HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Phil Ratliff dreamed of becoming the head coach at Marshall, the school where he was an All-American lineman and part of the first I-AA national championship team.
Those dreams were cut short Sunday when Ratliff, 44, passed away in Hickory, N.C., surrounded by his family and former teammates. University of North Carolina at Charlotte officials said Ratliff suffered a “cardiac event” during a coaches retreat the day before the 49ers opened preseason camp.
“He asked me, I want to be the head football coach at Marshall one day, what do I do?” recalled Marshall athletics director Mike Hamrick on Metronews “Talkline” with Hoppy Kerchival. “I said Phil you’ve got to leave and you’ve got to come back. You’ve got to go somewhere. He went to Charlotte and was the offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. He was well on his way—maybe during my tenure maybe not during my tenure—but he was well on his way to being the head coach at Marshall University.”
Ratliff spent six seasons as an assistant at his alma mater, from 2006-2011, coaching tight ends and serving as the recruiting coordinator before following Hamrick’s advice left his home in the tri-state area to help establish a football program at the UNCC. He joined ex-Herd assistant Brad Lambert’s staff and began the tedious process of building a football team from scratch.
“He’s a guy who had worked his way from the bottom up,” Hamrick said. “He was a graduate assistant, a high school coach, went to James Madison, came back to Marshall during the Mark Snyder era and was so well respected Coach Holliday kept him. His career trail was going in an upward manner.”
A relentless player, Ratliff and fellow Kentucky native Chris Deaton earned the nickname “Kentucky Headhunters.” Ratliff brought that same intensity to the recruiting trail.
Hamrick recalled one recruiting visit in Virginia in which Ratliff brought in Doc Holliday for a visit to help close a recruit and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Holliday’s luggage was late, the hotel reservations were mixed up and Ratliff and Holliday ended up sharing a hotel room. Holliday was forced to keep his contacts in two glasses of water overnight.
“He got up the next morning and saw both of the glasses he put his contacts in were gone. Phil had gotten up in the middle of the night, drank both glasses of water and drank Coach Holliday’s contacts,” laughed Hamrick.
“Phil was full of life. The glass was always half-full, it was never half-empty. He was enthusiastic. No matter how a bad a day you were having, Phil never had a bad day.”
Ratliff is survived by his wife Jenni and two children, daughter Haley and son Dylan. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.