Tribute to Tennessee High School Football Coaches
August 18, 2022
By Murphy Fair
In my first game as a head coach, I was at Stratford High School in 1970 and we were hosting Sparta (White County) when David Culley was their quarterback. Something was happening outside the stadium during the game that I didn't find out about until I read the paper the next morning.
Metro police raided a house across the street from our stadium. There was a guy who was actually watching our game through a scope on his rifle. Officers responded after a neighbor called the police, reporting a gun sticking out a window.
Come to find out, the guy didn't have any ammunition in the rifle and he wasn't arrested. He just wanted to watch the game. That was a revelation, not only watching David Culley play quarterback but being a part of a game where somebody had a rifle pointed at the field. From then on, I didn't worry about anything that happened at a game. I thought I'd already seen it all.
The good Lord blessed me. I felt like I lived in the Golden Years as a kid and I coached in the Golden Years in Nashville. When I played in Nashville, we didn't have spring practice at the time.
We were in a district with teams like Henry County and Dickson County without having spring practice. We didn't get spring practice back until sometime in the '80s when I was at Hunters Lane.
The greatest thing I miss about coaching is the interaction with players and coaching staffs, both ours and those from other schools. In the N.I.L (Nashville Interscholastic League), everybody (coaches) would gather at Tom Baldridge's Sportsman Store on Saturday mornings. They'd have coffee and donuts and we'd meet to swap films. Later on, we'd meet at Walter Nipper's Sporting Goods store to do the same thing.
The guy you had coached against the night before, trying your best to tear his heart out, you'd be helping him to win his next game. We all had respect for each other. That, I think, has unfortunately been lost the last few years.
NOTE: Jerry Pigue played football at Nashville Central High School (Class of 1957) and Middle Tennessee State University (Class of 1961). His head-coaching career included stints at Stratford High School (1970-1985) and Hunters Lane High School (1986-2001).
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