tennessee, along with seven grandchildren, including Brandon, 20, who is in junior college after being raised in Pittsburgh by Johnny and his wife, Mary Lynn.
The Majors have sold their Pittsburgh home and are closing on a house in the Knoxville area. Majors left earlier this week for a trip to Scotland and was not able to be reached by the News Sentinel for further comment.
After leaving UT he returned to coach Pitt in 1993 and continued coaching therer for four seasons before retiring. He has served as a consultant at Pitt since his retirement.
Majors had a bitter departure from Tennessee in 1992. For several years after he returned to Pitt, he was reluctant to utter the word, "Tennessee," instead calling it "the place I used to work."
Those feelings have faded. Not that he's necessarily going to hang around the Vols.
"I'm going to play that by ear," Majors said in the Post-Gazette story. "I can say this: The athletic director (Mike Hamilton) wasn't there when I was there, and he's been very pleasant to me. I have some friends who still work at the university. I don't have any animosity."
He said he is not ready to totally disappear from public life.
"I'm in the fourth quarter of my life. I'm not ready to make the final play yet,"_Majors said.
He also said he is not totally leaving the Pittsburgh area behind.
"People say, 'Why are you leaving?' Well, I wonder myself sometimes. I've wondered a lot about it," he told the Post-Gazette. "Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania are uniquely special. I have so many friends here, I'm talking about really, really great friends.
"I'm very appreciative and indebted to the University of Pittsburgh."
Portions of this story were provided Shelly Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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