Junior Coffey's remarkable journey from the fields of Texas to a race track in Washington



SEATTLE - Long before the rest of the world wakes up, Junior Coffey makes his rounds at the track.

“I don’t use an alarm. Before I used to have an alarm that used to but now at 4:30 a.m. I wake up,” says Coffey. "You get them feeling really well and that’s what you strive to do so they’ll run or perform better.”

The 75-year-old has been a constant trackside since Emerald Downs opened in 1996 and for 23 years before that at Longacres Racetrack.

“I do this for the animals. I do like to see them happy, try to, that’s why sometimes when a groom disciplines them I say they don’t know what you’re trying to say, you know you got to be nice to them and let him see the difference.”

It’s that extra tender touch that the racing community attributes the trainer’s success to, ranking him 4th all-time in win percentage.

“I’ve had some good luck.”

It was at an early age, that Junior learned luck, was something to have on his side.

“Gee, I worked pretty hard when I was a kid, in the fields because that’s how we survived. We’d work the crops and were able to make the finances meet. We’d have a small acre maybe an acre and a half and whatever it field that count as part of our profit for the year, so we had to get really lucky. That and between school and living in the South in those days were a lot different than now.”

Junior grew up in West Texas, living with his aunt and uncle in the town of Dimmitt.

“There were a lot of problems with races, things of that. Luckily we settled in an area that people were very hospitable.”

His town had one all-black school and it only went up to the 8th grade so, at the age of 15, Junior became the first African American to attend Dimmitt High School.

“We didn’t have the same opportunities. So now the legislature says you must integrate. My aunt told me you need to get educated cause you don’t want to live like this your whole life.”

That advice changed his life and Junior soon found common ground with his new classmates. He joined the football and basketball teams and says working in the fields only helped his athletic prowess.

In 1959, the running back lead the Dimmitt High Bobcats to the 2-A State Playoffs becoming an All-State Selection. College football became an option despite the fact that most programs at the time were still segregated. That led Junior North on a recruiting trip to the University of Washington where a dinner at the Olympic Hotel changed everything.

“I don’t want to go there because they’re not going to let me be seated. I don’t want to sit in the kitchen and the Doctor that was showing me around, he says, you’re our guest. Got the Maitre D’ and I couldn’t believe it. So I go back and I say will you guys excuse me for a minute and I went and call my Aunt collect and I say, 'Auntie we’re going to Seattle.' She’s going like 'no way that’s too far, you expect us to move way up there' and yeah you won’t believe it. We’re free there.”

So Junior packed up this family and moved to the Northwest for the promise of a better life.

“At the time we had a coach that was very aggressive conditioning and thinking before other teams did that and we used a helmet as a weapon to block and tackle and so we were kind of a feared team.”

They were tactics of head coach Jim Owens that many questioned and some still do.

While at Washington Junior suffered three stress fractures in his feet limiting his playing time during the Rose Bowl season of his Junior year. He blames ill-fitting equipment for those injuries.

The next year, Junior hurt his hip during a scrimmage. He tells me he gained a reputation among the coaching staff as being a troublemaker,  partially because his college girlfriend was a white woman.

But despite the setbacks, Junior lead the Huskies in rushing and total yards in 1962 and ‘64. And the NFL took notice.

“So the NFC called me up and the Packers said this is coach Lombardi and we’re interested in you. Would you like to play for the packers? Oh, hell yea sure I want to play with the Packers.”

Junior was one of two rookies to make the squad in 1965. That same year, the Packers became Champions.

The kid from Dimmitt went on to play six more seasons in the NFL, but it was winning that Championship for Coach Vince Lombardi that stands out. It gave Junior enough money to start pursuing another passion.

“I went to a sale and bought a horse called ‘Toss the Dice' because they see it as a crap shoot and turns out to be a stakes place horse.”

When his professional football career ended due to injuries, Junior decided to pick up coaching, thoroughbred coaching. Rejoining Long Acres, a race track that had hired him in the summers while he was at the University as an usher.

“It’s hard to get a horse to the races. I take my time and go through every possible thing because I know what happened to me in football.”

So Junior continues to make his rounds, driven by the compassion he felt back in Texas so long ago.

“Sometimes I stand in the mirror and boy I had a tough beginning. It was tough on you but I’m pretty blessed, really, you know I’ve had some happy years.”

Including 52 years of marriage to his college sweetheart, Kathy.

“It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, meeting people of different ideas about humans. People might have a different appearance to you but we are basically the same.”

And not a day goes by Junior doesn’t look ahead.

"Dreaming. Just hoping you know. I want a nice horse again and the only way you get them in lucky."