Peers, Students recall former GHS Coach

by David Claybourn

Herald Banner Sports Editor

Wed Nov 22, 2000

A fun-loving, generous and charismatic person who loved sports and adored people.  That's how former Greenville High School coach and teacher T.A. "Cotton" Ford is being remembered following his death of an apparent heart attack. 

Services are at 1pm Saturday at Wesley United Methodist Church for Ford, 68, who died at 6:07pm Monday at Presbyterian Hospital.  Coker-Matthews Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. 

He just had that charismatic personality that you couldn't help but like Coach Ford," said David Gish, who ran track for Ford at GHS in the mid 1970's.  "He always had a smile and something good to say to you."  Gish, who would later follow on Ford's footsteps as a track coach, said his mentor taught about life as well as athletics.  "He touched a lot of lives,” Gish said. 

"There's been numerous times when people came by and told him how important he was in their lives," said his son Daryl Ford. 

Ford taught at GHS for 25 years after coaching at Bellville, Overton, Big Sandy, and Bonham.  He assisted in football and was head track coach of the Greenville Lions from 1968 through the mid 1980's.  After stepping down as head track and field coach, Ford stayed on to serve as assistant athletic director for the GISD until 1993.  He remained as an avid follower of the Lions up until his death. 

"He not only helped you professionally but he always helped you personally," said Rick Lynch, who took over Ford's duties as assistant athletic director.  "He was so many things to so many people.  He was always doing something for somebody."  

"He just cared about people and cared about kids," said Pittman Keen, who coached with Ford in the 1970's and 1980's at GHS.  "He more than did his share."  Keen also recalled Ford's Keen wit and sense of humor.  "When he joined the staff he brought something to the staff that we didn't have," Keen said.  "The kids liked him for that.  He made them feel good." 

Tony Wakefield, who was left paralyzed by a football injury in 1975, recalled how Ford looked after him following the accident.  "He's always been there for me," Wakefield said.  "He's just a man I've always admired.  One I'll really miss."  "He was a person who really cared, not only about his players but about people in general" he said. 

"He was a great motivator of young people," said Bill Walters, a former GHS track coach and principal.  "He just had that ability to motivate.  I never had heard anyone say a bad word about Cotton." 

Ford guided the Lions' track and field team to three district team championships in 1972, 1973 and 1981.  Several of his athletes advanced to the state meet, including a sprint relay team that took the silver medal.  Gish recalled that Ford has a memory "like a steel trap" and that not only knew a lot about athletics but about the many people he came in contact with.  Ford would recall the names of people's various family members and would often ask about them, Gish said.  "And don't go to the state meet and walk across the field with him," Gish said.  "It took him 30 minutes to walk across the field because he knew every coach, every official." 

Ford was born on May 15, 1932, in Rosebud, Texas, and grew up in Carthage.  He received his bachelor's degree in science from Stephen F. Austin State University and his master's from East Texas State (now Texas A&M University-Commerce).  He was also a U.S. Navy veteran of the Korean War.  He is survived by his wife Lillian, whom he married on May 30, 1957, in Lufkin; as well as his sons Mike Ford of Mexico, Richard Ford of Greenville and Daryl Ford of Arlington; a daughter Kimberly Caldwell of Colorado; a brother Ralph Ford of Greenville; and a sister Kay Wood of Seattle.  He was preceded in death by his parents Whitman and Carolyn Malone Ford and by a brother Kenneth Ford.  The T.A. Ford Memorial Scholarship fund has been started at Benchmark Bank.  Lillian Ford said the scholarship will benefit local track and field and cross country athletes planning to attend college.