John Lacey Wyatt was a believer in tough love during his days as a coach at Calhoun City High School.
“You have to be tough on them or they’ll be tough on you,” Wyatt said.
The long time coach was honored recently with a 75th birthday celebration in Calhoun City.
“I loved it,” he said of the birthday celebration. “It made me proud to see so many of my former students.”
Johnny Hardin is among those former students who have fond memories of his school days with Coach Wyatt and his “tough love.”
Coach John Lacey Wyatt, at a recent Calhoun City football game, was treated to a 75th birthday party by his former students, friends and family. He’s battled Cerebral Palsy all his life. He’s pictured with Coach Perry Liles and Linda Jane Ramage. Photo by Lisa McNeece
“Coach would step on your butt during football practice when we were doing push-ups,” Hardin said. “Randy Tutor would cheat and Coach would step on Randy’s butt and say ‘Tutor, you make my butt hurt.’”
“He would also run sprints with us and out ran a lot of the linemen,” Hardin said. “He’d run right beside Randy and tell him the same thing – ‘Tutor you make my butt hurt.”
“B.O.T.” was always an important part of Wyatt’s coaching, too.
“Be On Time – Nothing would make me more mad than if you were late, except maybe if you didn’t learn from your mistakes,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt was head baseball coach and an assistant football coach.
“We had some really good football teams, but we always seemed to run into one team that would get us,” Wyatt said.
The 1970 team for example went 10-1 without a close game, including a 60-0 win over Vardaman and 32-0 over Bruce, but lost to Booneville 26-0.
“It was always somebody– Charleston, Water Valley, Bruce, Booneville or Lafayette that would get us,” Wyatt said. “Every time we played Lafayette County it was a knock down, drag out.”
John Lacey Wyatt, right, with George Knight, left, and Billy Cook, center during their coaching days at CCHS.
Wyatt loved football, but among his best memories are when he coached Pony League Baseball in Big Creek.
“Those were good old days with a lot of talented ball players,” he said.
J.R. Denton, owner of Chandler Drug on the Calhoun City Square, was among those Pony League players in Big Creek.
“I remember Coach Wyatt telling me one time I had very deceptive speed,” Denton said. “I was slower than anybody could imagine.”
David Harrison, an attorney in Chattanooga, recalled Coach Wyatt’s days as a Little League umpire in Big Creek.
“Only Robert Carroll’s low and outside curve balls were ‘Strrrrikes,’” Harrison said. “I had the pleasure of playing on his high school baseball team at Calhoun City and being driven to away games by him, which was always a wisecracking adventure. His courage and determination is exceeded only by his dedication to the game of baseball, and particularly Maroon baseball.”
Wyatt has battled cerebral palsy all his life, but never let it get in his way of pursuing his passion of coaching sports.
“I always just liked being around the kids,” Wyatt said. “I loved to try and motivate them to work hard and be better.”
He lives at Baptist-Calhoun Nursing Home today where his television is always tuned into college sports and his walls are covered with Mississippi State paraphernalia, despite the fact he earned his B.S. from Ole Miss.
“I did get my masters from Mississippi State,” he said, smiling.
Among his favorite pieces of memorabilia is a Calhoun City football helmet presented to him recently by Coach Perry Liles. Coach Liles didn’t play for Wyatt during his school days, but did have him for P.E. in fourth grade.
“I just remember how much fun and exciting he was as a P.E. teacher,” Liles said. “He was always very positive.”
Linda Jane Ramage, who coached at Calhoun City High School during some of the same years as Wyatt, said he was beloved by all.
“Everybody loved Coach Wyatt,” Ramage said, “especially all of the kids.”
Ramage said Wyatt was also well known for his sports knowledge.
“He knew every kind of statistic,” she said. “He was amazing with that.”
“I’ve just always loved sports,” Wyatt said. “The competition, the people. I loved it all.”