Former EMCC football coach Tom Goode set to join Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame

SCOOBA – Former East Mississippi Community College head football coach and West Point native Tom Goode has been selected as one of 15 individuals slated to be inducted into the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame in Pearl.  The former Mississippi State and NFL standout is set to be formally enshrined during Tuesday's induction banquet scheduled to be held at the Clyde Muse Center on Hinds Community College's Rankin Campus.

Goode will be honored, along with one individual from each of the state's 14 other community colleges, following an illustrious athletic career that spanned nearly 50 years back to his playing days as an all-conference football and basketball performer at West Point High School.

An All-SEC selection at Mississippi State, Goode capped his collegiate career by garnering Kodak All-America honors as a senior in addition to playing in the Blue-Gray All-Star Classic, Coaches All-America Game and Senior Bowl following the 1960 season.  Drafted in the second round by the Houston Oilers of the old American Football League and in the 17^th round by the NFL's Detroit Lions, Goode played four seasons (1962-65) at center and linebacker for the Oilers before moving to the NFL's Miami Dolphins in 1966.  His four-year (1966-69) playing career with the Dolphins was highlighted by his 1969 selection to the NFL's All-Pro team.

 Having played in 152 consecutive games during his nine-year professional career, Goode is probably most noted for his final pro appearance on the gridiron.  As a member of the 1970 Baltimore Colts squad, the veteran center was the snapper for Jim O'Brien's game-winning field goal against the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V played in Miami's Orange Bowl.

Following retirement from pro football, Goode primarily spent the next 20 years serving as an assistant college coach at Southeastern Conference schools Mississippi State (1972-75 & 1984-89), Vanderbilt (1977 & 1990-91), Ole Miss (1978-82) and Alabama (1983).  His first head coaching opportunity came during a 12-year stint (1992-2003) as head coach and athletic director at East Mississippi Community College.  In 1996, Goode was tabbed Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges Coach of the Year after leading the EMCC Lions to an 8-2 record.  He closed out his coaching career as an assistant at Oak Hill Academy in his hometown of West Point. 

A recipient of both the Lifetime Achievement Award and Unsung Hero Award from the All-American Football Foundation, Goode is also a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in Jackson as well as Mississippi State University's Sports Hall of Fame.  This past fall, he was most recently inducted into East Mississippi Community College's Sports Hall of Fame.

Goode has been married 19 years to the former Sonia Buffington Foster of Canton, and they are the parents of three boys, Tommy and Michael Goode, and Brin Foster, and two girls, Lessie (Goode) Belk and Sandi (Foster) May.  They also have seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.       

This year marks the ninth class of the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame.  Goode will join previously elected EMCC inductees Randall Bradberry (2014), Retha Hand Henderson (2013), Johnny Fisher (2012), Joe Rowell (2011), Tom Scarborough (2010), Elbert "Lum" Wright (2009), Ken Waddell Sr. (2008), Don Edwards (2008), Clyde "Baby Doll" Pierce (2007), Bill Buckner (2007), and Bob "Bull" Sullivan (2007).

Other newly elected members slated to be honored Tuesday by the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame include: Ramona McCastle (Coahoma CC); Cindy Hodges Williams (Copiah-Lincoln CC); Marcus Mann (East Central CC); John R. Gray (Hinds CC); Aubrey Rozell (Holmes CC); Tim Bowens (Itawamba CC); Elmer J. Higginbotham (Jones County JC); Coby Miller (Meridian CC); Terry Thompson (Mississippi Delta CC); Luther "Benny" Goff Jr. (Mississippi Gulf Coast CC); Brenda Mayes (Northeast Mississippi CC); G. Max Lee (Northwest Mississippi CC); J. Larry Ladner (Pearl River CC); and J.W. (John) Beck Jr. (Southwest Mississippi CC).