'Friday Night Lights' coach Gary Gaines among five inducted to Texas coaching Hall of Fame

FORT WORTH, Texas — Whether it is lectures by college coaching icons, job boards to help those looking for last-minute employment or an exhibit hall packed with the latest gadgets, the focus of the Texas High School Coaches Association's 81st annual convention and coaching school is the coming school year.

Organizers are dedicated to providing help for their 12,187 members in attendance.

The distinguished list of guest football lecturers this year included Texas' Mack Brown, Michigan State's Mark Dantonio, Vanderbilt's James Franklin, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin and TCU's Gary Patterson.

Basketball wasn't forgotten with Gregg Marshall of Wichita State and Johnny Jones of LSU.

THSCA also relies on its wealth of its own coaching talent for other lectures.

But in a fitting conclusion to the four-day convention, time is set aside to look back and recognize the achievements of those that blazed the trail with the induction of five coaches into THSCA's Hall of Honor on Wednesday. The newest members are:

Gary Gaines — He is probably best remembered as the football head coach of Permian (Odessa) when H.G. Bissinger wrote his bestseller, Friday Night Lights, based on the Panthers' 1988 season. The subject of the book was not brought up in either Gaines' introduction or speech on Wednesday.

Gaines has been a THSCA member for 42 years — 29 as a high school coach, nine as a college coach and four as a fulltime athletic director.

As Permian coach from 1986-1989, Gaines' teams went 47-6-1 and won a state title in 1989. Other high school head coaching stops were made at Petersburg, Denver City, Monahans, San Angelo Central and a final stint at Permian.

His college coaching resume includes assistant stints at Texas Tech and Abilene Christian.

Mike Copeland — His entire 39-year teaching and coaching career was spent at Stephenville. For 25 years, he served as defensive coordinator for a football program that won five state titles in that span. From 2000-2003, Copeland went 26-9 as head coach.

But his coaching was not limited to football. In 10 years as girls basketball coach, Copeland's teams won nine district titles. As girls track coach, his teams won district titles in 15 of 16 seasons and he coached six individual state champions.

The Stephenville ISD has further honored Copeland by naming the school's indoor practice facility after him.

Rodney Hayden — His first high school coaching job was at Seguin (Arlington) and in three seasons as an assistant, the Matadors made deep playoff runs. Hayden was elevated to defensive coordinator for the next three seasons and in all three Seguin was a regional finalist.

He landed his first high school head coaching job at Clemens (Schertz) and after two years returned to Seguin as head coach for six seasons, compiling a 46-33-1 record. After assistant coaching stops at Madison (San Antonio) and Sam Houston (San Antonio), Hayden retired in 1998.

Larry Pullin -- After a notable college football career at Texas A&I, Pullin cut his coaching teeth in King (Kingsville) before heading to West Texas. For five years, he was defensive coordinator at Estacado (Lubbock).

Then it was back to Floresville in South Texas where Pullin accepted his first head coaching job. He moved on to Cuero where his teams went 51-19 and reached the Class 3A state title game in 1985. Then it was on to Abilene from 1985-1990 before finishing his career with 14 seasons at Jay (San Antonio).

He retired from coaching in 2004 and now serves as color commentator for high school games in the San Antonio area.

Clarence "Buckshot'' Underwood -- The West Virginia native began his high school coaching career in Texas at Jefferson in 1956. By that time, Underwood had already worked on the coaching staffs at the University of Kentucky under Paul "Bear'' Bryant and later Blanton Collier.

In 10 seasons at Jefferson, Underwood's teams won six district titles, made the state semifinals three times and the title game once. He is credited as the first high school coach to install the "27'' defense in Texas.

He returned to Kentucky as defensive coach for 12 seasons, then it was back to Texas for a coaching stop at Klein. After retirement Underwood served as a volunteer coach at Tomball and died in 1985, just two days after being on the sideline for the Class 4A state championship game.

Notes: Grant Teaff, former Baylor football head coach and for the last 19 years the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, was the winner of THSCA's Distinguished Service Award…Mark Smith of Judson (Converse) won an election over two other candidates for president-elect of THSCA. Steve Warren of Abilene begins his year as the association's president, succeeding Johnny Ringo, the Highland Park (Dallas) athletic director.