HARRISONBURG — It was a time of transition, and Lynyrd Skynrd was king. At least from what Jeff Compher can remember.

“We’d actually be practicing on the football field, and I’ll never forget it,” Compher said with a laugh. “There were some residence halls right by there and every afternoon, at about 4:30, somebody would put on Free Bird during our practice.

“It was awesome and they’d just blare the speakers out their windows, and all the guys would just love it. It would always put a smile on our faces.”

Compher is the athletic director at East Carolina, but he played his college football at what was then Division III Madison College. By the end of his time at the school, Madison College was Division I-AA James Madison University.

Next Saturday, Compher and East Carolina welcome his alma mater, reigning FCS national champion JMU, to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, N.C., to kick off the 2017 season.

“For me, JMU was the ultimate college experience and a professional launching pad,” he said.

In his first two years at the school, he was a 200-pound defensive tackle that the program’s first coach, Challace McMillin, moved to defensive end and tight end from time to time. Compher said in his first season the team was ranked as high as No. 1 nationally in Division III after coming off an unbeaten 9-0-1 season in 1975.

The Dukes won 12 straight games, stretching from early September of 1975 into late September of 1976.

“He practiced really hard all the time,” McMillin said of Compher. “He did a good job when it came time to playing, too, and he was a good leader.”

But as the school ramped up to I-AA, it didn’t bode well for Compher’s place on the team, the former two-way player admitted.

“So I stopped playing after my sophomore year because they started bringing in the scholarship guys,” Compher said. “I was on the team in 1976 and 1977, and then I realized my own limited abilities compared to those scholarship guys.”

He kept in touch with McMillin, though, and began what started his climb through higher education.

He worked as a resident assistant at Shorts Hall, which he said helped him get into graduate school at Shippensburg (Pa.) University.

“I ran residence life there, and ultimately got to North Carolina State where I did the same thing, and then I was able to move into athletics,” Compher said.

After N.C. State, there were stops at Vanderbilt, Western Carolina, Washington and Northern Illinois before taking over the post at East Carolina in 2013.

“And the first day I got the job here at ECU, I got a call from Challace McMillin congratulating me,” Compher said. “I got to tell you, nothing touched me more than that. To have my ex-coach think enough of me to call me and congratulate me, that’s the kind of coach he was, and person he is, and I’m just really grateful to have played under him.”

“I’m proud of Jeff,” McMillin said. “I figured whatever he decided to do, he was going to do a good job because he was an extremely hard worker and always focused on what he was doing.

“I used to talk to them when they were playing for me about the importance of goal setting, not only for what he was doing on the field, but for what you want to do when you’re not playing athletically. And I’m sure that he worked on that really hard.

“And he loved athletics, and I think he actually had the desire to go into coaching, and once you figure out what you want to do, other things open up like leading programs.”

The ECU athletic director said it’s been a few years since he’s visited Harrisonburg, but that he’s excited for the showdown between the two squads that sport purple and gold.

“I just though from our perspective, I knew it was in driving distance,” Compher said. “And I kind of have an affinity for the university and I’m proud of its accomplishments, so I thought it would be a good matchup for us, a good challenge for our program.

“Now, I had no idea they’d becoming off a national championship. Had I known that and had a crystal ball, I may have had second thoughts.”

Compher said he closely watched JMU’s championship-winning season last year.

He said when was a student, he knew the school would grow but didn’t know the athletic programs would find as much success as it has in recent years.

“I’m really glad that it has been, and I think it’s a credit to the leadership there with [JMU athletic director] Jeff Bourne and everything that he’s done to grow the program,” Compher said. “I think, too, it’s finally gotten the alumni support that’s necessary to have a championship program like that.

“When you’re able to build a fan base and get the level of support, that’s how you can build a championship. He’s been able to do that along with the rest of the university.”