In 1963, former Alcorn coach E.E. Simmons was considering accepting a job as the Alabama State athletic director. He convinced Casem to follow him to Montgomery to become ASU’s football coach, then turned down the job.

Casem spent one season at Alabama State before returning to Lorman for the next 22 years.

“Alabama State, at that time, wasn’t ready for hard-nosed football.,” Casem said. “Luckily, the opening happened at Alcorn and the president saw fit to bring me back.

“That was 1964, and that was the start of it.”

Alcorn had gone 0-7 in 1963, but Casem guided them to a 5-5 record in 1964 which included a 27-8 win over bitter rival Jackson State in his first season on the Reservation. He had his first winning season in 1966, going 5-3-2, and led the Braves to the first of three consecutive SWAC titles in 1968.

The final game of the 1968 season, a 36-9 win over highly ranked Florida A&M in Miami’s Orange Bowl, gave Alcorn a 9-1 record and sealed the school’s first black national title.

“I can remember the 1968 game with Florida A&M being one of the biggest games under my tenure,” Casem said. “We had a good football team, but no one knew about us. We went to Miami and everybody was saying Alcorn who?’

“For us to get in there and play, that was something. That was a big win for us. I thought that was the thing that really put us on the map.”

Alcorn went on to win six more SWAC titles, in 1969, ’70, ’74, ’76, ’79, and ’84, and 132 games in all under Casem. He led the Braves to black national titles in 1968 and ’69, ’74, and ’84, and had only two losing seasons after 1966.

In 1984, Casem guided the Braves to their last black national title by going 9-1. The record included a win over the “Satellite Express” offense from Mississippi Valley State, which lit up scoreboards and featured Jerry Rice and Willie Totten.

Alcorn held Totten and Rice in check for much of the game, and pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 42-28 win.

“I guess that was probably our greatest coaching job. They put together a great defensive gameplan,” Casem said. “To slow down Rice and Totten was a big thing. You weren’t going to stop them, but we slowed them down.”

While Casem was very successful on the football field, he was also turning into a great ambassador for Alcorn in the halls of the state legislature.

As the 1970s gave way to the 80s, he was called on to do more fundraising and lobbying work to help upgrade Alcorn’s athletic facilities as the school’s athletic director.

Jack Spinks Stadium and the Whitney Complex for basketball are both parts of his legacy, along with several major campus buildings erected in the 1980s and early 90s.

Casem said the football team’s success helped grease the wheels for funding from the state legislature, and it was much easier to lobby lawmakers than figure out how to stop Jerry Rice or beat Jackson State.

“It had to, because the legislators were anxious to talk athletics and we had a very successful program.,” Casem said. “Basketball, track, football, all that was winning while we were there. It was easy to converse that and to sell that. People wanted to talk about that.”

Casem retired from coaching in 1985, and left Alcorn in 1986 to become the athletic director at Southern. He returned to the sideline for Southern in 1987 and 1988, and again in 1992, but his main contribution there was building the program into one of the SWAC’s best.

Casem said the decision to leave Alcorn after so many years was a tough one.

“There’s no doubt about it. I tell everybody we grew into manhood at Alcorn,” Casem said. “We came there as a pup that didn’t really know a lot about the world and grew into a man at Alcorn. We were very fortunate that we surrounded ourselves with great people. Alcorn was a great place to bond with folks.”

After retiring as Southern’s AD in June 1999, Casem was lured back to Alcorn a year later by school president Clinton Bristow Jr. to serve as interim athletic director.

Alcorn was going through both academic and athletic accreditation, and needed a strong hand to steer the athletic program through it.

“There was a void there. It wasn’t hard for me to come back, because we had a great deal of respect for Alcorn,” Casem said.

Casem finally stepped aside for good last summer, retiring to his home in Baton Rouge and leaving a lifetime of athletic accomplishments in his wake.

As he prepares to enter the hall, then, it’s ironic that it’s the one success of his life that was unplanned.

At the start, he didn’t plan to go into coaching, and he never thought about making it into the hall.

“You never think about those things,” Casem said. “Football, it’s always what are we going to do next year?’ At the game, you’re always thinking a play or two ahead. You never really think about honors. I’m so happy I’m being chosen.

“When you can celebrate this during your lifetime, it’s a wonderful feeling. But it’s something you don’t plan.”