Funeral services for Legendary football coach Pat Collins is tomorrow in Monroe. Collins led Northeast Louisiana University, now known as ULM, to the Division I-AA Championship in 1987. Former NLU receiver Tag Rome was an assistant coach on that national championship team and says Coach Collins was a father figure, and you knew where you stood with him.
“Wasn’t any gray area. Here’s the expectations. Here they are. Nothing less. You cannot get by with nothing less than this. You know, that’s the way he was,” Rome recalled.
Rome says Coach Collins is one of the most important people in his life. He says Coach Collins was tough on his players, but he was a strong leader.
“You knew that he cared. And he cared about his family, and his players and all that, first. And coach was spiritual,” Rome said.
Collins also coached at local high schools West Ouachita and Ouachita. Rome expects a large number of people will be at the Kilpatrick Funeral Home to pay their last respects.
“He was definitely stern; high expectations all the time. You worked your tail off, but you were his family,” Rome said.
Collins record at NLU was 57-35. He won two Southland Conference Championships. The Shreveport native was also a defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech in the 1970s. Those years were known as the “Glory Years.” In 2015, Collins was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. He was 84.
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