On what he was doing before he came to ULM and how he got here
“Before coming to [ULM], I was living in Orlando and I worked for a buddy of mine for a company called SEI, Soccer Enterprises Incorporated. My job was to run soccer camps all over the United States. So, even though I was living in Florida, I had soccer camps in California, Texas, Georgia, and all over. When I was in Florida, I was called the State Coach. On a non-paid salary, I ran tryouts throughout the state of Florida, representing Florida Youth Soccer Association (FYSA). Prior to that, I was working at Bolles School at the high school level, located in Jacksonville, Florida. I left Bolles to work in Orlando for a year before getting hired at [ULM].”
“I was doing a soccer camp at Southern Miss when I was contacted by [ULM]. I told them I was in Hattiesburg and they asked when I could get there. I said I could head over the next day. The day after I interviewed at [ULM], I actually had to drive back to Southern Miss and finish the soccer camp.”
“I had been applying for a lot of jobs at the time of when I came to Monroe. About 10 minutes after I was done with the interview, I was sitting outside in the lobby area and a couple of the guys said they would talk about it. I said, 'I'm going to find out right now?' They said, 'Yes, we're going to tell you right now.' After they talked, the Associate Athletic Director came out and said, 'Coach Kane, you're going to be our new soccer coach.' I met with the AD for a little bit, but it was really the No. 2 guy that was doing the interview.”
“The first thing I had to do was make the schedule. I went back into the Associate AD's office and I started calling colleges right then and there. I knew a lot of other coaches so I was calling all over. When I was on the phone, President Vines came in and stood at the door and I put my finger up signaling that I was busy and would be done momentarily. I had no idea who he was. I made like three phone calls while he stood at the door waiting for me. I didn't want to insult him but I was on a schedule and actually had to get back to Hattiesburg. Finally, when I got done I told him I was sorry, and he told me he enjoyed listening and that he was the president of the University. I obviously got all embarrassed because I put him on hold, but I had no clue who he was. He was very nice though and he gave me a welcome to the University.”
On his initial impressions of ULM
“Everyone in the athletic department was very encouraging. They gave me a tour of the facilities. We went out and looked at Brown Stadium, which was too narrow for soccer and had horrible drainage. I told them that, but it didn't stop me. Everyone around campus was so friendly and outgoing. I knew I was going to like it there and it would be a good place to work. Everyone was so positive.”
“One of the most exciting things when I first came to [ULM] was I met John David Crow. He was a big-time NFL player and the head football coach at the time. I remember Crow telling me, 'Coach Kane, I don't know anything about soccer, but you do and that's why they hired you. Good luck.'”
“I started working at [ULM] in June of 1980, and I had to have a team ready by August. I only had one scholarship my first year and then they gave me two more the following year. I broke that one scholarship down seven ways. When I got the two extra scholarships, I used the first to double the money of all the players I already had. With the second, I went out and got new players. The same thing happened the following year so I kept rewarding players that stayed. I told them when I get money, you'll get money. So by the time they were here for four years, they were almost on full scholarship.”
On the games he remembers most
“One of our biggest rivals was Louisiana Tech because they added soccer around the same time as us. Another was North Texas, but for a different reason. North Texas was very-well established and we always saw them as a team we needed to beat. They were almost always ranked in the Midwest Region, and we actually started to get recognition because of our results against them. We scheduled really tough. The only way to be ranked was to play the teams at the top, so we tried to do that. A lot of the teams wouldn't play us though because they knew we were up-and-coming.”
“When we went up to play SIUE which was ranked No. 1, we were playing against a team that had a team full of All-Americans. We got mentally psyched out before we even got on the field. After the game the coach came up to me and said he couldn't have me come back. I told him he had to have me come back since this was just the beginning of my program. I knew we'd be much more competitive in a year. After much negotiating, we agreed to play again in 1983 since I said we'd play for no guarantee. So in the rematch, it was tied 0-0 at halftime and their coach came up to me and said, 'where did you get these guys?' I said, 'same guys, different attitude.' SIUE scored early in the second half and it looked like they had all the momentum and would run away with it, but then we came back and scored five minutes later. It was tied 1-1 until the end when they put two in and won 3-1. After the game, the coach said 'Jimmy, we are never having you come back. You made up six goals in two years.' I said, 'I don't have to come back here, my job is done here.' SIUE learned to give a little bit of respect for [ULM]. That's one thing we continued doing for all six years. We worked and trained very hard and earned respect.”
“One of our biggest wins came over Midwestern State in 1984. We got them to come to Monroe when they were nationally ranked and they were hugely favored. We beat them 1-0. It was our biggest home win. It was always such a struggle to get nationally ranked teams on our schedule, let alone come to our place. I was friends with a lot of those nationally ranked coaches but they would always tell me that their teams couldn't afford to play us. They knew that if we beat them then we'd ruin their season.”
“There weren't many good soccer programs in Louisiana at the time. Centenary, Louisiana Tech and New Orleans were all so-so. That was pretty much it. We had the best team in the state, easily.”
On the budget and financial situation
“I wanted the administration at [ULM] to know what was going on with soccer budget-wise. So I invited faculty members to not only come to the home soccer games, but also come into our locker room to see what our facilities were. We really didn't even have a locker room. We basically borrowed the track locker room in Brown Stadium. Our guys would come to the games fully dressed already from the dorms. One time, I brought a faculty member from athletics to a road soccer game and I told him, 'here's the deal, I'm going to give you the same amount of money as I give the players.' I handed him $9 for three meals and told him you can spend it all on one meal and eat the others out-of-pocket, or you can try and budget it over the day. He then noticed that all the players brought some food of their own with them such as bread, peanut butter and jelly, chips and other stuff. Those weren't snacks, those were some of their main meals. He had no idea what we had to do to make this happen.”
“We had many long talks with administration with what we had to do on road trips in order to survive. We made so many sacrifices to be successful.”
On the aftermath of the program getting cut
“For about 30 days after that, everything was just very sad. The soccer team was extremely well-liked on campus. We had developed a following. They were party animals that had lots of girls following them. They were funny, and even though they were a little crazy, people respected them on campus. I tried to be the calming force.”
“I was offered other jobs to stay at [ULM] afterwards. However, my whole life was dedicated to soccer and coaching at the time. One of the jobs I was offered was to be in charge of concessions for home football, basketball and baseball games. I was astounded because I was a coach, I didn't want to sell drinks.”
On what he remembers most about ULM soccer
“We had a lot of success. We never had a losing season. We didn't play 'little sisters of the poor' or 'school of the blind', we played really competitive teams every year. There were very few games that we won 6-0 or by a large margin because of who we played. Yet, we had a winning season every year. I poured my heart into building a respectable program.”
“I wouldn't trade those six years for anything. I'm still friends with a tremendous number of the soccer players. I got my Master's degree. I bought my first house. There were a lot of monumental things that happened in my life when I made the decision to come to [ULM]. If they would not have dropped [men's] soccer, I would probably still be there.”
“I met a girl at [ULM]. She was in student services and was in charge of the cheerleaders and the ball girls for the baseball team. And that was the girl that I married. We've now been married for 30 years.”
A Quote from Giles Malone (1981-84)
“We were very, very disappointed when it was cut because we put so much into it. Still, I have great memories from Monroe. I met my wife in high school in Florida and she followed me to ULM and earned her nursing degree. We very much enjoyed our time at ULM as it was a big part of our lives then and still is today.”
