Almost two months after coaching his last game, Jimmy "Red" Parker has died.
Parker, a Rison native who coached 62 years and won 322 games at the high school and collegiate football levels, died Monday morning from complications of heart disease. He was 84.
No classification was too small for Parker, who won a Class A state title at Rison several years after rising to the top level of Division I football, spending four seasons as head coach at Clemson of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Clemson, now a national power, plays Alabama Monday night for the College Football Playoff championship.
"I've been around Bear Bryant, Barry Switzer and Jimmy Johnson," said Larry Lacewell, a lifelong football man who played for Parker at Fordyce in the early 1950s. "Completely all around, he was the epitome of the word 'coach.' "
Parker's son Jim said Monday that Parker was admitted to Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock on Dec. 26.
"We've been expecting this," Jim Parker said. "Knowing my dad, he would surprise you. He's surprised us before. But he had too many obstacles to overcome."
From 2010 to 2015, Parker coached at Benton Harmony Grove, a Class 3A school in Haskell. He announced his retirement Oct. 28, effective at the end of the 2015 season, and led the Cardinals to the Class 3A postseason, where they lost to Fordyce in the first round Nov. 13.
Parker had coached since 2010 with a left ventricular assist device to combat congestive heart failure and had been hospitalized on several occasions during the fall because of heart trouble. He underwent heart surgery in July 2011 to install an implantable mechanical pump that helps move blood from the lower left chamber of the heart to the rest of his body.
"I struggle walking. I struggle standing. I struggle doing everything," Parker told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in October. "To be honest, I'm worn out."
For more than six decades, Parker put his stamp on high school and college football in Arkansas.
Parker, who was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1988, was 186-94-5 in 24 high school seasons, which included a Class A state championship at Rison in 1995, and compiled a 136-127-8 record over 26 seasons as a college head coach with stops at Arkansas-Monticello, The Citadel, Clemson, Southern Arkansas, Delta State and Ouachita Baptist.
Benton Harmony Grove Athletic Director Ricky Mooney said he told the Harmony Grove players of Parker's death Monday morning in a meeting.
"He meant everything to them," Mooney said. "I don't think we would be where we're at without him. He was a father figure to so many of the kids. He had amazing rapport with them."
Lacewell, who played for Parker at Fordyce in 1953 and 1954 and went on later to coach at the University of Oklahoma as an assistant under Barry Switzer and as the head coach at Arkansas State in 1979-1989, said he last saw Parker at Benton Harmony Grove's Class 3A first-round playoff game at Fordyce.
"He was incredible," Lacwell said. "He was as alert as you can believe. But at the same time, every one of us knew that the moment he quit coaching it would probably be over."
The Cardinals had become one of the most competitive Class 3A programs over the past three seasons under Parker. Even as Parker's health declined and the Cardinals were led by assistants Richard Moore and Dwight Fite, Jim Parker said his father wasn't ready to retire.
"He would have kept on coaching," Jim Parker said. "He felt like he couldn't do it anymore. His health had gone downhill."
Parker, born in Hampton on Oct. 26, 1931, began coaching in 1953 at Fordyce, where he led the Redbugs to three consecutive 12-0 seasons in 1958-1960 before leaving to coach at Arkansas-Monticello (1961-1965). He led the Boll Weevils to Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference titles in 1963 and 1965. Seven seasons at The Citadel (1966-1972), then Parker spent four seasons (1973-1976) at Clemson, compiling a 17-25-2 record.
Five seasons later, Clemson won the 1981 national championship under Danny Ford, who spent five seasons coaching the Arkansas Razorbacks from 1993-1997.
Parker was out of football from 1977 to 1979 as he concentrated on an automobile dealership in Fordyce, but he returned to the coaching ranks in 1980 as an assistant at Vanderbilt. He became the head coach at Southern Arkansas in 1981 but left after one season to coach at Delta State (1982-1987). He then was hired as the offensive coordinator at Mississippi in 1988 and spent four seasons with the Rebels.
In 1993, Parker returned to Arkansas to coach high school football at Rison, his alma mater. He led Rison to the Class A state championship in 1995 but left to take over as head coach at Ouachita Baptist in 1996. He spent three seasons at OBU (1996-1998) before returning in 1999 to the high school ranks at Bearden, where he spent four years.
Parker was hired by Fordyce in 2003, more than 40 years after his original stint at the school . He left Fordyce after the 2005 season and took two years off from coaching before returning as the head coach at Woodlawn. He spent one year there before being hired in 2008 by Benton Harmony Grove to help start its football program.
Lacewell said he saw Parker as more than a football coach. Lacewell's father Chink died when he was in the ninth grade, so Parker, who was 22 in his first season at Fordyce, became a father figure, of sorts, for Lacewell.
"He used to check me twice," said Lacewell, who lived across the street from Parker in Fordyce at the time. "I became so close to him.
"He was a kid, but we thought he was a godfather."
Parker's impact was felt outside Arkansas, Lacewell said.
"Archie Manning called me," Lacewell said. "Archie knew who he was. Anybody who has ever been around Red Parker walked away impressed. I remember Jerry Jones talking about him, Frank Broyles talking about him. He had such an impact on so many people."
Parker is survived by his three children, Jim, Vicki Wallace and Cindy Yoos and preceded in death by his wife of 64 years, Betty, who died in April. He had seven grandchildren, with one preceding him in death.
Visitation is set for 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Thursday at Roller-Ballard Funeral Home in Benton. Parker's funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at Geyer Springs First Baptist Church in Little Rock. Both are open to the public.
Sports on 01/05/2016