[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21985-21986]
[From the U.S. 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

[[Page 21986]]

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.
  I ask that an article from the September 11 USA Today be printed in 
the Record.
  The article follows.

                    [From USA Today, Sept. 11, 2003]

             Football Coach all Alone at Brink of 500 Wins

                            (By Jill Lieber)

       He's the winningest football coach at any level, going for 
     his 500th victory Friday night. He has 10 state championships 
     and 26 regional titles. And in 52 years at the helm of the 
     mighty Green Wave of Summerville High School, John McKissick 
     is known for something else in this quaint, historic burg, 
     population 27,752: as a leader of the community, the glue 
     that holds the town together.
       ``John McKissick has been a vital part of forming 
     connections around this town,'' says David Pugh, Summerville 
     High's principal. ``What makes a community successful is the 
     quality of life, and John has shown great leadership in that. 
     He has been able to connect people. He has taught them how to 
     share.''
       McKissick, two weeks shy of his 77th birthday, has molded 
     3,014 teenage boys into players over the years. He has 
     instilled pride in tens of thousands of Summerville High 
     students, cheerleaders, band members, teachers and parents. 
     And he has provided excitement for countless more football 
     fans, who have turned out 10,000 strong, in their green and 
     gold, every Friday night in the fall for the past six 
     decades.
       Grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers, sons, the next-
     door neighbor's kid, even the piccolo player down the street: 
     Everybody here is tied to the Green Wave in some way.
       Why, McKissick now is coaching the third generation of some 
     Summerville families. His own grandson, Joe Call, a former 
     Green Wave quarterback, is an assistant coach.
       Truth be told, the folks in this town, nestled on a piney 
     ridge 25 miles northwest of Charleston, would be lost without 
     McKissick.
       ``So many leaders have come through the John McKissick 
     system,'' says Bo Blanton, chairman of the school board and 
     former Green Wave quarterback.
       ``Police officers. Teachers. Lawyers. Doctors. Dentists. 
     Legislators. Coaches. The bond has been formed over the 
     years, the winning tradition of the football program has 
     permeated through the community, all because of the 
     excellence of John McKissick. So many people have felt a part 
     of it. So many people have been inspired by it.''
       At 8 p.m. Friday, at McKissick Field, on John McKissick 
     Way, the legendary coach will try to give Summerville yet 
     another treat: The Green Wave (2-0) play local rival Mount 
     Pleasant Wando High (1-1) in what could be McKissick's 500th 
     victory.
       Coincidentally, McKissick beat Wando in October 1993 for 
     his 406th victory, which set the national high school 
     football record.
       Berlin G. Myers Sr., Summerville mayor the past 33 years 
     and owner of the local lumber company, has declared this John 
     McKissick Week. (Several years ago, Myers actually 
     rescheduled Halloween because it fell on a game night.)
       Joan McKissick--who wed her husband in June 1952, just two 
     weeks before he took the job at Summerville--has spruced up 
     the press box with photos of past and present Green Wave 
     players for the media rolling into town for the big game. 
     She's expecting hundreds of family and friends.
       Troy Knight, the town's attorney, a former Green Wave ball 
     boy, manager and trainer, is a major player with the 500th 
     Committee. That's a group of local business people who have 
     brainstormed ways to commemorate McKissick's milestone.
       They're throwing a party on the field after the game for 
     McKissick's 82 varsity players and their families, if the 
     team wins.
       The city will come together Nov. 8 for a fundraiser: 
     Summerville will be establishing a John and Joan McKissick 
     Scholarship.
       ``Coach McKissick is an educator, first and foremost,'' 
     Knight says. ``His vehicle just happens to be coaching. This 
     is a way for his legacy to live on forever.''


                      Winning admiration of peers

       McKissick, a quiet, unassuming man, has not missed a game 
     in 52 years--631 games. Not health, not weather, not an act 
     of God has stopped him. He has had only two losing seasons 
     (1957 and 2001).
       His wife has missed just three games. She's the Green 
     Wave's official historian and her husband's trusted 
     biographer, thanks to the piles of scrapbooks she has 
     religiously kept throughout his career. She's also the 
     curator of the largest collection of Green Wave artifacts, 
     most engulfing the playroom of their ranch house, which the 
     McKissicks affectionately call The Green Wave Room.
       South Carolina Gamecocks coach and friend Lou Holtz is 
     keeping his fingers crossed that McKissick will reach 500 
     Friday.
       ``I don't know of any individual who has done more for high 
     school football or for the state of South Carolina than John 
     McKissick,'' Holtz said through his sports information 
     director. ``He not only has taught winning football, he has 
     developed winning young men. He has been so unselfish with 
     his time. His loyalty to Summerville and the state of South 
     Carolina really impresses me.''
       Florida State coach Bobby Bowden (334 victories), second to 
     Penn State's Joe Paterno as the winningest Division I-A 
     football coach, also is sending good vibes to his good buddy 
     McKissick.
       ``The victories bring pride to the state of South Carolina, 
     especially since he is one of their own,'' Bowden said 
     through his school's sports information director. ``It also 
     brings great attention to what you can do if you just 
     persevere. I don't know if it can ever be broken.
       ``I think Coach McKissick's longevity is due to the fact 
     that he has his priorities in order and that football is not 
     his No. 1 priority. A man must have persistence and love of 
     the game and love of life to coach so long.''


                     Everything he wants right here

       McKissick's persistence and perseverance were forged from a 
     tough childhood.
       Born in Greenwood, S.C., McKissick was the second of Harry 
     and Ethel's three sons. Harry owned the Pepsi and Nehi 
     Bottling Co.
       A few months after the 1929 stock market crash, the 
     McKissicks returned home one night to find their house 
     destroyed by a fire. Within months, the bottling plant went 
     bankrupt. The family moved to Lake City, S.C., where 
     McKissick's dad opened a corner grocery that went belly up 
     within two years.
       Life got better after his mom got a job as lunchroom 
     supervisor for the public schools in Williamsburg County--she 
     worked there 40 years--and his dad became a guard standing 
     shotgun on the county chain gang. But the tough times didn't 
     stop.
       McKissick grew up in homes without toilets and running 
     water. He didn't wear shoes to school until the eighth grade. 
     And the family could afford to eat meat--fried chicken--only 
     on Sundays.
       He was drawn to coaching because he recalled how happy his 
     Kingstree High school coach, Jimmy Welch, always looked. ``I 
     figured it must be a good profession.''
       In the fall of '51, he landed a job in Clarkton, N.C.--over 
     the phone, sight unseen. Little did he know he'd be coaching 
     six-man football; it paid $2,700 a year. He called Lonnie 
     MacMillian, his coach at Presbyterian College and a pioneer 
     of the Split-T offense, for advice.
       ``He gave me four plays to run--told me to run them to the 
     right and left, so it would seem like I had eight,'' says 
     McKissick, whose team went 7-0. (None of those victories are 
     included in his 499 wins.)
       In the spring of 1952, McKissick applied for the job at 
     Summerville. ``The superintendent, Frank Kirk, later told me 
     I got the job because I was the only applicant who didn't ask 
     how much it paid.''
       McKissick coached boys and girls basketball, baseball and 
     track. He taught two South Carolina history classes and three 
     U.S. history classes. And he mowed and lined the football 
     field, shined the football cleats, washed the game uniforms 
     and taped the players' ankles, all for $3,000 a year.
       ``Growing up poor gave me drive,'' he says. ``I put 
     pressure on myself to try to achieve something in life. I had 
     empathy for kids who had a tough time, especially if they 
     were trying, and compassion for those who lacked 
     confidence.''
       McKissick has been approached about college head coaching 
     jobs (The Citadel, Newberry, Presbyterian), but he has never 
     come close to leaving. His wife was a postal carrier for 30 
     years until she retired in 1986. They raised two daughters 
     here: Debbie and Cindy, a former Green Wave cheerleader.
       ``People always ask me why I didn't take another job,'' 
     McKissick says. ``I grew up hard, not having everything I 
     wanted. People have different wants and needs. A lot of 
     people want more than what they really need.
       ``Working with kids has kept me young; it has allowed me to 
     grow and evolve. And I get so much self-satisfaction seeing 
     former players around town, at the filling station, the 
     barbershop. . . . Even as football coaches at area high 
     schools.
       ``Why would I ever want to leave Summerville? It's a 
     wonderful community, with wonderful fans and great support. 
     It's my family. I have everything I've always wanted right 
     here.''

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