Two Former Dillon Coaches to Join Inaugural Football Coaches Hall of Fame Class

Two former Dillon coaches have been chosen for the inaugural class of the South Carolina Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Coaches Paul Alexander Chapman and Bob Rankin will join the nine-member class, which will be inducted on Friday, December 12, at the Landmark Hotel in Myrtle Beach.

Coach Chapman was an All-State athlete himself and served in the United States Air Force before beginning his coaching career as an assistant coach at Hartsville. While there, he started programs for boys and girls junior varsity basketball and formed track and golf teams. His track team won a state championship, the first in the school’s history, in 1965, and the city of Hartsville proclaimed January 22, 1993 as Coach Paul Chapman Day.

Chapman spent one year as head coach at Chesterfield, earning an 11-9 record, before spending 21 years with the Wildcats.

Chapman served as president of the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association in 1974 and served on the Executive Board for five years. He was later inducted into the SCACA Hall of Fame and was chosen as head coach for the 1977 Shrine Bowl. He was later named as an assistant coach for the South team, and was also a coach for the North-South game at Myrtle Beach. The 1993 North-South game was dedicated to him.

Chapman retired in 1989 after leading the Wildcats to seven region titles and 12 playoff appearances. The Wildcats were lower state runner-up four times during his tenure. He left behind a 167-67-3 record at Dillon.

Chapman’s former players include current Wildcat head coach Jackie Hayes, who has already earned over 200 wins; Stevie Lee, a High School All American; Kevin Steele, who went on to coach at Florida State, Clemson, and, currently, Alabama; Johnny Chavis, who went on to coach at Alabama, Tennessee, and LSU; and many more.

Coach Bob Rankin coached for 41 years in Dillon, Berkeley, Johnsonville, and Marion. He replaced Marion “Bull” Lee as head coach in Dillon in 1962 and coached football and basketball until he departed in 1967 to coach at Berkeley. The Wildcats had a 5-6 record in his last year as football coach.

Rankin continued coaching until 2012 and went on to win 313 games and is fourth in all time wins in the state. He is a member of four other Hall of Fames, including the SC Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame.

The rest of the inaugural Hall of Fame class includes coaches from around the state. The inductees include:

• Julius Wistar “Pinky” Babb, who coached at Greenwood for 38 years from 1943 to 1981. He won 346 games and eight state championships and was the National Coach of the Year in 1964 and is a member of the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame and the National High School Sports Hall of Fame.

• William Keith Richards, who coached at Clinton for 24 years from 1969 to 1992. Richards won 241 games and six state championships with nine upper state championships.

• Doug Shaw, who coached Myrtle Beach from 1970 to 1994. Shaw won 223 games and made playoff appearances in 23 of his 25 years as a coach. He won four state titles and six lower state championships.

• Thomas L.Smith, Sr., who coached Howard (Georgetown) for 26 years from 1958 to 1984. He won 250 games with three state titles, and coached three professional NFL players and one NBA player.

• Joseph Peter Turbeville, who coached for 28 years from 1965 to 1994 at Winnsboro, Spring Valley, and Irmo. Turbeville is a member of four other Hall of Fames and won 239 games and five state titles: three at Spring Valley and one each at Winnsboro and Irmo.

• Willie Leo Varner, who coached Woodruff for 42 years and earned 383 wins and 10 state titles. He was the National Football Coach of the Year in 1983 and was inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

• John McKissick, who has been coach at Summerville for 62 years and counting. McKissick has won 613 games, making him the all-time national leader in coaching victories. This season will mark his 63rd year with Summerville. He has won 10 state championship titles and was named National Coach of the Year in 1980. He was inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.

Combined, the nine coaches being inducted have 311 years of coaching experience, won a total of 2,733 games, and claimed 46 state titles.