Local coach Granger passes after long bout with cancer

Former coach Bill Granger passed away on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

There were plenty of stops in Bill Granger’s coaching career, but St. James coach Jimmy Perry, who made Granger a priority when Perry took over the head coaching position at Robert E. Lee more than two decades ago, had a theory about that.

“To me, that was the good Lord making sure he impacted a lot of young players,” Perry said. “That’s what we’re here for. God’s not going to ask us how many games we won. He’s going to ask, ‘How many people did you tell about me?’ And Bill told a lot of kids about God.”

Granger, a former baseball standout who spent the last 35 years as a high school coach, lost his battle with cancer on Wednesday afternoon. Funeral arrangements are not complete but a memorial service will be held to honor Granger.

Granger, a 1978 graduate of G.W. Carver High, was a baseball standout at Huntingdon College and his exploits were almost legendary on the Central Alabama Amateur Baseball League circuit. He was drafted in the 33rd round of the 1982 Major League Baseball draft by the Detroit Tigers and spent much of his first year with Bristol, a Rookie League team. He played some at Single-A but injuries forced his retirement from the game the following year.

He became an assistant coach at Huntingdon College under Roger Lambert, building a relationship that would continue years later when the former was the baseball coach at Sidney Lanier and the latter was the baseball coach at Prattville High.

In 1986, he started his high school coaching career as an offensive line coach for Charles Sikes at Sidney Lanier. After two years there, he moved on to coach defensive linemen for Charles Lee at Jeff Davis in 1988 before becoming the offensive coordinator at Auburn High in 1989.

He returned to Lanier in 1990 under Robert Fuller and spent the last four years of a five-year stint as the defensive coordinator for the Poets. He moved over to Robert E. Lee in 1995 when Perry was hired to replace Spence McCracken and spent five years with Perry and the Generals. 

“He was the first person I called about being an assistant coach,” Perry said. “He was a great man, a godly man and a great football coach all wrapped into one. He was the total package. He was funny, he attracted people to him with his charisma. I’ve been blessed to be associated with Bill Granger.”

Many of the relationships Granger made at Lanier and Lee would continue throughout the remainder of his life, including John Higgins and Tom Pinkston, two colleagues he would hire in 2017 and 2018 when he started Success Unlimited Academy’s football program from scratch.

 “He was a good guy,” Pinkston said. “He was a good Christian guy, too. I know he was a good coach and I know his kids loved him. I’ve never heard any player say anything but great things about him.”

In 2000, Perry took a position with Auburn University’s football staff and Granger was elevated to head football coach. That season, he led the Generals to a 9-3 finish, their last nine-win season. He coached the Generals to a 26-19 record and four playoff berths in four years, a level of success the school has not enjoyed since.

He would get his next head coaching opportunity in 2007 at Talladega, but would last just two years at the school. After his firing, he returned to the Montgomery area and immediately landed a job as defensive coordinator at Macon East Academy in 2009 and 2010.

“The day I hired him was the first day I ever met him,” Macon East coach Glynn Lott said. “We were going to a camp the very next day and we loaded up. I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me. But he was a good one, not just a good coach but a good person. He got along with everybody. He gave me the privilege of coaching his sons and that’s a big deal when you get to coach somebody else’s kids and they bring them to you.”

He would coach Pinkston’s son Cole as well, leaving a lasting impression on the Knights’ nose guard and linebacker.

“My dad was a coach, so I knew a little about football whereas maybe everybody on the team was just playing,” Cole Pinkston said. “To me, he had the X’s and O’s down pretty well and he taught it pretty well on the defensive side. He had a good understanding of the game and he taught it well.”

The younger Pinkston, who handles Auburn recruiting news for On3.com, said Granger’s influence was far beyond his coaching abilities.

 “The one thing I probably liked the most about him when he was coaching us was he had a group message with a lot of guys,” he said. “He had a lot to do with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and he’d hit that group text every morning with a Bible verse or just his thoughts on a Bible verse. That’s always stuck with me because I didn’t have another coach who did that.

“I just liked the way he handled his business, the way he talked to us and that he was a Christian guy.”

Granger would spend most of the next six years as a football assistant before landing a job as athletic director at Success Unlimited Academy. Under his guidance, he led the school into the Alabama Independent School Association and helped raise the funds necessary to start a football program with the Mustangs.

He served as the head coach of the team in 2018 and 2019 before stepping down to concentrate on his duties as an athletic director. He left the program the following year and spent much of his remaining time dealing with his illness.