Oldest active coaches.

[wickedwritah]

Got to thinking this the other day when I found out that Bill Tighe, who coaches high school football in Massachusetts and has done so for more than 50 years, is still going strong.

At 83. Or maybe he's still 82.

Of course, Paterno is 80. (Tighe and Paterno played against each other in college.)

Bowden ain't too far behind. And I know the fellow from DeMatha hoops coached well into his 70s.

Any other guys you know of coaching beyond 70 or 75?

 

[slappy4428]

JR has coached boot hockey since the Bank of Upper Canada went under in the 60s...

 

[wickedwritah]

These guys make spitnid and jr seem like young pups.

 

[spnited]

There is a legendary HS coach in Jersey who is 80 years old and in his 50th season as head coach at the same school.

 

[slappy4428]

I meant the 1860s...

 

[EStreetJoe]

There is a legendary HS coach in Jersey who is 80 years old and in his 50th season as head coach at the same school.

Are you referring to Lawrenceville School cross country coach Ed Poreda who's been the coach there since 1953 or are you referring to another coach?

 

[Sam Mills 51]

John McKissick - football coach in Summerville, SC.

He's been there 55 years, and was the first American football coach in history to win 500 games three years ago.

 

[spnited]

There is a legendary HS coach in Jersey who is 80 years old and in his 50th season as head coach at the same school.

Are you referring to Lawrenceville School cross country coach Ed Poreda who's been the coach there since 1953 or are you referring to another coach?

Warren Wolf, FB coach at Brick

 

[wickedwritah]

John McKissick - football coach in Summerville, SC.

He's been there 55 years, and was the first American football coach in history to win 500 games three years ago.

How old is he?

 

[Sam Mills 51]

John McKissick - football coach in Summerville, SC.

He's been there 55 years, and was the first American football coach in history to win 500 games three years ago.

How old is he?

He's 80 with a birthday later this month.

 

[Small Town Guy]

Legendary St. John's football coach John Gagliardi - all-time mark for wins - will be 81 in November. But the most remarkable stat for him is that this is his 59th year as a college head coach, like 54 or 55 of them at St. Johns, the first ones were at Caroll in Montana (obviously started real young, 22). And he shows no signs of slowing down so will most likely reach 60 years of coaching. In stories, he always jokes that he wants to break Stagg's mark: he was like 90 some before he retired as an assistant.

 

[wickedwritah]

Didn't know Stagg coached that late.

 

[Small Town Guy]

Haven't looked it up, but I think it was as like a special teams coach or something. Not sure when he gave up the head coaching gig. That's another remarkable thing about Gagliardi - he's never been an assistant, not at high school or college. I'd say that won't ever happen again. His wins mark, though, could fall to Mount Union's Larry Kehres, who wouldn't even have to coach into his 80s if he keeps winning 15 games a year.

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

I did a story last year on a pair of assistants at I-AA Wofford. One is nearing 84 and the other is nearing 75.

 

[Oz]

Current Steelers defensive coordinator and former Bengals head coach **** LeBeau celebrated his 70th birthday on Sunday.

 

[Faithless]

Mississippi's all-time wins leader in high school football, Jim Drewry of Booneville, is on the sidelines this fall for his 43rd season as a head coach. Drewry, 76, has 321 career wins plus three state championships, which were won after he came back from a retirement that lasted just two years.

In Februrary, Drewry came awfully close to meeting that Great Playcaller in the Sky. His heart stopped while he was shopping at Wal-Mart. For a man who has handled the pressures of coaching for so many years, I'd hate to think it was those everyday low prices at Wal-Mart that caused his ticker to give out for good.

A bystander administered CPR and medics soon arrived with a defibrillator to revive Drewry. He wound up getting a combo pacemaker/defibrillator in his chest. After a lengthly recovery period, Drewry decided he was ready for another season.

 

[playthrough]

LeBeau doesn't look a day over 55. He could easily be in the NFL in his 80s.

 

[wickedwritah]

From what we have so far:
-- Oldest active assistant we know of is the guy at Wofford at 84.
-- Oldest active college head coach is Gagliardi (a month or so older than Paterno).
-- Oldest active high school head coach is Tighe.

 

[cougargirl]

John Winkin, who led the Maine baseball teams to all those College World Series berths in the 80s, is still coaching D-III baseball in Maine at 88.

 

[spnited]

Good call on Winkin, Cougargirl...87 and head coach at Husson College in Maine


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