When Harry Met: Former Sardis High football coach Jerry Don Sims
The brutal heat had cooled a bit the last Friday night of August 1975 when the Sardis High School football team took the field against Springville for the season’s first football game, their fifth opener under head coach Jerry Don Sims.
A little background: Sims is a DeKalb County native, the son of a Boaz police officer, a 1960 graduate of Boaz High School and later from Florence State Teachers College. Although he was an offensive lineman for the Pirates, he couldn’t make the college team. “They had no use for a 167-pound offensive tackle,” he said with a laugh while describing their practice sessions.
After his earning an education degree from Florence State, Sims entered the U.S. Marines; his entire tour was spent at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. During that time, he also taught eighth-grade classes at a Swainsboro, North Carolina, middle school.
After his honorable discharge, Sims returned to Marshall County to work for the Boaz school system, teaching PE, history and economics and working as an assistant coach.
He became Sardis’ head coach — the first time he’d held that role — in 1971, taking over a team that had won just five of 20 games the previous two seasons.
Reviewing his first four years on the job: His 1971 team was shut out 35-0 in its opener by Oneonta, but finished with a 7-2-1 record. The Lions were 5-5 in his second season, fell off to 4-6 in 1973 but bounced back to 6-4 in 1974.
Sardis’ staff and players were optimistic heading into 1975, which promised to be a good year since several of the scheduled opponents were coming off losing seasons.
Springville was the first victim that Aug. 29, falling 41-6. Victories over two Etowah County opponents followed — 20-7 over Southside and 12-7 over West End — and the Lions were on their way to a 10-0 regular season, only the second time that had happened. (The first was in 1966 under former head coach Ben Perkins.)
Other wins were over Boaz, 26- 12; Douglas, 46-6; Geraldine, 21-0; Fyffe, 33-27; Hokes Bluff, 12-10; Piedmont, 26-13; and Crossville, 14 6.
The Lions finally came up short in the opening round of the Class 2A state playoffs, falling by a point to Pisgah, 7-6.
Sardis was led throughout the season by four players — Allen Cooper, Jerry Gaither, Kevin Gaither and Steve Bruce — who were named to the All-State teams chosen by the Birmingham News and Post-Herald. (Bruce made it as a running back on offense and linebacker on defense.)
Sims, the Lions’ 13th head coach since they began play in 1934, wound up his coaching career after the 1985 season, seeking a change in pace.
Weary from the long hours associated with coaching, Sims became principal at Sardis Middle School, holding that position until 1993.
But did he retire at that point? Nope!
Still feeling the need to remain active — in something entirely different from the education field — Sims went back to college “and earned an AA certification in Landscaping and Fishpond Design, then really got to work,” he said with a laugh.
Sims and his wife, Jenny, live directly across the street from Snead Community College. It’s a magnificent structure built 110 years ago.
“Our yard was my first landscaping job,” he said. “I put in a fish pond that we have enjoyed having; this has led to other such jobs in the area, so this line of work was a really good choice.”
Jenny Sims is a Sardis High graduate. She taught at several schools — Boaz, Albertville and Sardis — and ended her career as a guidance counselor at Snead State.
She is proud of her husband’s time as the school’s head football coach. “At reunions, former players state that they are the men they are today because of him,” she said with a smile. “Many of his players became coaches: Tony Stonicher, Gene Hill, Lee Hibbs and several others.”
During our visit, when Sims was telling of various vacation trips that he and his wife had taken, I was reminded of the jokes several comedians have told about the Grand Canyon being the “biggest, widest and deepest hole in the United States.”
Here’s why; it’s one more thing about Jerry Don Sims that you might be surprised to learn. “I’ve walked the rim of the Grand Canyon seven times,” he said. The first time, it took a full day. “I started at 4 a.m. and finished at 9 that night.” The other six times, he divided the walk into two days.
How about football these days? “I still enjoy going to some games, keeping up with local games and reading the Gadsden Times’ sports section every day,” he said with a grin.
Harry D. Butler, a former broadcaster, is a motivational speaker and author of “Alabama’s First Radio Stations, 1920-1960.” Butler periodically sits down with someone of note, then brings the conversation to readers.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Harry Butler profiles former Sardis coach Jerry Don Sims
