BILOXI, MISS. (AP) - He quarterbacked a national championship team, coached two national championship teams, and in Biloxi George Sekul was just as well-known for his involvement in the Mississippi Coast seafood industry.
“He kind of lived in both worlds,” said Robin Krohn David, executive director of the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, where Sekul was a board member for many years.
Coach Sekul, who was also a trailblazer when he started recruiting Black athletes at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, died Monday in D’Iberville at age 83. He is survived by his wife Diane and three daughters: Gia, Kari and Michelle, and six grandchildren.
Sekul described himself as “a fisherman.” His family came to Biloxi from Croatia. His father, Mike Sekul, served for nearly 50 years as president of Gulf Central Seafood oyster packing plant on the Point in East Biloxi.
One of the Seafood Museum’s two Biloxi Schooners is the “Mike Sekul.”
“They were so proud to have the opportunity to name the schooner after their dad,” David said of George and his family.
Mayor Andrew “Fofo” Gilich is a relative of Sekul’s and described him as “an all-around Point Cadet kid.” He continued in the seafood business and had a number of fishing boats, one of which he named “The Forward Pass,” Gilich said.
STAR QUARTERBACK
“The Southern Miss Athletics family mourns the loss of George Sekul, quarterback from our 1958 national championship team,” Southern Miss Athletics posted on social media Tuesday.
Sekul played football and basketball on the Notre Dame High School in football and basketball in Biloxi. He went on to Perkinston Junior College, where he was a first-team All-State quarterback in the 1956 season, and earned All-American honorable mention honors.
He was starting quarterback at Mississippi Southern College, now Southern Miss, from 1957-58 and also was a punter, kick returner and defensive back.
His three interceptions in a game are still tied for second-best in USM history, and the 1958 team has the only undefeated, untied season in the school’s history. They went 9-0, earning the UPI College Division National Championship, the university said in a press release, and Sekul went on to play in the 1959 Senior Bowl.
COACH SEKUL
He returned to Perkinston in 1961 as backfield coach, and Sekul became head coach in 1966. The Bulldogs won the first of his eight state championships that year (1966, 1967, 1971, 1974, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986). His first national championship was in 1971 and his second in 1984, when the team went 13-0.
He also coached the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College track team to five state championship over 31 years.
“Coach Sekul is probably the best-known coach in Gulf Coast history and has made a huge impact on the lives of former players, current students and employees of this institution,” said Mary Graham, PhD, MGCCC president. “His legacy is one of athletic excellence, outstanding coaching skill and whole-hearted devotion to both MGCCC and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Sekul was an innovative head coach on the junior college level, installing a no-huddle offense in the early 1980’s that helped contribute to a 1984 NJCAA national championship.
At that point in time, there were few programs on any level running the fast-paced no-huddle like they do in today’s college games.
Allen Williams, a former Vancleave star, was a standout running back for Sekul during the 1983 and 1984 campaigns.
“I don’t think anybody else in the country was doing it,” Williams said. “You watch the college game now and they’re doing what we were doing in the early ’80s. (Sekul) was definitely an innovator.
“I don’t know if it was his adjusting to the talent coming in or what it was, but it was a big deal.”
Williams earned Second-Team All-American honors as a sophomore as part of the 1984 team that beat Harford in the East Bowl to claim the national title.
“That was really a special time,” Williams said. “A lot of us came from small schools without a lot of notoriety. Sekul and his staff gave us the chance to accomplish something and play for national championships - something our senior colleges haven’t provided.”
A TRAILBLAZER IN RECRUITING BLACK ATHLETES
“He gave all these Coast football players a chance to continue to play,” said Kenny Glavan, Biloxi Councilman and businessman, who was recruited by Sekul.
Glavan was working at his father’s shop when Sekul walked in, and told his father, “We need him.” A few minutes later his Dad came out of the office after meeting with Sekul and told his son, “You’re going to go play for Coach.”
He played for two years, and Glavan said, “It’s amazing how a couple years can shape a person’s life.”
An article in the Vicksburg Post in 2002, ahead of his induction into the state Sports Hall of Fame, described how Sekul was a trailblazer.
“His record is unsurpassed in the junior college ranks, but it was his off-the-field contributions that made the most lasting impact,” the article said.
When he took over as coach at MGCCC at age 28, it was in the 1960s segregated Mississippi.
In 1967, according to an article in the Sun Herald, Sekul recruited Josh Wells, Glen Larkin and Morris Richardson, three Black players from Pascagoula. They later became the first Black players at a previously all-white state college in Mississippi.
“He walked out on a limb just to recruit a Black athlete,” Wells told the Sun Herald on Tuesday. “Not many people were willing to take that walk. That’s pretty big in my world. It’s easy to say yes today. Yesterday, it was not.”
Wells still looks to Sekul to this day as a man who set a great example as a leader.
“I’m a very fortunate man,” Wells said. “God has put me in the hands of the very best people any man could ever ask for as a young man, and George Sekul was one of those people. It’s not an accident. There’s no way that it could have been an accident to be a student of George Sekul. That’s God’s plan.”
Sekul told the Sun Herald prior to his induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame that he was simply putting together the best team he could.
“When I think back on it, I was looking for good football players,” Sekul told the newspaper. “These guys came up, worked out and we signed them. We really were not looking to break the barrier, we just wanted the best football players we could find, regardless of the color of their skin. We wanted the best we could get.”
SEKUL LOOKS BACK
Louis Skrmetta, who captains Ships Island Excursions, also is related to Sekul. Both families came to Biloxi from the island of Brac in Croatia.
Skrmetta said he was at USM when the college was looking for a new coach and considered Sekul. When he wasn’t hired, Skrmetta said, “What a lost opportunity.” He can only imagine the impact Coach Sekul would have had at USM if he had been selected as head coach, Skrmetta said.
“I was a part of three national championship teams,” Sekul said in an interview with the Sun Herald before his induction into the Hall of Fame.
“This honor is right up there with those three highlights. Playing on the 1958 team was special and the first one at Perk, in 1971, was sweet because we went to Savannah, Ga., and beat Fort Scott, the defending national champion.
“And of course, being able to coach my brother was special to me. One year we won the state championship, the next year with Mike we lost in the state championship game.”
KNOW WHO IS COACH
As far as Sekul’s approach as a coach, there was never a doubt as to who was at the helm.
“Coach was always coach,” Williams said. “I don’t think there was ever a time when you were near Coach Sekul when it didn’t feel like he was the guy in charge. I think he related very well to his players, but he also did a very good job of painting a picture, creating a vision for us on what hard work and dedication could ultimately end up producing for us.”
Sekul’s son-in-law, St. Martin athletic director Jesse Kanode, told the Sun Herald on Tuesday that Sekul was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s at the time his death, but football continued to light a spark in the former head coach and Southern Miss star player.
“As soon as talk to turned to football on TV, he lit up and sparked up right away and he was sharp as ever,” Kanode said.
After attending his last MGCCC game on Nov. 19 in a 35-8 win over Jones College, Sekul had one of those moments of clarity.
“They were playing Jones and he hadn’t said a word. It was cold,” Kanode said. “We didn’t really know if he understood were we were or what was going on, but all of a sudden he recapped the last scoring drive they had. He still had that sharpness in his mind. It was still in there. We were all kind of blown away, amazed by that. He was a great coach and a great man.”
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