Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Football royalty
Selmon embraces family legacy in his role at Southside
FORT SMITH — Lucious Selmon III never felt overwhelmed or pressured or intimidated by the family name. He just saw it as a goal.
“Growing up in Norman and in Oklahoma like I did, everybody knew the Selmon name and who I was,” Selmon said. “Part of that helped shape who I am. I just tried not to do anything crazy and put myself out there like that. As far as in the football world, that’s put a chip on my shoulder, and it’s tried and true that my goal is to try to be as good as my dad was.”
Lucious II, along with younger brothers Dewey and Lee Roy, are widely considered the “First Family of Oklahoma Football” for obvious reasons.
To make it official, the three legendary Eufaula stars were immortalized on Sept. 24 when the Oklahoma Sooners unveiled a statue honoring the three in All-America Plaza on the northeast corner of Memorial Stadium at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
“It was awesome,” Selmon said. “You don’t really realize what it is until you get there and see it. Me and my sisters were like this is going to be here forever. We were surrounded by our whole family but to have my kids there and see them. To them it’s just Papa. To me it’s just dad but to see what they accomplished will be immortalized forever is just awesome.”
Lucious II was the oldest and first to sign with the Sooners in 1970 and was a sophomore in the 1971 Game of the Century, the legendary game between Nebraska and Oklahoma. Younger brothers, Dewey and Lee Roy, arrived at Oklahoma in 1972.
All three started at one time on the defensive line at Oklahoma. Lucious, II, was All-America in 1973, and Dewey and Lee Roy were All-Americans in 1974 and ’75. Oklahoma was 54-3-1 with two national championships with at least one of them on the field from 1971-1975.
“Dad, Dewey and Lee Roy left a great legacy,” Selmon said. “I’m just blessed to be part of the family.”
Lucious III did not follow in their footsteps on the football field. Knee problems and other health reasons, along with weighing just 155 pounds, kept him from even playing any high school football while at Norman High when his dad was an assistant coach for the Sooners.
He eventually had to have surgery to correct the issues.
He did attend the University of Oklahoma and earned his four-year degree along with double Master’s degrees.
Just because he didn’t play football, though, didn’t prevent it from flowing through his veins mostly from hanging out with his dad.
“When I was older, I got to go to work with him, and you couldn’t run me out of the fieldhouse,” Selmon said. “Just to be around him and picking up stuff while I was around him. I didn’t realize the stuff I was picking up.”
Soon, he ventured into coaching as well.
“It’s in my blood I guess,” Selmon said. “It just kind of happened. A buddy of mine got me into coaching.”
First, he coached seventh-grade football at Alcott Middle School in Norman, then eighth grade the next year. Then he interned for the Jacksonville Jaguars while his dad was an assistant coach there. Then, he applied for an internship for the Detroit Lions but also interviewed for a teaching and coaching job at Chickasha, Okla., which was the first to call and offer him.
“I got that job,” Selmon said. “God doesn’t make mistakes, and here I am.”
That job quickly led to a job at Norman High, then to Fayetteville, and to Claremore, Okla., when Jacob Cox, Southside’s defensive coordinator, called and asked if he was interested in coaching at Southside after veteran coach Brooks Witherspoon retired.
“Jacob Cox called me and said there was an opening,” Selmon said. “Ball is ball no matter where you’re at. I fit in with the guys. Again, God doesn’t make mistakes.”
Southside head coach Kim Dameron, a veteran coach who coached on the college level for 38 years, welcomed the addition of Selmon.
“Obviously, his name is pretty well known and the people that I talked to couldn’t say enough good things about him,” Dameron said. “Coach Cox also knew him, and after interviewing him and talking to him about defensive line play and what he was about, our people were ecstatic about him. We’re really glad to hire a teacher and a coach of his caliber.”
Lucious III jumped at the opportunity to get back into the 7A-West.
“Just to get back in this part of the state,” Selmon said. “My kids live in Fayetteville with their mom so it was an opportunity to get back closer to them. I get a chance to see them more often which was the driving force.”
He’s also enjoyed seeing his defensive line improve this season under his guidance.
“I got here and the guys I’m coaching, they’ve improved greatly,” Selmon said. “Coach Cox and Coach Dameron have been receptive to what we’re doing, and the guys have bought in and seen the results of it. I’ve got a great group of guys that I’ve inherited and I’ve enjoyed being around them.”
He’s also been involved the weight training.
“I enjoy the strength aspect as well,” Selmon said. “I’ve just come in and we want to be explosive and try to be stronger, bigger, faster, stronger. We can always do better in the weight room, always. That’s something we’ll push in the offseason.”
As an example of the play of the defensive line, the Mavericks completely controlled Thursday’s 37-17 win over Springdale.
John Parkinson added to his team-high 12 sacks with two more and Kage Castling also had a sack.
“We were dominating in every aspect of the game, but we wouldn’t be able to do any of this without Coach Selmon,” Parkinson said. “He just turned me and our defensive line into what we are.”
Of Springdale’s 38 rushing attempts, 11 were for no gain or a loss and five others went for just a gain of one yard.
“My goal my first year was that they know when they get done with a game plan against us that they were in a battle in the trenches,” Selmon said. “That they went against a group that was technically sound and understood their responsibilities, and was violent and relentless getting to the football in the right way. I’m a stickler for doing things the right way and respecting the game. If you don’t respect the game, I have a hard time with that. There’s so much to it that’s given me and my family so much that I have respect for it. I want the guys not only to just play the game but to learn about the game while they play it.”
While Lucious III wasn’t able to follow the family name on the field, he strives to live up to it on the sidelines.
“I’ll never get there, ever get there but that’s what I strive for,” Selmon said. “Everybody has their goals and those that they emulate, I just happen to be related to mine as far as coaching. Everything I’ve gotten I’ve learned from him and I’ve added some different stuff to it along the way but my goal is to try to prove I’m as good a coach as my dad is, now he coached at the highest level. That’s what I’m shooting for, just to be mentioned in the same breath as him as far as coaching, that’s what I’m striving for.”
His dad finished his coaching career at Michigan State in 2005 after coaching at Jacksonville from 1995-2002 and at Oklahoma from 1976-1994 under Barry Switzer, whom Lucious III stays in contact with.
“Oh, yes, he’s like extended family,” Selmon said.
They were the youngest three of nine siblings born to Lucious and Jessie Selmon on a farm in Eufaula, Okla., and it was Switzer who said that the greatest contributor to Oklahoma football was Mrs. Selmon for giving birth to Lucious II, Dewey and Lee Roy, referring to Jessie Selmon, their mother and the grandmother of Lucious III.
“She was the foundation of the family,” Selmon said. “To hear everybody talk about her, she was wonderful and she happened to produce three football-playing boys. There are three older ones that nobody knew about because it was during segregation before integration. There were those three older boys, three sisters and then the three younger boys. Everybody knows them for their athletic prowess but just all of them were great athletes and better people.”
One of the greatest jokes that Switzer loves to tell includes Texas coach Darrell Royal.
“We had a good joke back then: Darrell Royal resigned and quit coaching when he heard that Mrs. Selmon was pregnant with triplets.”
That family foundation remains a strong motivation for Selmon.
“Them growing up in Eufaula, I knew both of my grandparents and the foundation they laid upon them,” Selmon said. “The foundation and the discipline they had didn’t get spared on me. I guess I come by it honestly. Every time we get together, reunions and the statue celebration, it’s like we never left. The stories they talk about, my cousins and me we’re doing the same things. We see our kids running around, we’re getting onto them for the same stuff they got onto us for which their parents got onto them for. The stories are everywhere.”
“We were dominating in every aspect of the game, but we wouldn’t be able to do any of this without Coach Selmon. He just turned me and our defensive line into what we are.” — John Parkinson, Fort Smith Southside football player