Former MA and Lee coach McCracken still a part of the high school game
Former Montgomery Academy and R.E. Lee head coach Spence McCracken is still involved in high school football as part of the Opelika High School radio broadcast. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
We couldn’t have high school football playoffs without Spence McCracken, could we?
From his first days as a head coach at Montgomery Academy in the 1970s to his tenure as one of the top high school coaches in the state at Robert E. Lee and Opelika before finishing up as a volunteer assistant at St. James, McCracken had a hand in 31 playoff appearances over that 36-year span.
You can actually make that 35 playoff appearances in 40 years, since he has spent the last four years as a color analyst for Opelika High’s radio broadcast team and will be back in that role again on Friday night alongside Van Riggs at Bulldog Stadium broadcasting the Bulldogs’ playoff opener with Northridge.
Now in his early 70s, McCracken has been a major component in the Alabama High School Athletic Association football playoffs since their inception, participating as a player in the first-ever playoffs in 1966, which included a semifinal win by Robert E. Lee over Huntsville and a televised championship loss to Sidney Lanier in the 1966 championship game.
When he finally retired after the 2008 season, he was the fourth winningest coach in AHSAA history behind Luverne’s Glenn Daniel, Fayette County’s Waldon Tucker and Central-Phenix City’s Wayne Trawick.
He was immediately presented with the first Alabama Football Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award. Four years earlier, in 2004, he had been inducted into the AHSAA Hall of Fame.
McCracken got his first break in coaching when he was asked to replace championship track coach Tom Hollingshead as the head track coach and football B-team coach at Robert E. Lee in 1974.
“I loved track,” he said. “I had a fun time doing that.
Five years later, he would be offered his first job as a head coach at Montgomery Academy. He stayed for five years, leading the final four teams to the state playoffs before he left for Robert E. Lee and was replaced by another Lee alumnus, John Tatum.
“I had a good time there,” McCracken said. “That was my first head coaching job and I really enjoyed that. I learned a lot about children, being at Montgomery Academy.
McCracken recalled his first Montgomery Academy team and a story involving quarterback Marc Tyson, the grandson of legendary Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.
“When I first got that job, I was up at the coaching clinic in Tuscaloosa and I was sitting there taking notes, all fired up and everything,” McCracken said. “(Then-Alabama assistant coach) Mal Moore comes up and taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘Coach, Coach Bryant would like to see you in his office.’ I said, ‘He wants to see me?’
“I went up there and you know me, I’m not shy. I stuck my hand out there and said it’s so great to meet you, I’m so glad to coach your grandson, blah, blah, blah. He said, ‘Coach I just want to tell you something. You don’t let him get hurt because he’s my … fishing buddy.’
“Before I leave his office, I say, ‘Coach Bryant, this is my first year as a head coach, can you give me some advice?’ He says, ‘Take those guys at Montgomery Academy that aren’t very good and you make them think they’re good. Take the ones that are good and you make them think they’re great. And you don’t have any great players but if you ever get a great player, control him.’
“I walked out of there thinking he’s going to give me something on the wishbone or something like that. I was really disappointed. But as the years went on, (I realized) that was so important. Because you’ve got to make kids believe in themselves as a coach.
In 1984, he had the opportunity to return to Robert E. Lee as the head coach, replacing Bo Boswell. McCracken would instantly revive a long-dormant program, coaching the Generals to 10 area championships in 11 years and to three state championships. He compiled a 117-25 record in that span, including a 46-5 mark over his final five years.
After the 1994 season, Doug Barfield stepped down as Opelika’s head coach and put in a call to McCracken to encourage him to apply for the job.
“I would have never left Lee had it not been for Doug Barfield calling me and telling me he’d help me get the job and it pays $80,000,” McCracken said. “Well, I’m making $42,000 at Lee. I told him I’d pray about it. We didn’t want to leave Lee. I went and talked to (Montgomery County superintendent Pete) Eberhart about it, to see if he could do anything about (a pay raise at Lee). I wouldn’t have left but they gave me a really good salary. And it was perfect for me because it was a town where they had never won a state championship.
He coached the Bulldogs to a 130-35 record through the 2008 season, then elected to retire from coaching.
“I had to stay for two more years because I was 60 and I didn’t get Social Security and retirement for two more years,” McCracken said. “After God told me it was time to quit, I told the principal, ‘Just give me something to do for two years’ and he let me work with 30 at-risk kids at the school. They were ninth graders and I had to keep up with their grades and talk to their parents. I had 30 one year and 30 the next year and I got so much out of that. It was really good for me to do that.
By 2012, a restless McCracken learned his friend and former assistant, Jimmy Perry, would be taking over as head coach at St. James. McCracken would join the staff as a volunteer, commuting from Opelika to Montgomery every day.
“I wasn’t going to coach any more but Jimmy wanted me to help him at St. James,” McCracken said. “I just went up and down the interstate for seven years, but I really enjoyed it. It was fun.
It was back to retirement for McCracken and his wife Peggy, at least until Opelika City Schools Superintendent Mark Neighbors put in a call to the McCracken household
“Right when I got through at St. James, I got a call from the superintendent who said, ‘I’ve got something you might be interested in,’” McCracken said. “He asked if I wanted to work with more at-risk kids and I said no, then he asked if I would be an assistant coach with the football team and I said, no, I don’t want to do that, either. He said, ‘Well, I’ve got one more thing for you.’”
McCracken had prowled the sidelines for 52 years when Neighbors came up with an intriguing suggestion that the Hall of Fame coach could move his talents upstairs to the press box. He’s been there ever since.
“I looked at Peggy and said, ‘No one’s ever asked me to do that before,’” McCracken said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’ It’s been great. It keeps me around the game and around the kids. I really have a ball doing it.”