Dillon’s Coach Paul Chapman Honored with SCFCA Distinguished Coach Award

Dillon’s Coach Paul Chapman was honored on Friday, February 25, with the Distinguished Coach Award.

The award is given by the South Carolina Football Coaches Association to coaches with an outstanding career and lasting contributions to their school and community. Other 2011 honorees were Coach Les Evans of Airport and Coach Jim Fraser of Bennettsville, Aiken, and T.L. Hanna.

Mrs. Lou Chapman Lane was on hand to receive the award on Coach Chapman’s behalf. Michael Rogers introduced Lane and presented the award to her. Lane’s speech was simple, as she stated that Coach Chapman wasn’t a man for long speeches, and neither was she. Chapman’s daughters – Belinda, Patti, Lisa, and Paulette – were also in attendance for the award presentation.

Rogers began his introduction by saying that “If Coach Chapman were alive tonight, I would not be here presenting this award to his name! When Mike Ware from the Coaches Association called, Coach Chapman would have declined, saying ‘Just give that to someone else more deserving!’” But few could argue the influence Coach Chapman has had over Dillon High School’s athletic program and his former players.

Chapman was born in Hartsville on January 29, 1931 and was an outstanding athlete during his school years. “I loved to compete,” he once told Lonnie Turner. “It didn’t make any difference what the sport was, I just loved the competition.” He became one of the state’s top athletes and as a tenth grader, he was selected to Bell’s All State Football and baseball teams named tenth grade Athlete of the Year in South Carolina. He made the All-State Team again as a senior and was selected to play in the Shrine Bowl game in 1948.

He went on to The Citadel where he was recognized repeatedly for his athletic and scholastic accomplishments. In 1952, his senior year, he made the College All-State football team and was named first team All-State in baseball. He was the second leading punter in the nation and hit .537 on the baseball team.

While in Charleston, he met his wife, Betty Lou Owens, and they were married in September of 1954. Lonnie Turner once described her as the “the perfect wife for a coach,” and Chapman himself said she the most understanding wife he could ask for. Paul and Lou were together right up until his death in 1996.

Chapman served in the United States Air Force before returning to Hartsville to be assistant coach to his former coach Billy Seigler. In addition to being a football assistant, he started programs for boys and girls junior varsity basketball and formed track and golf teams. In 1965, his track team won the State Track Championship, the first in Hartsville High’s history. The city of Hartsville even proclaimed January 22, 1993, as Coach Paul Chapman Day, even though by that time he had been rivals with Hartsville for many years as head coach of Dillon High.

During the 1967-68 season, Chapman was head coach at Chesterfield High School, earing an 11-9 record. But in 1969, he made his way to Dillon, where he spent the last 21 years of his career.

Chapman’s first year in Dillon was a building year in which he compiled a 5-5-1 record. By 1971, he had produced his first 1,000 yard rusher, Earl Goings, who netted 1,632 yards on 170 attempts, a record that stood throughout Chapman’s career and beyond.

In 1974, he served as president of the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association and served on the South Carolina Executive Board for five years. Nearly twenty years later, he was inducted into the SCACA Hall of Fame. In 1977, he was selected as head coach of the South Squad in the Shrine Bowl and later served again as an assistant coach. He also coached the North-South game at Myrtle Beach, and the 1993 game was dedicated to him.

Coach Chapman retired in 1989 after a heart attack raised some serious health concerns. As Lonnie Turner said in a series of articles from that time, “When you get as pumped up before and after a game as Paul does, retirement is probably a good thing for him to consider.”

In his final season as DHS head coach, he led the Wildcats back from two early loses to a ten streak tear, shutting out six teams, including a 21-0 finale over the Hartsville Red Foxes. His players at the time had said that they wanted to win a championship for him, but the title wasn’t meant to be, as they lost 16-7 to the Walterboro Bulldogs in the final rounds of playoffs. They finished the season with a 10-3 record, but Paul wasn’t disappointed. “I told the kids that they had nothing to be ashamed of after the game,” Chapman said. “I was and am still proud of this team as I can be. They came a long way, and I hated to see them lose, not for me, but for them. They worked so hard for it.”

During his time at DHS, Chapman won seven regional titles, played in twelve playoffs, and the Wildcats were Lower State runner-ups four times. His record of 167-67-3 was the standard that every coach that followed had to work toward.

On November 18, 1989, he was inducted to the Citadel Hall of Fame, and in his retirement, he traveled, played golf, and was even named Golf Pro at Twin Lakes Country Club. But in 1993, his health took a turn for the worse when he was diagnosed with cancer in his kidney. Though he was given only six months to live, his strong faith and competitive spirit saw him through until May 17, 1996.

The memorial services for Coach Chapman were indicative of the scope of his influence, as coaches and players from all over South Carolina were in attendance. Coach Marion “Bull” Lee, a legend in his own right, delivered the eulogy, in which he said Chapman was “a great friend and I owe a lot to him. Because of him, Bull Lee is a better man.”

Lee wasn’t the only one touched by Chapman’s legacy, however. Chapman’s former players were all accomplished, and all credited him with their success.

Among his former players were John “Scrap Iron” Alford and Larry McLain, who in the late 70’s were both signed by the World Football League and played until the fall of the league.

William Ford, another former player, was a Captain in the U.S. Army when Lonnie Turner ran into him 1989. Back then, he credited Chapman’s discipline and physical training with much of his success. By the time of Chapman’s death in 1996, Ford had become a United States Major.

Stevie Lee, who played under Chapman from 1973-76, was the only High School All American to come out of DHS. Glenn Edge of the 1974-76 teams went on to play at Newberry before becoming a coach himself, beginning his career at Lake View High.

Kevin Steele was the quarterback of 1974 team that played the Diamond Hornets of Lower Richland for the Lower State championship. Steele went on to play for Tennessee has coached for several universities, including New Mexico State, Oklahoma State, Nebraska University, and is now coaching at Clemson University.

In an interview from January 2009, Steele said some of his best memories were of playing for the Wildcats. “My greatest football experience is being a Dillon Wildcat. The team togetherness we had was amazing. I can tell you every guy I played with at Dillon and their jersey numbers.”

“I remember how if you were going to play for Coach Chapman, you weren’t going to have many teammates,” Steele said with a smile. “There wasn’t many who we were going to stay out there and practice for him, except for the real football players.”

Rogers, too, remembered Coach Chapman’s tough training: “One morning at football camp my junior year, after a three hour practice in the August heat, he gathered the team around him, singled out one player, and told him ‘You will decide how many sprints the team runs today! You can run 4 sprints at ten yards or 4 sprints at 20 yards.’ The player looked around at his teammates, smiled, and said ‘4 ten yard sprints Coach!’ Coach Chapman took his shades off, looked into our eyes, and said ‘Y’all don’t want to win!’

“As he turned to walk away he said ‘RUN WHAT YOU WANT TO!’ That morning, two players ran four 10-yard sprints, two players ran four 20-yard sprints, and 51 players ran 20 40-yard sprints, 20 20-yard sprints, and 20 10-yard sprints, then jogged the 3/4 mile back to their dorm! That was Paul Chapman football and to this day is still the WILDCAT WAY!!”

But while he was tough on the field, another former player, Johnny Chavis recalled another incident where he had an opportunity to see a different side of him. Chavis said it was a great honor to be able to play for Chapman, who played demanding football, “the way football should be.” But he remembered when the movie Brian’s Song came out and Coach Chapman invited several players to his home to watch it. “We got to see that family side, and it taught me that you could be demanding and physical on the football field, but also loving and caring,” he said. “I have nothing but the utmost respect, love, and passion for him. I’m better because I played for him.” Chavis went on to coach for Alabama and Tennessee and is now a defensive coordinator at LSU.

Jackie Hayes, too, played for Chapman from 1976-79, racking up 2,181 yards in his high school career. Hayes graduated from Catawba College and returned to be assistant coach to Chapman. “I was really scared of him when I first started playing,” Hayes recalled in a 1989 interview, “but as I grew older, I began to respect him for what he was trying to get across to me. He was like a second Dad to me and he still is.”

In 1992, Hayes become head coach and Athletic Director at DHS, and made history in August 2010 when he became the youngest coach to reach 200 career wins. At Chapman’s memorial service, he recalled Coach Chapman’s advice to him when he became head coach. “He told me when I got the job as head coach, to be sure I get a good coaching staff. He said that he would not be out there helping because he wanted it to be my team.”

Every player Chapman coached was special to him, and every game was important. He once told Lonnie Turner that his most satisfying win was in 1973 against the Myrtle Beach Seahawks. According to Lonnie’s article, “the Seahawks came into Dillon with a trio of running backs who were rated tops in the state. Lester Brown, who was an outstanding running back at Clemson, was held to 51 yards on 11 carries in the game, and the Sumter boys, Nate and Lavan were held to 49 and 3 yards respectively. The Wildcats piled up 214 yards rushing in the game with Shrine Bowler Marion Thompson getting 127 of those.”

“It was satisfying to me,” Chapman said, “because everybody was playing it up big that Myrtle Beach was really going to put it on us. That’s got to be my most satisfying win.”

John McKissick, coach for Summerville in the early 70’s, had nothing but respect for Chapman. “Paul always took situations in stride and was real competitive, but if you beat him, he was a gentleman about it and would come out and shake your hand.”

“He is really going to be missed in the coaching profession, ‘cause everybody respected him and still does. When you play one of his teams, you better be ready to play, I’ll tell you that.”

His wife Lou may have summed up everyone’s feelings best, though in an interview she did with Billy Baker of the South Carolina High School Sports Report when Coach Chapman retired.

“I still get a little pitter patter in my stomach when Paul walks on the field,” she said. “You would thank that after 35 years I would be over that part. He’s my hero!”