[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 126 (Monday, September 15, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S11474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IN TRIBUTE TO JOHN McKISSICK'S 500TH FOOTBALL WIN

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, on Friday night, John McKissick, 
of Summerville, SC, won his 500th victory as the head coach of the 
Summerville Green Wave high school football team, and this Senator 
rises to congratulate this towering giant of coaches.
  I want to put this in perspective. That is almost 100 more victories 
than Eddie Robinson, the winningest coach ever in college football, had 
at Grambling and Leland. That is 170 more victories than Don Shula, the 
winningest coach ever in the NFL had with the Miami Dolphins and 
Baltimore Colts. This is a record that not Bear Bryant, not Woody 
Hayes, not Tom Landry, not Vince Lombardi, not any coach--pro, college, 
or high school has ever come close to ever seeing.
  He started coaching in 1952, 2 years before Strom Thurmond entered 
the Senate, 14 years before I came, and now he'll outlast us both. In 5 
decades at Summerville High School, he has 10 State championships and 
26 regional titles under his belt; and many of the 3,000 teenagers he 
has coached went on to win scholarships at colleges across the country. 
In this time, he has had only two losing seasons, and he has never 
missed a game. Most of all, he has kept his priorities straight: 
education first, football second.
  In my part of the country, John McKissick is a legend. I know all my 
football-fanatic colleagues join me in saying to John: you're a 
national legend, too. You have done more for the sport of high school 
football than any person in the country.

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