Childresses become Louisiana's only father, son in hall of fame

Dan Childress
Dan Childress

— In the fall of 1982, Dan Childress, former soccer and track coach at Gentry High School, quarterbacked Bearcats to the Class 4A Louisiana state football championship, earning his father Jimmy “Chick” Childress the first of four state titles in his coaching career.

the Ruston

Almost three decades later, the Childresses are being celebrated again, this time as the only father-son tandem in the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame. Chick Childress was inducted in 1989, and his son and former star quarterback followed in his footsteps in January.

What made the moment even more special was the elder Childress was afforded the opportunity of calling his son to inform him of his new honor.

Childress was a three-sport star at Ruston from 1980-83, compiling a .356 career batting average as an outfielder on the baseball team and winning a district track title in the javelin for the track team, in addition to his football merits.

But he made his name on the gridiron, where he set school marks for passing attempts (475), completions (278), yards (3,350) and touchdowns (29) inthree years as a starter, in the process turning around a football program that had endured a decade of losing seasons before his tenure.

The Bearcats went 15-0 in Dan’s senior season en route to the state title.

“Playing for my dad was fantastic. He was the best allaround coach that I’ve ever been around,” Dan said.

Dan went on to earn a football scholarship at Northeast Louisiana University, now the University of Louisiana-Monroe, where nagging shoulder injuries kept him off the field for most of his collegiate career. He injured his right shoulder diving for a ball at the end of his final prep baseball season and the pain was severe enough that he had to throw left-handed in a football All-Star game the summer he graduated high school.

After transferring to Louisiana Tech to finish his undergraduate degree, he earned two master’s degrees and was a grad assistant at LSU, but it was his fourth university that brought him to Arkansas.

Childress came to Northwest Arkansas for more grad school with intentions of returning to Louisiana, but his wife Maribel took an administration job in the Springdale School District, and he found work teaching history and coaching soccer at Gentry. He has coached football at the high school and college levels, but he found a new passion for yet another sport - soccer - after high school.

Childress has always been close with his father and held him in high regard, so when Chick suffered a stroke in November, Dan had to pass on the opportunity to coach the girls’ soccer team at Rogers High in order to travel back and forth to Louisiana this past winter to help care for his father. The news of his Hall of Fame induction camenot long after, which proved positive not just for Dan.

“I had people telling me that when Dad found out about the Hall of Fame, it really sparked his recovery after his stroke,” Dan said. “He wanted to be down there in Baton Rouge (at the induction ceremony), and I think it played a key part in his recovery, that extra motivation.”

Sports, Pages 10 on 03/30/2011