These 3 probably headed for the Hall had they not moved on to ‘greener pastures’
How long is long enough? That becomes a question for many bright coaches who could have set unreachable standards had they remained coaching among the high school ranks. There are examples of this. How many games would Mike Yeagle had won had he coached 25 years (as opposed to 15-years) in the KHSAA? What would Neal Brown had done had he not moved on to West Virginia? What would Chuck Smith had done had Neal not lured him away from Boyle County and had Chuck not spent some time coaching at UK? We can go on and on here until the cows come home. Here we have three pretty good examples of this principle. Homer Rice moved on to the college and even NFL game and found a home in athletic administration. Doug Charles is a successful business man with a thriving business, an on-going concern, and he was just a para-professional in the coaching world anyway. Marty Jaggers was blessed with the surname of KHSAA “football royalty” and there are those, in the football world, who understood well the enormity of that family and what that family has meant to all of us. I believe Marty moved on into administration and, ultimately, the first tee box at the local golf course where he was also a star, like his father before him. We look at the careers of all three of these guys in this article and wonder aloud what might have been.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, KPGFootball
Kentucky: In this article we are going to look at three short careers which were marked with tremendous success notwithstanding the brevity. The first guy, Homer Rice, was as smart and as capable of a “football mind” as ever walked either up or down a KHSAA sideline. Doug Charles commands board rooms and negotiates multi-million dollar contracts as easily as he calls a play to gain third and two. Marty Jaggers is a “Jaggers;” so, he is as good (or better) at golf as he is at football.
Any of these three could have been among the greatest the KHSAA has ever known had they worked at this trade a while longer. That shouldn’t diminish their being “great” in the short doses we all were privileged to enjoy.
I. Homer Rice;
Homer Rice was a pretty dad-burned smart guy. Rice attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, lettered in football and baseball, and was a Collier’s All-American in 1948.
From 1951-1961 Rice coached high school football in Tennessee and Kentucky. He won 101-games, lost nine (9), and had seven (7) ties. Along the way, he won a couple KHSAA titles (1960 & ’61) and was the first of two coaches in history to stockpile 50-consecutive wins.
Charlie Bradshaw hired Rice to be his OC at UK for four years, then he moved onto OU (Oklahoma University). After that trek, Rice became the head man at the University of Cincinnati. Rice moved into athletic administration, served as the AD at several prominent college jobs, and even served a stint in the NFL as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Yessir, that Rice was pretty smart. Rice headed up the Bluebird staff at Highlands, creating a monster. One might say Homer Rice started the dynasty. In maybe the smartest move Rice ever made, he hired Owen Hauck to join his staff at Highlands.
While Rice was hanging around places like Georgia Tech and the NFL, Hauck was building a right impressive coaching résumé at the high school level. Hauck would compiled a 258-109-1 KHSAA coaching record and won a title in 1964, finishing runners-up five (5) other times, many times in Kentucky’s largest classification of competition.
Rice developed a Hall of Fame coach on his staff in Owen Hauck
Friday Night Fletch
Rice would go 71-11-6 in the eight (8) years he coached Highlands High. Over that span, Rice would accomplish three (3) undefeated seasons, 50-straight wins, five (5) Northern Kentucky Conference titles, and back-to-back Class 2A state football (KHSAA) championships in 1960 (12-0 win over Roy Kidd and Madison High School) & 1961 (21-13 over Roy Walton and Lafayette). Rice would leave the program pretty well set up for his protégé, Owen Hauck.
Hauck would succeed his mentor, Homer Rice, as Highlands football coach, when Rice departed to join Charlie Bradshaw’s staff at UK. Hauck would immediately take Highlands to a 2A title over Madison High, and Bobby Harville, winning 36-0 and running the “Royal Purples” plumb off Stoll Field in Lexington in 1964.
These three (3) titles would set the table for a program which has now won 23-state football championships. Rice hired Hauck a second time, hiring his former assistant at Highlands when Rice was the head football coach at the University of Cincinnati in 1967.
Rice left the high school level to be a head coach in both the major college ranks and the NFL (Cincinnati Bengals) before serving a long tenure in athletic administration, particularly at Georgia Tech, where he was the AD from 1980-1997. While at Georgia Tech, Rice developed and implemented the “Total Person Program.” That program became the model for what is now the NCAA Life Skills Program utilized at universities throughout the NCAA.
There is a statue of Homer Rice on the campus of Georgia Tech. How many former high school football coaches can claim to having advanced as far as the NFL and been memorialized, via statuary, on the campus of one of the nation’s leading academic and athletic institutions? We know of one…
II. Doug Charles;
Doug Charles, when hired, probably wasn’t long for the KHSAA world when he took over the varsity program from his prior post coaching the middle school program. Charles is among the more successful business men in central Kentucky and among Lexington Christian Academy’s heavier donors.
Charles did a fine job with the program when he had it. Charles took the reigns in 2019, immediately taking the Eagles to a 10-2 finish. Charles would take the Eagles to the championship game in the pandemic shortened ’20 season and drop the title to Beechwood in OT.
LCA would return to Lexington in ’21, this time with a 14-1 mark, losing to Beechwood again, 23-21. One can argue Charles could easily have won those two titles, in ’20 and ’21, as easily as he didn’t.
Charles could have won either or both of those titles in 2020 & ’21 as easily as he didn’t
Friday Night Fletch
Charles would go to the semis in ’22, win 11-games in ’23, and 11-games in ’24 and then hang it up and call it a career. In all, Charles coached six (6) years at LCA, winning 65-games against 15-defeats, make the finals twice, the semifinals twice, while winning 82% of the games he coached.
Charles played for Hillard Howard at Pikeville. Howard was the head football coach at Pikeville for 20 seasons, amassing 208 wins while leading the Panthers to three (3) state titles.
Howard was a five (5)-time state Coach of the Year. In addition to his three titles, Howard’s teams won 12, Class A regional championships and added two state runners-up finishes during his 20 seasons. Howard’s record over those 20 seasons was 208 wins against just 48 losses for an .813 winning percentage.
So, you can see the student’s winning percentage was equal (roughly) to that of the mentor’s. Pretty fair parcel of work for a business man. Wouldn’t you agree?
III. Marty Jaggers;
When your surname is “Jaggers” you are born a splash-hire at the Kentucky High School football coaching level. The son of a coach who won two state football titles at Trigg County, five (5) overall, and was the commonwealth’s winningest coach in history when he retired, any man named “Jaggers” is a guy who needs no introduction.
Jaggers coached for 10-years and accomplished quite a bit over that span of time before moving into athletic administration and serving as a high school athletic’s director. Now, Marty Jaggers won 85-games in his decade-long, head coaching career in addition to serving on several very successful staffs.
Jaggers coached Lincoln County to a runner-up finish and then led Mercer County, in 2006, to a KHSAA football championship. He also shepherded the school through the merger with Harrodsburg.
While Marty Jaggers was on Sam Harp’s staff at Danville; his son, Josh, was an all-state lineman. In seven years on Harp’s staff, Jaggers and Harp, together, won five (5) titles and were runners-up twice (2).
Jaggers was 36-14 at Mercer County. Jaggers won another 49-games coaching at Lincoln County.
“Poppa” Joe Jaggers was a member of the 1957 All-State Football squad (Courier-Journal) before matriculating to WKU where he would play football and golf. In football, he played QB.
Joe, Marty, and Josh may be the only three-generation, All-State first-team players in KHSAA history
Friday Night Fletch
In 1957, Joe Jaggers housed a 54-yarder against Crittenden County. That same season, Jaggers returned a kickoff 73-yards for a score, had a 75-yard interception return for a pick-six against Daviess County, as well as many other plays highlighting his prep football career and prowess.
Son, Marty, was a member of the same All-State, first-team (Courier-Journal), as dad before playing four (4) years of QB at WKU and leaving with many established, all-time passing marks. Marty setting passing records was not distinct to college.
Marty passed for 3,342 yards and 28 touchdowns at Trigg County from 1973-76. Marty set nearly every passing record at Trigg County until another coach took over the program and installed the “spread offense” in 1999.
Josh Jaggers, Marty’s son, was a first team all-state (AP, Courier Journal) football player and a finalist for the “Mr. Football” award, though playing along the line of scrimmage. Not many linemen can play well enough to put themselves in a “Mr. Football” race. Take our word for it.
In summation, the Jaggers boys are the only three-generation, All-State, first-teamers in KHSAA history to our knowledge. The Jaggers triumvirate are the only three generation, regional champions in coaching history among KHSAA schools (Joe/Marty/Josh).
There are three pairs of “father/sons” who have won titles in the KHSAA in football. The Morrises (Jack/Joe), at Mighty Mayfield, won numerous titles. The same is true of the Smiths (Chuck/Brandon) and the Jaggers (Joe/Marty).
Like is true of Homer Rice and Doug Charles, who knows how much success, and how many championships, may have awaited Marty Jaggers if he had decided to coach longer than the 10-years he committed? All three of these guys were shooting stars. They may have burned out quicker than we would have liked but their lights shone more brightly and brilliantly than most for the brief time we got to bask in their rays.
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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