Texas A&M, Aggieland say goodbye to former football player, coach Terry Price

Jul 8, 2023 Aggieland said goodbye to former Texas A&M football player and defensive ends coach Terry Price on Saturday with plenty of tears mixed with laughter and smiles as some of those he touched reflected on his impact during a celebration of Price’s life at Central Baptist Church. Price died on June 23, reportedly of cancer. “I speak with you today with a heavy heart as I begin to get sad,” A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher said. “I hear that voice over my shoulder, ‘We ain’t doing that today, Jimbo.’” There wasn’t much the 55-year-old Price couldn’t do. He helped Plano win a pair of district football titles and was the 1986 Class 5A state shot put champion. The defensive lineman was a four-year letterman at A&M from 1986-89, helping the Aggies win back-to-back Southwest Conference championships in 1986 and ’87. With Price up front, A&M’s Wrecking Crew defense rank first or second in rushing and total defense all four years of his career. He became one of the nation’s top assistant coaches, starting out as a volunteer assistant in 1992-93 at A&M. After two stints at Ole Miss along with stops at Western Kentucky and Texas Tech, he returned to Aggieland in 2012. Off the field, he was known for his barbecue, fishing, devotion to family and zest for living. “We’re here to celebrate his life, and what a life it was,” Fisher said. Price was a difference-maker because of the difference he made in so many lives. “Legacy is not what you accomplish,” A&M football chaplain Mikado Hinson said. “The legacy is what others accomplish because of you. The trophies are the people.” Hinson said they could have circled the church with people speaking about what Price meant to them. The players he mentored included Myles Garrett, the first pick of the 2017 NFL draft. “I was blessed to have a coach and friend in Terry Price,” Garrett said. “I speak not only for myself but for the many boys he raised into young men. I would not be the football player I am or the man I am without T.P. in my life.” Price led by example, whether it was demonstrating the correct stance for a lineman or how to season and smoke award-winning brisket. Current and former Texas A&M coaches give remembrances at Terry Price's Memorial Service “More importantly he influenced you through his own ways, by how he did things, by how he looked at life,” Fisher said. “The thing about him, when I think of Terry, it was never about Terry. Nothing he did was about Terry. It was about everybody around him. His coaches. His mother. His father, his kids, his wife, his teammates. And as a defensive player and coach, he even liked offensive players. Everything about him was as genuine as the day is long. The more important thing ... you could count on him.” Price was a straight-shooter, which players and peers appreciated. “He always wanted what was best for everybody in this world,” Fisher said. “And if everybody in our world was like that, would we have the issues and problems we have today? He always put things in perspective for me.” Price will be hard to replace but certainly won’t be forgotten. “Terry will always live on with us, because I think his values and principles and the way he looked at the world is in us and we don’t even know it,” Fisher said. The speakers included former A&M coaches Jackie Sherrill, R.C. Slocum and Kevin Sumlin, former Ole Miss and Arkansas coach Houston Nutt, A&M assistant head coach and defensive line coach Elijah Robinson, former Ole Miss and Auburn defensive lineman Don Dunn and former Aggie player Damontre Moore. Almost all the speakers mentioned Price’s strong, devoted family, especially his mother, Willena Kimpson Price. Price’s father, Otis Price, died on Memorial Day after battling dementia. “If Otis was here today in the flesh — now, we know he’s here in spirit — he wouldn’t miss this marvelous celebration of his beloved son’s life,” Willena Kimpson Price said. “He would proudly say with great eloquence — he was such an eloquent man — that we gave our children the very best of everything that we had, and that in turn we were mightily blessed and highly favored that they are both good people, God-fearing people, high-achieving people of stature and excellence. And now we are into the heavenly realm to rest and abide in eternity with his earthly father Otis Price and with his heavenly Father, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. My heart is filled with so much gratitude for God’s grace and his mercy. I pray that you will keep Kenya, Alex and Devin in your prayers as my friends and know that you are loved.” After the two and half-hour service that was video streamed, a funeral procession went through campus, passing by Kyle Field. Price, who was born in Atlanta, Georgia, will be buried in Oxford, Mississippi.