Coaches used to be funny on purpose. The smart guys knew that a good line attracted the attention of desperate sportswriters. Or defanged sinister ones.
Abe Martin, the old TCU football coach, practiced a dry country wit. Shelby Metcalf’s bite was sharper. Noting the rhyming nickname of a great Texas A&M hoopster from the ‘80s, Claude Riley, aka the Crockett Rocket, Shelby said he was sure glad Riley wasn’t from Tucker.
Of course, nobody was funnier than Abe Lemons. Famously told one of his excitable Texas players that he’d just scored one more point than a dead man.