Runnin’ With The Racers Podcast – Swinton Gives Back to the Game

Photo by: David Eaton-Murray State Athletics

Runnin’ With The Racers Podcast – Swinton Gives Back to the Game

3/6/2023 12:19:00 PM | Football, General

Reggie Swinton Podcast Runnin' With The Racers Podcast

A MSU Hall of Famer, Swinton has coached little league football for more than a decade in Little Rock

Reggie Swinton has lived and is still living the football life in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas.

A 2022 inductee into the Murray State Hall of Fame, Swinton was Dave Winder's guest on the Runnin' with the Racers Podcast. The Runnin' with the Racers Podcast posts each week to GoRacers.com, Spotify, iTunes and Soundcloud.

Here are some of the highlights from the podcast.

Giving back to the game
Swinton has run a little league football group in Little Rock for 11 years.

The league organizes teams for children from five years old up to 12.

Swinton is very happy to have this effort as one of the things that gives him great satisfaction.

"That makes me feel great, we start them young and they have to start and I think it's a good thing," Swinton said. "Some people coach because their kids are playing, but I've stayed with it even after my kids are grown. We've currently have 14 kids that are playing college football. It keeps me around the game and that's what I love."

The HOF Experience
It was fitting In November 2022 that Swinton and Mike Cherry went into the MSU Hall of Fame together.

Playing for Coach Houston Nutt, the quarterback-wide receiver duo helped the Racers go undefeated in two Ohio Valley Conference seasons in 1995 and 1996. Swinton and Cherry hooked up for 99 pass completions, 1,451 yards and nine touchdowns. In an era of run-first offenses, the numbers this pair put up are still impressive today.

It was a special time in Murray State Football history and remains so nearly 37 years later.

At the induction dinner, a video was played of Coach Nutt who was in New York working for CBS Sports. As Nutt addressed the gathered crowd, it was moving for everyone, including Swinton.

"Every time Houston's name comes up, I think about all he did for me," Swinton recalls. "He molded me and I couldn't have asked for a better college coach and someone who was able to teach me so much. He taught me discipline, manhood, how to win the game and in life and how important family is. He was the right person for that time in my life."

The NFL Experience
Although he was an undrafted free agent, Reggie Swinton carved out his place in the National Football League for five seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals and Detroit Lions.

"It was a Sunday in Dallas at Texas Stadium against Tampa Bay and the sun was beaming through the open roof," Swinton remembered. "When I say that I was scared, I was really scared. Coming out of that tunnel, you could tell that something was different. It was my first kick return and I was shaking in my boots. I took that kick off and went 77 yards down to the 15-yard line. Ronde Barber caught me and at that moment, I knew I belonged and could play in the NFL."

In 69 NFL games, Swinton had 132 career punt returns with 1,311 yards and two touchdowns and 208 kickoff returns for 4,919 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

A foot injury hastened the end of his career in 2005.

"In 2005, I got hurt in the second game," Swinton said. "It was a turf toe thing and eventually it ended my career. I went from running a 4.2 40 (sprint) to a 4.5 or 4.6. To get my full contract, I had to stay off the Injured Reserve list. I still have problems with it. But as a football player, we're taught to fight through it, but now I'm older and it's all catching up with me."