Richard Copeland Slocum (born November 7, 1944) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player and coach who is currently a special assistant to the president at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

. He has also served as interim athletics director at the university from January through June 2019 and again from January through March 2023, and previously served as the head football coach there from 1989 to 2002. He has won more games as coach (123) than anyone else in

Texas A&M Aggies football The Texas A&M Aggies football program represents Texas A&M University in the sport of American football. The Texas A&M Aggies, Aggies compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the ...

history. Slocum was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive Tourist attraction, attraction devoted to college football, college American football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players ...

as a coach in 2012.

Personal life

Raised in

Orange, Texas Orange is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Texas, United States. The population was 19,324 at the 2020 census. It is the easternmost city in Texas, located on the Sabine River at the border with Louisiana, and is from Houston. ...

, Slocum graduated from Stark High School in Orange in 1963 and attended

McNeese State University McNeese State University is a public university in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Founded in 1939 as Lake Charles Junior College, it was renamed McNeese Junior College after John McNeese, an early local educator. The present name was adopted in 1970. M ...

Lake Charles, Louisiana Lake Charles is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, fifth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the county seat, parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles (Louisiana), Lake Char ...

. Slocum earned a B.S. in physical education in 1967 and M.S. in educational administration in 1968, both from McNeese State. He has two sons; the older, Shawn Slocum, was an assistant coach at Texas A&M under his father and has been the special teams coordinator for the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the sport, athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's Varsity team, varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Divisi ...

since 2015.

Coaching career

Early career

Slocum began his career as a football coach at Lake Charles High School in 1968. Two years later, in 1970, Slocum became a graduate assistant at

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant coll ...

under head coach

Vince Gibson Vince Gibson (March 27, 1933 – January 10, 2012) was an American football player and coach. He served as head football coach at Kansas State University (1967–1974), the University of Louisville (1975–1979), and Tulane University (1980–198 ...

, also coaching the offensive linemen on the freshman team. In 1971, he was named head freshman coach.

USC

Slocum spent the 1981 season as the

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator (DC) is a coach responsible for a gridiron football team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's coaching structure, wit ...

at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

(USC) under John Robinson. Slocum's defense led the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

in total defense that season. The team lost to

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

in the

1982 Fiesta Bowl The 1982 Fiesta Bowl was the eleventh edition of the college football bowl game, played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona on Friday, January 1. Part of the 1981–82 bowl game season, it matched the seventh-ranked independent Pe ...

, finishing with a 9–3 record.

Texas A&M

In 1972, Slocum was hired as receivers coach under Emory Bellard at Texas A&M University. After one year of coaching the receivers, he was moved to defense to coach the defensive ends, and in 1976, he became linebackers coach. Bellard left A&M in 1978, moving on to Mississippi State and taking defensive coordinator

Melvin Robertson Melvin Robertson (born May 25, 1928) is a former American football coach. He was considered one of the top Defense (sport), defensive minds in football during the 1970s and 80s. "Mad Dog" Robertson began his coaching career as an assistant unde ...

with him. Former A&M offensive coordinator and new head coach Tom Wilson chose Slocum as his defensive coordinator in 1979. After serving

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

as defensive coordinator in 1981, Slocum returned to A&M in 1982 as defensive coordinator under

Jackie Sherrill Jackie Wayne Sherrill (born November 28, 1943) is an American former college football player and coach. He was the head football coach at Washington State University (1976), the University of Pittsburgh (1977–1981), Texas A&M University (1982� ...

. In 1985, Slocum was elevated to assistant head coach. Slocum substituted for Sherrill and served as acting head coach for A&M's 18–0 victory over TCU during the 1988 season which was Sherrill's last.

Head coach

In December 1988, Sherrill was forced to resign, and Slocum was named his successor. During his 14 years as head coach, Slocum led the Aggies to a record of 123–47–2, making him the winningest coach in Texas A&M history. During his career, Slocum never had a losing season and won four conference championships, including the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

title in 1998 and two Big 12 South Championships in 1997 and 1998. Additionally, he led the Aggies to become the first school in

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

history to post three consecutive perfect conference seasons and actually went four consecutive seasons without a conference loss. Slocum reached 100 wins faster than any other active coach. He has the best winning percentage in SWC history, one spot ahead of the legendary coach

Darrell Royal Darrell K Royal (July 6, 1924 – November 7, 2012) was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi State University from 1954 to 1955, the University of Washington ...

who is number 2. Under his tenure, Slocum helped make A&M's

Kyle Field Kyle Field is an American football stadium in College Station, Texas located on the campus of Texas A&M University. It has been the home to the Texas A&M Aggies football team in rudimentary form since 1904, and as a permanent concrete stadium s ...

one of the hardest places to play in the nation, only losing 12 home games in 14 years, going parts of seven seasons without a home loss. After a home loss to Arkansas on November 24, 1989 (which broke a streak of 19 consecutive SWC home victories), they would not lose again in College Station until December 2, 1995, when his Aggies lost to Texas 16–6, although they did tie Baylor (20–20) on October 20, 1990. With Miami's 58-game, nine-season home winning streak ending in 1994, A&M owned the longest active home winning streak in the nation for much of 1994 and 1995. In the 1990s, A&M lost only four times at Kyle Field. Slocum was named SWC Coach of the Year three times during his tenure as head coach. His "Wrecking Crew" defense led the SWC in four statistical categories from 1991 through 1993 and led the nation in total defense in 1991. Over 50 Texas A&M players were drafted into the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

during Slocum's career as head coach. Slocum inherited an Aggie football program that had just finished 7-5 and had been slapped with severe NCAA sanctions for violations under Sherrill. He didn't take long to clean up the program. He was quoted in 2002 as saying: After fourteen years as head coach, Slocum was forced to resign in 2002 following only the second non-winning season of his career, and his only losing record in conference play. He immediately assumed a position as special adviser to Texas A&M president

Robert Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and retained b ...

. In May 2012, Slocum was inducted into the

.Former A&M Coach R. C. Slocum Named To Hall Of Fame
kwtx.com Retrieved May 15, 2012 On April 19, 2019, Slocum was named interim athletic director for Texas A&M after the sudden departure of Scott Woodward to

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

. Following

Ross Bjork Ross Bjork (born October 22, 1972) is the athletics director for The Ohio State University. He previously served as the director of athletics for Texas A&M University, University of Mississippi and Western Kentucky University. He has also previou ...

's departure for the athletic director role at Ohio State in January 2024, Slocum again served as interim AD before the hiring of

Trev Alberts Trev Kendall AlbertsJim Offner '' Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier'', February 6, 2013, accessed July 8, 2013. (born August 8, 1970) is an American sports administrator and former professional football player who is the athletic director at Texas A ...

Head coaching record

References

External links

Texas A&M profile
(archived June 6, 2002) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Slocum, Rc 1944 births Living people American football tight ends Kansas State Wildcats football coaches McNeese Cowboys football players Texas A&M Aggies athletic directors Texas A&M Aggies football coaches USC Trojans football coaches High school football coaches in Louisiana College Football Hall of Fame inductees College Football Playoff Selection Committee members People from Oakdale, Louisiana Sportspeople from Orange, Texas Coaches of American football from Texas Players of American football from Texas