Julius Wistar "Pinky" Babb (born in Princeton, South Carolina) is one of the nation's most storied

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coaches. He coached for 39 seasons (1943–81) at Greenwood High School in

Greenwood, South Carolina Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Greenwood County, South Carolina. The population in the 2020 United States Census was 22,545 down from 23,222 at the 2010 census. The city is home to Lander University. History In 1823 John McG ...

, amassing 336 victories and nine state titles.Ghs Vs Emerald

Background

Babb played college football at

Furman University Furman University is a private university in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1826 and named after Baptist pastor Richard Furman, the Liberal arts college, liberal arts university is the oldest private institution of higher l ...

and was named all-state in 1936. He is a member of the Furman University Hall of Fame, having played on the very last Furman football team to beat in-state rival Clemson. Using the motto "Winners never quit and quitters never win," Babb's reputation and success as a coach at Greenwood High earned him a spot in the state athletic hall of fame and the National High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame, in 1996, the first year for inductees.

At Greenwood High

Babb led the Emeralds (now called the Eagles) to an overall record of 336 wins, 81 losses and 23 ties. He is often mentioned alongside other South Carolina football coaching legends such as

John McKissick John McKissick (September 25, 1926 – November 28, 2019) was a head football coach of Summerville High School in Summerville, South Carolina. In 2012, he became the first American football coach in history (high school, college, or professional ...

(Summerville) and Willie Varner (Woodruff). McKissick, Varner and Babb are all among the top 20 in the nation in overall football victories. McKissick, who was born in Greenwood, has the most victories of all coaches nationally. Babb was a South Carolina Shrine Bowl coach, a North-South Game coach and the coach of numerous players who went on to play collegiately and in the professional ranks. One famous player was W.W. "Hootie" Johnson (1945–48). Johnson is the former chairman of The Augusta National golf course, where the Master's tournament is played each year.

Other successes

Babb led the

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

team to the 1966 state championship, and he was also a successful

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States, U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises U.S. state, state, Territories of the United States, U.S. terr ...

baseball coach for Post 20. For his football efforts, he received some great praise when legendary Clemson football coach Frank Howard gave his introduction speech for

Ara Parseghian Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football coach and player who coached the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish footb ...

, former Notre Dame coach, when Parseghian was named coach of the year. Howard told Parseghian at a special event, which Babb attended: "You and me are lucky to be on the same program with Pinky Babb. We sure as heck can't coach like him." In 1982, a year after Babb retired and the year before his death, the stadium at Greenwood High was named in his honor. The Greenwood Touchdown Club and The Index-Journal Newspaper in Greenwood have named a J.W. "Pinky" Babb Coach of the Year every year since 1996, the first year of the All-Lakelands Team, which honors players from four counties.

References/citations

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20080808120115/http://ghs.gwd50.org/HALL_OF_FAME_AUG27_2004_PICS_PG_1.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Babb, Julius Wistar High school football coaches in South Carolina People from Laurens County, South Carolina Sportspeople from Greenwood, South Carolina Furman Paladins football players