Former longtime Dalton High School football coach Bill Chappell died over the weekend, according to the Dalton Catamounts website.
After serving nine years as an assistant coach, Chappell was head coach of the Catamounts from 1964-1996, winning 16 region titles and one state championship (1967). All 33 of his seasons as head coach ended with winning records.
Chappell in 1995 became the fourth football coach in Georgia history to win 300 games. When Chappell retired the next year, his 317 victories ranked second behind Mary Persons’ Dan Pitts, who was just seven ahead of him at the time.
Bill Mayo, a star lineman on Chappell’s 1978 state runner-up, moved back to Dalton after an All-America career at Tennessee and remained close to Chappell for the rest of his life.
“He’s been retired 30 years, but he was still such a fixture in the community,” Mayo said. “You’d see him at the grocery store or the gym or out and about. He just had such a steady influence over our community for such a long time. It’s a big loss.”
Mayo noted that Chappell started the tradition of Dalton’s players and coaches wearing red blazers at school on Fridays and on road trips to games.
“He wanted everybody to be the same, rich, poor, white, black, didn’t matter,” Mayo said. “It’s very impressive seeing everybody in red jackets. He was a disciplinarian. You could tell by how our teams played and conducted themselves. He was also very kind and cared about all his players. That’s what made him so special.”
Chappell coached 400 football games and his name is now on the Dalton football stadium.
