July 29, 2015
For Immediate Release

By Richard RoBards,
assistant sports information director

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — A
friend of Campbellsville University who helped restart Fighting Tiger Football
is dead.

Sam Wickliffe, who came
to CU after retiring from the Campbellsville Independent School System and
helped legendary coach Ron Finley restart football in 1987, died Sunday, July
26. He was 87.

Wickliffe, by all
accounts, was a solid addition to the football coaching staff after teaching
and coaching for 31 years in middle and high schools at both Durham and
Campbellsville.

“It was amazing how he could
motivate players,” said fellow assistant coach Eric Graves. “A lot of our
success was because of the way he taught our players. He was a big-time
competitor who wanted to win everything all the time.” 

Graves was introduced to
Wickliffe's competitive spirit once during a friendly game of horseshoes.
Graves said he and his partner had the Wickliffe team down so bad that there
was no way they were going to make a comeback.

“All of a sudden he came
back,” said Graves. “How in the world he did that I'll never know.”

Gilbert Robbins, a player
brought in during Finley's first recruiting class and an all-conference
defensive end, fondly remembers his years with Wickliffe as his position coach.

Wickliffe helped with the
offensive and defensive lines and was in charge of equipment.

“He was a stickler for
having everything in its place — socks here, jerseys there, practice pants over
there,” said Robbins. “We laughed about it then when he'd say: ‘Do what I say,
and we'll keep it that way.'”

Robbins picked up on Wickliffe's
Christianity early in his career.

“He said God got him
through everything and got him to Campbellsville (then College) University, and
he wasn't going to change. He never pushed his religion on anyone, but he set
an example that we all learned to respect.

“He would not accept
halfway. He would say: ‘Do it right, or do it twice.'”

Robbins was the recipient
of Wickliffe's wrath on several occasions and remembers that coach had one of
the longest pointer fingers he's ever seen.

“He's wag that finger at
you and say … ‘no, no, no.' We knew then that he wanted our attention.”

Robbins thought he'd
pulled one over on his coach one day in practice when Wickliffe got down in a
stance with each lineman, telling them to grab him and pull. Then he'd show
them the proper technique of shedding that block.

Robbins thought he'd take
the drill one step further and when it was his turn, instead of pulling, he
pushed his coach.

“He started back peddling
for what seemed like 30 yards, arms a flailing. He looked like a bird trying to
take flight. But he never fell. He just ran back up to the line and said: ‘I
said PULL ME!'

“We all got a good laugh
out of it.”

Robbins credits Wickliffe
with instilling a work ethic in him that he says has stood the test of time.
“Put your best foot forward and get the job done. Do your best in everything
you do. He fostered an attitude that has stayed with me all these years.”

Haywood Riner, another CU
assistant from the early days of rekindled football, said Wickliffe was a
gentleman who lived Christ's values every minute of every day.

“He was a fine football
coach, too,” said Riner. “He was a leader in our community and was a leader
among the coaches.”

Riner and Graves both
recall a story about Wickliffe when the three had traveled to watch some state
football championship games. The threesome was sharing a room in a Louisville
hotel. Wickliffe had knelt down to say his bedtime prayers and the two were in
awe that he was still in the same position when they returned about 30 minutes
later.

“I thought at the time,
what an incredible prayer he must be sending to the heavens,” Graves said.

Then the two discover
that Wickliffe had knelt there so long that he had just fallen asleep beside
the bed.

“I love Sam Wickliffe,”
said Riner. “Campbellsville is a better town, and I'm a better man for working
with him.”

Riner said he never heard
anyone say anything negative about Sam Wickliffe and Wickliffe, in return,
never spoke negatively about anybody.

Dr. John Chowning, vice
president for church and external relations and executive assistant to the
president at Campbellsville University, said Wickliffe was “a wonderful
man and true servant leader and will be missed. He touched the lives of
many people in his various roles — as a beloved husband and father, devoted
member of Fannie Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, career as coach
and teacher in the Campbellsville Independent School System, coaching at
Campbellsville University, leadership of the Taylor County Civic League,
service on the Board of Greater Campbellsville United, and friend and mentor to
countless people. Our community's loss is truly heaven's gain!”

Wickliffe was inducted into the Campbellsville
University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003 and was named an American Football
Coaches Association NAIA Assistant Coach of the Year in 1998.

Visitation for coach
Wickliffe will be after 5 p.m. on Friday, July 31 at Fannie Chapel CME Church,
204 Durham St., Campbellsville; and the funeral will be held at noon Saturday,
Aug. 1 at the Ransdall Chapel, 401 N. Hoskins Ave., on the campus of
Campbellsville University.