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Gene Frenette: Corky Rogers’ impactful life was about more than just football

Gene Frenette
gfrenette@jacksonville.com
Florida Times-Union

To the very end, legendary football coach Corky Rogers lived up to his “park rat” reputation as the ultimate competitor. He took all the excruciating pain and punishment cancer put on his 76-year-old body and fought it with every ounce of energy his indomitable spirit would allow.

But whatever sadness so many of Rogers’ friends, family members and admirers feel over his passing late Wednesday, it can never override the great memories and phenomenal impact he had on literally thousands of people.

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Put aside the 465 coaching victories he achieved over 17 seasons at his alma mater, Lee High School, and 28 seasons at The Bolles School. Never mind the 10 state championships his Bolles teams won or the countless Hall of Fame honors he’s received.

His death -- three years after Rogers’ forced retirement due to declining health -- marks the end of a truly remarkable life that should be remembered more for the lives he touched than all the coaching records he set.

Rogers left the insurance business shortly after marrying wife Linda in October 1968. He took a pay cut to teach at Ribault Junior High and be an assistant high school varsity coach for a $6,600 salary. He parlayed that opportunity into becoming one of the richest football coaches I ever met.

Not wealthy in the monetary sense, but incredibly rich because of the football environment he created, the joy he brought to people and a relentless work ethic he imposed on his players. Rogers had a way of building friendships by merely being who he was: a ruthless competitor on the field who got the most out of his players, yet a warm, approachable gentleman in every non-football setting.

Some people collect antiques, classic cars or art. Rogers collected friends, lots of them, just by being himself.

Along the path of his 45-year head coaching career, he left an indelible mark in Jacksonville and in statewide record books that may never be duplicated. However, those numbers are secondary to how Rogers made players and coaches feel that had the privilege to be under his guidance.

Even if people weren’t part of his inner football circle, they naturally gravitated to Rogers’ upbeat personality and whatever conversation might emerge from sitting down with him.

“To me, he was such a good ambassador for high school football,” said Kevin Sullivan, who spent 21 seasons coaching at Jackson, Atlantic Coast and Ed White. “He really appreciated people that tried to do things the right way and were in it for the kids. If you reached out to him for something, that showed him you wanted to be better in your [coaching] field, and you became a guy he wanted to mentor.

“I never coached at Bolles, but he always wanted to include me in with his guys whether it was a birthday party or tailgating at a Jaguars game. I can’t even fathom how many lives he’s touched. In the end, isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing as teachers and educators?”

Rogers did it in a way that would have made his greatest teacher, his father, Charles “Chuck” Rogers – captain of the 1934 Florida football team and a former Associated Press sports writer – awfully proud.

He grew up on the Westside near Murray Hill park, right across the railroad tracks off Roosevelt Boulevard. Wherever there was a pickup baseball/basketball game in the 1950s, sometimes at Woodstock or Lackawanna Park, there’s a good chance Rogers spent most of his non-school days there playing one sport or the other.

All his life, he relished the chance to compete at anything. He made it to the final cuts in NFL training camps with the Baltimore Colts and Washington Redskins, both as a tight end and receiver. Don Shula released him because the Colts’ roster had room for only one backup tight end behind Hall of Famer John Mackey.

Until age 44, before a drunken driver ran over him and led to Rogers enduring more than a dozen leg surgeries, he played basketball in city recreation leagues. He was also a member of Warren Motors’ highly successful softball team in the 1970s.

So it’s no wonder that as a coach, Rogers’ drive to compete and outwork opponents was passed on to his players. Once he brought that Westside mentality to Bolles, the Bulldogs evolved into the state’s preeminent program.

That’s why doing things Corky’s way still resonates with his former players long after their playing days ended. Ryan Hotchkiss, a standout receiver on Bolles’ 2004 state championship team, recently sent a farewell letter to Rogers.

In part, it read: “I tell anyone that will listen to me that, outside of my parents, you are hands down the biggest influence on my life. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play for you and to soak in the lessons that were taught every day in your football program.

“It’s tough to say whether we learned more about football or character building. I can genuinely say that, without it, my life would not be the same. Because of you, I know how to work, how to compete, to never feel sorry for myself, and that there are no short cuts in life.”

Think about this: Hotchkiss is just one football player among an estimated 1,500 kids who, during the biggest boys-to-men formative years of their lives, were taught those same lessons by Rogers. You can just imagine how many other Lee and Bolles players, now mourning his loss, feel equally impacted.

Former Jacksonville University baseball coach Terry Alexander, the starting tailback on Rogers’ first varsity team at Lee High in 1972, was mindful of the multiple health issues his coach faced when he departed last February for Taiwan to coach professional ball for the next eight months.

So Alexander, while standing on a baseball field in Taiwan, decided to film an emotional video and sent it to Rogers, telling him what his friendship and influence meant to him.

“He’s just a freakin’ god when it comes to changing guys’ lives,” Alexander said of Rogers. “Of the people I have known, he’s had a bigger impact on others than anybody else in my lifetime.”

For the past couple of weeks, so many ex-players and friends who didn’t have the opportunity to say goodbyes in person sent him a letter or message to convey similar thoughts.

They thanked him for so many private, personal things and his endearing qualities, none of which was greater than Rogers’ humility. He rarely talked about his coaching success or any accomplishments, but focused more on what he viewed as his flaws and shortcomings.

Rogers often lamented decisions made on and off the field. It humbled him to think of all the sacrifices Linda, a true godsend as his wife and caregiver, and daughters Tracy and Jennifer made over the years because so much time and energy went into preparing for football games. And because Rogers freely shared his imperfections with friends, that made it so easy to connect with him.

Corky never thought of himself as special. He was just a Westside guy striving to earn the approval of his biggest hero, his father, whose death in 1980 took him a long time to get over.

Nobody knew that better than Wayne Belger, who has probably spent more time with Rogers than anybody outside his family. A former quarterback on Rogers’ first Lee team, Belger served as an assistant coach under Rogers at Lee and Bolles from 1977-2016. Belger, 64, was Rogers’ must trusted adviser, on everything from play-calling to personnel.

He succeeded Rogers as the Bolles coach for two years before retiring and then moved to the mountains of North Carolina. Over the past couple of days, Belger has been pulling out old scrapbooks from their football days and reminiscing about their 40 seasons together on the sidelines.

“There’s so many stories over 40 years, it’s hard to know where to start,” said Belger.

His last game as a Lee quarterback immediately came to mind, a 19-14 win over rival Jackson in the Gator Bowl, which allowed the Generals to finish the 1972 season at 5-5 after going 1-9 the previous year. It was the only time Belger could remember his good friend being carried off the field by his players.

“To stay together [as coaches] that long, it just doesn’t happen,” said Belger. “It was fun to see each other in the morning and gripe about things. He was notorious for complaining about traffic [on San Jose Boulevard] on his way to Bolles. He’d say, ‘It took me 28 minutes to get here.’ We used to laugh about that. I miss that. I’m going to miss a lot of things.”

In the coming days and weeks, the Rogers stories will be flowing in waves among all his friends and ex-players. To anyone who has ever attended a postgame party at Rogers’ house on Friday nights, and I went to my share in the 1980s, they know how much he cherished those social gatherings. Some people went for the beer. I went mostly to soak in all the interaction and football insight from coaches who spoke freely without holding anything back.

While writing this column, my mind has been racing through so many Corky memories, but none will stick with me more than our final visit two weeks ago. I went to see him at Mayo Clinic, bringing along my oldest son, Sean, who had just finished his checkup there after some recent medical issues.

Early in the conversation, Rogers informs us that he just learned the cancer had spread to another part of his body, which would require several radiation treatments. But only seconds later, Rogers looks at Sean and starts telling him how glad he was to hear that his recovery was going well and then adds, “We were praying for you.”

When I informed a friend about Rogers’ incredible thoughtfulness, shifting from his own plight to actually smiling and offering words of encouragement to my son, he replied: “That’s him. Always being a coach.”

That was so true. Nobody could ever accuse Charles “Corky” Buxton Rogers IV of not living life to the fullest. He coached hard, played hard and laughed hard. Above all else, he provided so many memories for people with his stern coaching demeanor, infectious smile and selfless disposition. Right up until his last days, he soaked up all he could from every relationship over his 76 years.

In many ways, he was the luckiest man I have ever known.

But we were the lucky ones, too. What a joyride it was for anyone to be part of such a stupendous life.

gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540