This is part 2 of the column 'Legendary Coaches.' You can find the first part here.
ROBERTSDALE HIGH SCHOOL: BILLY BEANE
A phone call to Eddie Mitchell, retired coach and administrator, led …
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This is part 2 of the column 'Legendary Coaches.' You can find the first part here.
A phone call to Eddie Mitchell, retired coach and administrator, led me to find Billy Beane, head coach at Robertsdale from 1958 to 1966. Billy was Eddie’s coach for three years, grades 7-9, before USA called Billy to teach future coaches and driver’s ed teachers. He was a genuine teacher, Eddie says, “I used the offense he taught me when I became coach at Daphne Middle and Robertsdale. He created a bond with his team, and we still get together often to talk over the Golden Bears from the twentieth century.”
After playing football and basketball at a couple of different colleges, Billy graduated from Troy. It seems that he was being recruited for each phase of his life. College scouts sought him out and offered full scholarships, and later Robertsdale principal begged him to leave his job in Florida and move to Robertsdale, and then University of South Alabama saw his potential in creating leaders and offered him a position, which he held for 25 years before retirement. He laughingly told me that every time he was invited to a new position, he went home and said to his wife, “How would you like to move to…” Billy and his wife are in their nineties now and can still do anything they want to do, like going to great-grandsons’ sporting events. He sounds just as chipper as ever and like every coach, can recall every play and game in his career. He knows everyone and I have a feeling he will be my go-to with lots of future questions.
The culture that Billy created among his players lives on. Many of his guys followed in his footsteps and became coaches as well, such as John Lee and Eddie Mitchell. He was a coach to remember but feels even more honored to be remembered as a teacher.
Our sons played many a game at Majors Field in Fairhope, but the stadium was named for a coach who was there before their times. So off we went to learn more about this town legend. One of our first stops was Fairhope High School, where Athletic Director Timothy Carter escorted us to the media center. Every column I research is filled with synchronicity. (Thank you, Kathy Statska, for that word.) Would you believe the media specialist was none other than the daughter of Don McKenzey, who coached with W.C. Majors in the 1960s. Melanie went right to the Bay Breeze yearbooks that had his photos.
Before coming to Fairhope in 1964, Majors had coached at Excel where Lee Roy Jordan was one of his star players. During his nine-year stint at Excel and Frisco City, he racked up a 151-41 record. He was the Pirates’ Head Coach for 14 seasons. Between 1966 and 1968, his teams had a 21-game winning streak. Among his players was Vince Booth, who went on to play for Bear Bryant, and then married W.C.’s daughter, Lynn. Vince told Josh Bean, reporter for AL.com, that he almost quit football, but Majors visited his home and persuaded him to continue. Vince said it was one of the best decisions he ever made. Among Majors’ other young men who made good is Barry Pennington, coach and longtime principal of Daphne High School. Mention must be given to Bubba Sawyer as well. He needs no explanation. As I studied the yearbook photos, I was amazed at how many of his players are now outstanding community leaders whom I know personally. This is a reflection on the ability Majors had to help transform high school boys into successful adults.
Majors was inducted into the AHSAA Hall of Fame and was posthumously honored at the Mitchell Center on USA campus in 2013 as the inaugural Chuck Maxime Memorial Award winner at the 19th annual DEX Imaging L’Arche Football Preview.
Josh Bean’s article from 2013 shares some great anecdotes from former players, but Melanie McKenzey told the best one of all. She told us that Coach Majors would not go through the tunnels to Mobile, and on one return home trip, the bus driver Perry Lowery tried to sneak through. W.C. made him stop the bus and he got off. Lowery did return to get him via the Cochrane Bridge.
Our county today is richer because of the honor with which these coaches taught their players, their students, and their children. Even though I only knew one or two of them, I can understand the character that was embedded in them that made them legends. I understand this because of the men I know who learned from them.
