Former Falcons coach still in the game with Chick-fil-A Bowl

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Almost three decades after his last season as coach of the Falcons, Leeman Bennett remains involved with one Atlanta football game each year.

Bennett, 73, is the long-time chairman of the team selection committee for the Chick-fil-A Bowl, which will match Auburn against Virginia on New Year's Eve in the Georgia Dome.

Bennett's association with the bowl dates to 1987, when he got a call asking him to consider helping the then-struggling event. He's been helping ever since, making him one of the bowl's longest-serving -- and highest-profile ?- volunteers.

Bennett was the Falcons' fourth head coach, the first to accumulate a winning record with the franchise (46-41 from 1977 through 1982).? He was fired after a playoff loss in the strike-shortened ?82 season; the owner who fired him, Rankin Smith Sr., later would call it a mistake. Even now, only three coaches in Falcons history have had cumulative winning records while with the team: Bennett, Jim Mora (26-22 in 2004-06) and Mike Smith (42-20 since 2008).

Bennett had only one coaching job after the Falcons fired him, that with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the mid-1980s, but the years have been kind to him.

After a wide range of pursuits ?- several years in the recreational vehicle and automobile businesses, about a decade as director of development for Greater Atlanta Christian School, a year as executive director of Atlanta's 1994 Super Bowl host committee, a seat on a bank board, a stint as host of the Falcons' pregame and postgame radio shows ?- Bennett these days is enjoying retirement with his wife of 51 years, Pat.

They split their time between homes in Cumming and Jacksonville, each home close to two of their four grandchildren (ages 6 to 16). Bennett enjoys fishing, hunting, golfing and, pertinent to his involvement with the Chick-fil-A Bowl, college football.

"It's been a good life," Bennett said last week at the bowl offices, shortly before leaving on a family ski vacation. "I've had a great run."

Most of the people who live in metro Atlanta today were not here when Bennett coached the Falcons, but he still regularly encounters folks who fondly remember those years.

"That was a fun time. It was the first time [the Falcons] had ever won. We went to the playoffs three out of the six years," Bennett said. "I'm not as high-profile as I used to be, but plenty of people do still remember."

Dozens of coaches have been fired in Atlanta's professional sports history, but Bennett's firing was perhaps the most criticized. Appreciation of his winning record only grew as the Falcons posted losing records in eight consecutive seasons (and 13 of 15) following his departure.

"With Rankin [Smith] coming out later and making the statement that it was the biggest mistake he ever made, it made me feel a little better about being fired anyway," Bennett said.

Most pro coaches quickly leave town after being fired, but Bennett has mostly stayed here. He left in 1985 to? coach the talent-poor, penny-pinching Buccaneers but returned to Forsyth County two years later when back-to-back 2-14 seasons got him fired in Tampa.

At that point, Bennett was almost 50, had spent 25 years as a coach on the college and NFL levels and was tired of moving from city to city, job to job.

"After Tampa, we decided to come back to Atlanta," he said, "because we had lived here longer than anywhere else and our roots seemed to be deeper here with our friendships and church and things that make a community."

As the years went by and it became clear Bennett wouldn't coach again, his association with Atlanta's bowl game -- known as the Peach Bowl before adopting the Chick-fil-A name -- kept him involved with football.

"I looked at it as a way to give back to the community," Bennett said.

The bowl, which struggled for survival in the 1980s, has become a success in terms of attendance, TV ratings, payouts to participating teams and contributions to charity. Bennett cites four developments for the turnaround: "getting out of the cold" of Atlanta-Fulton County by moving into the Georgia Dome; contracting with the ACC and SEC to provide the teams; the addition of Chick-fil-A as title sponsor; and the leadership of bowl president and CEO Gary Stokan.

Another key factor, Bennett said, has been the contribution of about 450 volunteers.

Stokan said several volunteers have been continuously active with the bowl, which started in 1968, for more than 40 years and more than a dozen others, including Bennett, for around 25 years or longer.

Bennett, chairman of the team selection committee since 1987 and also the bowl's overall chairman from 2004 through 2006, plans to remain involved in some capacity "as long as they'll let me hang around," although he noted that his time spent in Florida curtailed his presence this season. Stokan said he and Bennett talked by phone twice a week while Bennett was away.

"I treasure Leeman as a sounding board for a lot of issues," Stokan said. "He has a good feel for people and analyzes things well. As a coach, he brings a different perspective to the table. "

"It has been a great ride," Bennett said of his involvement with the bowl. "I certainly wasn't the key by any stretch of the imagination, but it has been good to be just a small piece in the wheel of something that turned into a success."

Source: http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-falcons/former-falcons-coach-still-1271608.html?cxtype=rss_sports

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