Gary Gaines
Gary Gaines (born May 4, 1949) is a former American football coach. Gaines was the head coach of the 1988 Permian High School football team, which was the focus of the H. G. Bissinger book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream and the 2004 motion picture Friday Night Lights starring Billy Bob Thornton. His coaching career spanned four decades, coaching at eight high schools and two colleges, all in Texas.
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 4, 1949 Crane, Texas |
| Playing career | |
| 1968–1970 | Angelo State |
| Position(s) | Quarterback |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1977–1978 | Petersburg HS (TX) |
| 1978–1979 | Denver City HS (TX) |
| 1982 | Tascosa HS (TX) |
| 1983–1985 | Monahans HS (TX) |
| 1986–1989 | Odessa Permian HS (TX) |
| 1990–1993 | Texas Tech (LB) |
| 1994–1995 | Abilene HS (TX) |
| 1996–1999 | San Angelo Central HS (TX) |
| 2000–2004 | Abilene Christian |
| 2009–2012 | Odessa Permian HS (TX) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 21–30 (college) 127–93–5 (high school) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 1 High School National (1989) 1 Texas 5A (1989) 1 LSC South Division (2002) | |
| Awards | |
| Texas High School Hall of Fame | |
Coaching career
Gaines spent 30 seasons coaching high school in West Texas at different high schools. His career started at Fort Stockton High School in 1971, followed by five years at Monahans High School. His first head coaching job came in 1977 Petersburg High School. He would go on to be a head coach at Denver City High School (1978), Amarillo Tascosa High School (1982), Monahans (1983-1985), Abilene High School (1994-1995) and San Angelo Central High School (1996-1999).[1]
Odessa Permian
Gaines gained his most notoriety from his time at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. He spent three years as an assistant coach under Head Coach John Wilkins from 1979 through the 1981 season.[1] With Gaines on staff, Permian won the Texas 5A state championship in 1980.[2]
Following Wilkins' retirement after the 1985 season, Gaines returned to Permian as head coach, taking over a team that had made back-to-back 5A state championship games. (Permian and Beaumont French High School were declared co-champions in 1984 after a 21-21 tie [Texas high school football had no overtime at the time] and lost to Houston Yates in 1985).
Gaines was one the featured characters in H.G. Bissinger's 1990 book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, which chronicled Permian's 1988 season and the football crazed culture of West Texas. The following season, Gaines coached Permian to a perfect 16-0 season and the 1989 5A state championship.[3] Gaines left Permian following the 1989 season, compiling a 46-7-1 record.[4]
Return to Permian
On March 9, 2009, Permian announced that Gaines would return as head coach of Permian after Darren Allman left for Austin Westlake.[5] It had been 20 years since Gaines left Permian and 10 years since he had coached high school football. The Panthers were not able to recreate the success Gaines had in the 1980s, compiling a 23-21 record over four seasons with just one playoff victory.[1] At the conclusion of the 2012 season, Gaines resigned as head coach and announced his retirement from coaching.[6] In eight total seasons at Permian, Gaines compiled a 69-28-1 record and an overall record of 127-93-5 in 20 seasons as a head coach.[1]
College Coaching
Following the 1989 season, Gaines accepted his first college coaching job, getting hired as the linebackers coach Texas Tech University under head coach Spike Dykes. (Dykes was the head coach of Permian rival Midland Lee High School when Gaines was an assistant at Permian in the early 1980s[7]) In his five seasons at Tech, the Red Raiders had a record of 27-30 and appeared in two bowl games, including the 1995 Cotton Bowl Classic.[8] Following the 1994 season, Gaines left Texas Tech and became the head coach at Abilene High School.
Abilene Christian
Gaines was named the 17th head football coach at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas in January 2000.[9] In his first two seasons, ACU struggled under Gaines, losing 17 of 21 games. Despite the early struggles, the Wildcats rebounded in 2002, posting a winning record at 6-4 and winning the Lone Star Conference South Division Championship, the Wildcats' first championship of any kind since their only Lone Star Conference Championship in 1977.[9] Gaines resigned at the conclusion of the 2004 season with an overall record of 21-30.
Post-Coaching Career
In 2005, Gaines moved on to serve as the athletic director for Ector County Independent School District, the same district of which Permian High School is a part. In 2007, he took the position of athletic director for the Lubbock Independent School District.[1]
Gaines is also a public speaker. Speaking to high schools and colleges across the country, Gaines gives insight on teamwork, leadership, winning and success on and off the field.[10]
Personal life
Gaines was born in Crane, Texas and played quarterback at Angelo State University from 1967 through 1970, lettering all four years.[11] He is married to Sharon Gaines and the couple have two children and five grandchildren.[12] He was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor in 2013 and Angelo State University Hall of Honor in 2019.
In 2017, Gaines announced that he had been diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer's disease.[13]
Head coaching record
College
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abilene Christian Wildcats (Lone Star Conference) (2000–2004) | |||||||||
| 2000 | Abilene Christian | 1–9 | 1–7 / 1–5 | 12th / 7th (South) | |||||
| 2001 | Abilene Christian | 3–8 | 3–6 / 2–4 | 9th / T–5th (South) | |||||
| 2002 | Abilene Christian | 6–4 | 6–2 / 5–1 | T–2nd / T–1st (South) | |||||
| 2003 | Abilene Christian | 6–4 | 5–3 / 5–1 | 6th / 2nd (South) | |||||
| 2004 | Abilene Christian | 5–5 | 5–4 / 3–3 | T–6th / 4th (South) | |||||
| Abilene Christian: | 21–30 | 20–22 | |||||||
| Total: | 21–30 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
See also
References
- Adam Zuvanich (December 18, 2012). "Football: Gary Gaines stepping down as Permian football coach". Retrieved December 22, 2020.
- "UIL State Football Champions". University Interscholastic League. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
- "1989 STATE CHAMPIONS". OdessaPermian.com. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
- "Past Permian Football Coaches". MojoLand.com. November 14, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
- David McNabb (March 12, 2009). "The Mojo Plan, Southlake staff change.. What I Hear..." Lonestar Preps. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
- "FNL coach Gaines resigns from Odessa Permian". Associated Press. December 18, 2012. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
- "Former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes — a Ballinger native — dead at 79". San Angelo Standard-Times. April 10, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
- "Cotton Bowl - Texas Tech vs USC Box Score, January 2, 1995". Sports Reference. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
- "Gaines leaves ACU for Odessa". ACUSports.com. January 7, 2005. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- "GARY GAINES". AAE Speakers. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- "Hall of Honor". AngeloSports.com. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- Adam Zuvanich (July 31, 2020). "HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Gaines shares Hall of Honor induction with family". Odessa American. Retrieved December 24, 2020.
- Adam Zuvanich (August 26, 2018). "'Friday Night Lights' - 30 years later". Odessa American. Retrieved December 24, 2020.