Ready or not, John McKissick faces a season without football - Charleston Post Courier
As John McKissick stands on the field that bears his name, the images come flickering to life, like old black-and-white game film on a reel-to-reel projector. Over there, he can see A. J. Green intercepting a pass to save a victory against Stratford High School. And at the far end of the field, under a towering oak tree, he can see the tight end going the wrong way on an end zone route, the pass falling incomplete to lose a Lower State championship game. “I see the bad right along with the good,” McKissick said with a rueful chuckle. For McKissick’s 63 years as the football coach at Summerville High School, the good far out-weighed the bad. The legendary coach, who turns 89 in September, announced his retirement on June 16, after 63 years, 10 state championships and 621 victories — the most wins for any coach at the high school, college or professional level. “I feel real good about my decision for the community, for the kids and everyone like that,” McKissick said last week, two days before the Green Wave started practice without him for the first time since 1952. “I don’t feel real good about what I... The coach has a loyal wife, Joan, and four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and generations of players he coached who have grown into friends and neighbors, and a beach house. Source: www.postandcourier.com
