Impactful.
Mentor.
Great Christian.
These were just some of the words used to describe former Permian football coach Gary Gaines, who died Monday in Lubbock.
He was 73.
Gaines was thrust into the national spotlight following the release of the book “Friday Night Lights,” which captured the Panthers’ run toward a state title.
He was indelibly linked to the coaching profession well before that.
Born in Crane in 1949, he played for the Golden Cranes and then Angelo State before getting into coaching.
“I first met him when he started coaching in 1970 in Fort Stockton,” said Ronny Flowers, the founder of Athletic Supply. “I was a traveling salesman for a sporting goods company and dropped by and met him and we started a relationship that lasted until he passed.
“He was one of the greatest men I ever knew. He’s in a better place now, no question about it.”
Gaines had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for several years.
Former Odessa High coach Ron King and Gaines crossed paths several times during their careers, most notably in 1986 when King, fresh out of college, was hired to coach at Nimitz Middle School when Gaines was coaching at Permian.
King said that he came to the interview and was hired right after and had to make sure.
“He started talking about what I would be doing and I was ‘I’ve got the job?’ ” King said. “He had so much influence on me, not only as a young coach but a young man right out of college.
“He taught me what I needed to be successful as a coach, how to coach kids and how to talk to kids to teach them to believe in themselves. I’ve had two men that were father figures to me and Coach Gaines was one of them.”
Their paths would cross a few more times after Gaines left Permian following the 1989 state and national championship season and went to coach at Texas Tech.
From there he would go to Abilene High, San Angelo Central and finally Abilene Christian University.
It was there that King rekindled the relationship as he was coaching at Abilene Cooper at the time.
Gaines eventually moved back to the Ector County Independent School District as the athletic director, which would be another stroke of luck for King.
Back at Odessa High on Scott Phillip’s staff after leaving Abilene Cooper, King was hired by Gaines to take over the Bronchos’ program in March, 2006.
“I was there when he was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Fame,” King said. “I just can’t find the words to pay respects. It’s a big loss for the coaching profession. There are a lot of coaches he took under his wing and mentored.”
“He had a lot of young coaches; he was a difference maker, like when you are coaching kids, you are trying to make a difference. I think Coach Gaines did that.”
Mickey Owens was another young coach in the right place at the right time.
Teaching at Monahans High School in 1985, Owens wasn’t on the coaching staff but took a chance
Walking into the fieldhouse, he told Gaines, who was running the Loboes’ program at the time, that he was willing to do anything.
“He took me up on it,” Owens said, with a laugh. “He got a freebie out of me for a year.
“He was a super man. I did baseball in the spring and freshman football. But before he left for Permian in January, he made sure I was on the staff full time.”
It was a relationship continued to this day, though Owens said it had been several years since he had spoken with Gaines because of his illness.
He chose to remember the good times, like after he was hired to run the Loboes’ program in 2005, he would invite
Gaines back to talk to the team.
“He would come by and I would introduce him to the young coaches and they thought God had walked into the room,” Owens said. “And his old coaching instincts would kick in and he would start talking football with everyone.
“He told me one time that the roughest year he ever had was the year (1989) they won the state and national championship.”
That was the season after Buzz Bissinger imbedded himself within the Permian program for the material for his book.
A book that Gaines said he never read along with never seeing the movie or television program.
“I don’t think he really wanted to do that,” King said of the shadowing. “I think that came from downtown (ECISD).
“To give someone that kind of access to your program, your film room, the way you break down opponents. Those are somebody’s children you are talking about.”
One of the things that Flowers will remember about his longtime friend was his faith, honesty and commitment to the players on his teams.
Especially the Panthers’ squad of 1988 and 1989.
“He wasn’t really aware of what was really happening,” Flowers said. “He wasn’t really worried about it.
“He was trying to do right by the program, the players.”
>> Follow Lee Scheide on Twitter at @OALeeScheide
