By Billy Watkins
It was Halloween 1980. A Friday.
Mississippi State’s football team arrived in Jackson mid-afternoon for its game the next day against legendary coach Bear Bryant and his undefeated and top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.
Glen Collins, born and raised in Jackson and one of the nation’s top defensive tackles, had phoned his 20-year-old fiancé, Kathy Brinston, several times but couldn’t get an answer. He figured she was probably busy finishing up schoolwork at Jackson State, where she was a sophomore.
As day turned to night and trick or treaters were out and about, Collins’ fellow defensive lineman and close friend, Tyrone Keys from Jackson, received a phone call. Brinston, who lived with her parents, had been killed. Shot in the head by a 15-year-old male who lived near Brinston. She was found by her mother that afternoon. Police said it happened around 11 a.m. during a robbery of the Brinstons’ home.
“I immediately went to Coach (Emory) Bellard,” Keys recalled. “We talked about who should tell Glen.”
Keys knew her, grew up near her.
Before they could decide, an aunt phoned Collins with the news.
“I heard the scream when he ran out of his hotel room,” Keys said. “I’ll never forget that scream.”
Bellard told Keys to get with Collins and remain with him throughout the night. Keys dozed off and on. “I didn’t sleep a wink,” Collins said.
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A year and a half after the tragedy, Collins was selected in the first round of the NFL draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. Before that, Collins had been an All-American at MSU, sacked quarterbacks 26 times and made 205 tackles while battling through injuries.
In 2013, he was named an SEC Legend.
On Aug. 1, Collins will be inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, along with six others (see below this story for the complete list).
“When I found out I was going in, I realized I would be in there with the greats like Walter Payton and Jackie Slater and all the others from around the state. And it will be special going in at the same time as (former State running back) Michael Haddix. I’m so honored,” said Collins, 67, who attended Jim Hill High School.
“I wish my mom was still here to see it. She had a temper and an attitude and she wasn’t scared of anybody. She kept me straight. I owe her so much.
“My dad wasn’t a large part of my life. And the truth is, it played a heavy toll on me mentally growing up. My mom had to work so hard while raising four boys and a girl that she never had time to see me play.”
When Collins arrived home after his Friday night games, there would be no talk about them, no watching the highlights on the local TV stations. The house would be dark and silent.
“Everybody would be asleep,” he said.
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At an early age, Collins fell in love with football and Jackson State. He lived near the campus and became the ball boy for the team in the late ’60s.
His mother’s brother and longtime Provine High School coach, Willie Collins, played at JSU.
“I would ride the team bus to games,” Collins said. “I would put their bags in front of their lockers. And for some reason I was always asking the defensive linemen questions. ‘Why did you do this or that?’ ”
It was assumed all along — even by Collins — that he would play college football at JSU. But things changed his senior year of high school when head coach Bob Hill was fired at mid-season. “Coach Hill told me, ‘The door is open to go wherever you want now,’ ” Collins said.
Hill told Keys at Jackson Callaway High the same thing.
Collins went on some recruiting visits. He particularly liked Missouri and its indoor practice facilities. His player host was All-American tight end Kellen Winslow.
“I seriously thought about going there,” he said. “But I went to Mississippi State on the right weekend. State was playing a basketball game against Tennessee when they had Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King — The Ernie and Bernie Show. It was electric. Sam Nichols (a three-time All-SEC offensive lineman) was my host. We had a great time.”
Collins, Keys and Leland High School linebacker Johnie Cooks soon made a pact: All three would go to State with the intention of building a defense for the ages.
“Coach Bryant called us the night before signing day and tried to change our minds,” Keys recalled. “But we all talked. And we all said, ‘Instead of playing for him, let’ s build a team that can beat the Bear.’ ”
All three became standout defenders. Keys and Cooks would earn Super Bowl victories — Keys with the 1985 Chicago Bears and their legendary 46 defense and Cooks with the 1990 New York Giants in the Whitney Houston national anthem game. Cooks, who died in 2023. and Keys are already members of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
Choosing State over JSU made life miserable for Collins during his final few months of high school.
He had lifelong friends refuse to speak. Teachers, one of whom was a football coach, threatened to flunk him in their classes. When he walked across the stage at graduation, he was handed a diploma folder with no diploma inside.
“It was a nightmare,” Collins said.
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Collins entered a new world when he arrived in Starkville for summer workouts.
“I walked into the weight room and became completely intimidated,” he said. “I weighed 220 but I’d never lifted a weight in my life, and I saw guys in there bench pressing 400 pounds. Here I was, a hot shot recruit from Jackson, who could barely bench the bar. I knew I had work to do.”
Collins would take a redshirt year and strength coach J.E. Loiacano worked with him one-on-one.
“By the time I hit the field the next spring, I was bench pressing with everybody else,” Collins said.
He was soon introduced to State’s new defensive line coach, Craig Randall, who had a striking resume. He had graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., where he earned a degree in history while playing football and singing in the chapel choir.
Randall joined the U.S. Army after graduating and was eventually transferred to the West Point Military Academy to help coach Army’s football, swimming and lacrosse teams.
He wore that military background every day with his players, and Randall and Collins did not get along at first.
“It took a special person to take what he dished out,” Collins said, managing a laugh. “But I credit him with making me the defensive lineman I became. He would make me so mad I’d have tears in my eyes. But he motivated me , and he knew his stuff.
“That man became like a father to me. He loved me. He’d tell me he did.”
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There was a focus by the players in the days leading up to the Alabama game that Collins had never seen.
“We knew we could beat them,” Collins said.
History didn’t agree with his optimism, even thought State was 6-2 at the time. Alabama had won 22 straight against the Bulldogs and hadn’t lost an SEC game in two years. It was arguably the best college football program in America. That’s why State was a 20-point underdog.
“We had a secret weapon, though,” Collins said, referring to Bellard, who invented the Wishbone offense that Alabama employed.
Bellard went down to the defense’s end of the field that Monday. He told his team, “I know every in and out of that offense,” he told his players, “and I can tell y’all how to stop it.”
“It still gives me chills when I think back and hear him say it,” Keys said.
The plan was to crash the defensive ends, Keys and freshman Billy Jackson, who was playing beyond his years. They would take the quarterback run.
But the main order of business, Bellard told them, was to take away the first option of the Wishbone, the fullback dive. That’s where Collins and defensive tackle Ernie Barnes entered the picture. “Hit that fullback every play,” Bellard demanded. That would also allow Cooks to roam.“Johnie was probably the fastest guy on our team,” Keys said.
By Friday morning, the Bulldog defenders felt like they had been at Alabama’s practice sessions all week. But Brinston’s horrific death cast a cloud over the entire team that afternoon and evening. Collins had not yet revealed if he would play.
“And let me make everyone understand this,” Keys said. “Glen was a dominant defensive tackle. There is no way we beat Alabama without Glen Collins on that field. No way.”
Collins delivered his decision to the team that evening.
“It was never a doubt I was going to play,” Collins recalled. “I didn’t need to sit around and feel sorry for myself. That’s the Coach Randall mentality he instilled in me. I didn’t want to let my teammates down. I already felt bad enough getting hurt down at Florida. I know it cost us that game. Plus, I wanted to play for Kathy.”
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Unless you are in your early 50’s or older, there is no way to truly understand the events of that Saturday afternoon 46 years ago at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The largest crowd to ever see a sporting event in Mississippi at the time — 62,250 —gathered to watch it.
It was a defensive slobber knocker start to finish.Two second-half field goals by Dana Moore put State ahead 6-3. Facing third-and-20 from its 42-yard line with 1:26 left and no timeouts remaining, Alabama was forced to ditch the Wishbone and allow quarterback Don Jacobs to throw. The yards suddenly came easy.
Three passes put Alabama at the 3-yard line with 22 seconds left and the clock ticking. Alabama went back to the Wishbone. Jacobs faked a handoff and ran right where he was met by Keys, who hit him squarely and forced a fumble. Jackson recovered with six seconds left.
The Bulldogs had stunned Alabama and the college football world. Many consider it the greatest win in school history. It’s certainly in the top three.
Bellard said on his TV show the next day: “It was a proud, proud moment. Our staff did a heck of a job and our players … gosh, what a tribute to the game of football because they played the way it’s supposed to be played.”
They held a team averaging 43 points per SEC game to no touchdowns and just 116 yards rushing. Gone were Alabama’s No. 1 ranking and its 28-game winning streak The loss cost the Tide a tie with Georgia for the SEC title. It finished 10-2 overall and No. 6 nationally.
State won four straight regular-season games after that and finished tied for second in the SEC, 9-3 overall and 19th in the final rankings after losing the Sun Bowl to Nebraska. It took State another 16 years to beat Alabama again.
Collins still wonders how he got through it.
“The whole game was just kind of a blackout for me,” Collins said. “I remember Tyrone and (defensive back) Larry Friday sitting beside me on the bench every time we came off the field. They say football is instincts and how you practice. That must be true because it was a total out-of-body experience for me.
“I broke down all the way back to Starkville.”
Collins and Brinston always had a bet on that game. Brinston kidded Collins that the Alabama contest was “an annual tail whipping” for the Bulldogs. He joked with her that it seemed like JSU always lost to Grambling.
“Even after we won, it was bittersweet,” Collins said. “I wanted her to be there and to see it happen. That still hurts. Probably always will.”
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Collins’ current surgery count stands at 19, nearly all because of the years he played at State and in the NFL.
Back operations, a knee replacement, two elbows, five shoulder surgeries make up part of the list. He maintains his weight at 210 — 55 pounds lighter than he was as a pro.
He met his wife, Charlotte, after he was done with football. They will celebrate their 29th anniversary in August.
He taught school for several years, then enjoyed success as a car salesman.
Collins, reconciled with his father shortly before he died.
He and Charlotte have three grown children — Glen Jr, Lekeia and Taylor.
“They’ve turned out great,” he said. “And one thing each of them can tell you is that I was a good daddy. I made sure of that.”
They will all be there for the induction ceremony, along with some aunts, uncles and friends.
Afterward, his home won’t be dark and won’t be silent.
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ALONG WITH COLLINS, SIX OTHERS WILL BE INDUCTED INTO THE MISS. SPORTS HALL OF FAME ON AUG. 1.
Louis Guy, an All-SEC defensive back at Ole Miss in the early 1960s.
Michael Haddix, a two-time All-SEC running back at Mississippi State and the eighth overall pick in the 1983 NFL draft. Bobby Halford, who won more than 1,300 games as baseball coach at William Carey.
Ronnie Mayers, former coach and athletic director at Delta State whose swimming and diving teams won 11 conference titles.
Johnny Parker, a pioneer in strength and conditioning at Ole Miss and later in the NFL, where his teams won three Super Bowls.
Brittney Reese, a former Ole Miss star and an Olympic gold medal winner in the long jump.
