Happy Birthday to Coach Jack Britt

Join me in wishing Coach Britt a happy 85^th birthday today. 

Jack Britt is one of the most beloved people in Snellville. He was born “about half way between Gloster and Five Forks, so I guess I can claim whichever I want.”  And for the last 85 years, Jack has positively impacted everyone who has ever met him.

Perhaps I should clarify that. There may be some referees out there that were impacted by Jack, in not such a positive manner. Jack started coaching in 1950, and truthfully he has never stopped. He still is Coach Britt.  He is still someone his “kids” seek out for advice.

Jack and Peggy are very popular and attend most of the school reunions. He has a phenomenal memory for names, dates and stories. He can see someone after 30 years and recognize them.  It is like his mind ages people appropriately.  Peggy said they went to the 55^th Tucker School reunion. He knew all of his sixth graders And he told stories about each one of them.

A Story About That

Jack went to Grayson School, and at 15, he lied about his age and joined the Navy in World War II. He served on the Destroyer Escort USS Riddle as a gunner. His ship participated in all the major campaigns in the Pacific. After service, he returned home to complete high school and attend the University of Georgia.

If you know Jack and Peggy, you know he always “has a story about that.” And then he proceeds to turn you inside out with laughter.

He said he was only about 5 feet 2 inches and the induction people had to spot him five pounds, so he could make the minimum cut off of 110 to enlist.  After he was issued his gear, he and two buddies headed back across the parade grounds to their barracks. The buddies missed Jack. Retracing their steps, they found Jack on his back unable to get up. His pack weighed so much and was so big that it pulled him onto his back, and there he lay like a stranded turtle waiting for rescue. One man picked up Jack and the other his pack.

When we walked in their home, Snell said “you’ve come along way from rice and beans.”  One of Jack’s favorite expressions when he was at South Gwinnett High School was to say that they were scrapping rice out of the bottom of the barrel and having to eat beans to make ends meet. I asked him if he missed the house and huge yard they had in Lawrenceville. He said he just smiles every time he hears the landscapers crank up the lawn mowers. He said he didn’t miss cutting grass at all. 

In 1950, Jack began his teaching career with the sixth grade at Tucker School. He coached boys and girls basketball, boys and girls track, and started the 11-man football team. Until this time, football was played with six men.

Jack was at Lawrenceville School from 1951 to 1956. He was making BIG money. The city of Lawrenceville paid him $1000 a year and school board paid him $400. Eventually Gwinnett County supplemented with an additional $400. At that time Jack was teaching and coaching girls’ and boys’ basketball, track and tennis, and boys’ baseball. He started the first football team in Gwinnett County Schools. And, he met Peggy.

Jack and Peggy (called Wife or Peg Leg by Jack and the children) have been married 58 years. Jack met Peggy when he was teaching at the Lawrenceville School.  They started getting “sweet on one another" and courted at Peggy’s house under her Mama’s watchful eye. They were blessed with four children, 10 grandchildren and four great grandchildren, with another one on the way.

A Man of Many Hats

Jack came to as a teacher and football, basketball, track and cheerleading coach. He has worn a lot of hats in his life. He started telling one story after another about students, teachers and coaches. After school would end for the year, all the coaches would go on a fishing trip to Florida. I have been sworn to secrecy about any stories from those days.

Jack’s brother Butch was the basketball coach at Central Gwinnett High School. Their daddy never missed a ball game, until Jack and Butch had to coach against one another. They were so competitive that it became a county-wide event to see them go at one another. It was said they really put on a show.

People would come to watch them, not the players or the ball game.  Snell remembers vividly Butch getting a technical foul against a CGHS vs. SGHS girls’ basketball game. Butch shook out all of the balls in the bag and just pulled it over his head for the rest of the game. That was the only way he would get another technical foul called.

He went on to teach social studies and coach until 1971, when he retired from coaching but continued to teach. He tells everyone that he retired from coaching in 1971, but I have a story about that.

In 1976, I was the junior class sponsor at Parkview High School and part of the tradition was for the junior and senior girls to play a powder puff football game against one another.  I brought Daddy Jack out of retirement to coach the junior class girls.  He said that was the roughest football game he had ever witnessed in all his years of coaching. He said those girls meant business.  By the way, the juniors won. I think Susan Morrison Thompson may still have scars from that game.

Jack and the boys in his Parkview vocational classes built the PHS stadium. They literally did all the work, and it passed inspection. After school many of the coaches and additional students and quite a few daddies worked on that stadium. They were paid $4.00 an hour.  That stadium is as strong as the day it was completed, and many ball games and events have been held there.

Throughout his teaching career, Jack built houses in Snellville. He and Peggy and Jack’s brother Gene built and ran the All Star Drive-in in Snellville. He said he had to do something to support his family. After all they could not live off rice and beans.  He and Peggy had the All Star for 17 years. Whenever the power went down, the All Star was the first place to be reconnected. It was the only place to eat and the linemen and crews had to have a place to get warm and get something to eat. 

Britt the Builder

He is a master craftsman in wood working. I remember when he was building grandfather clocks. He built four. One was for Peggy, and it is beautiful. Peggy has her grandmother’s bedroom suite, but it was missing the bed. Jack created a bed to go with the original pieces of furniture.

He has built many trophy cases over the years, as well. All of the cases at Grayson were designed and build by Jack. Grayson’s athletic department has over 300 lockers that Jack constructed from scratch. He basically built the practice fields with donated material and labor by former students and the Coffee Group at Grayson Senior Center.

Peggy said people would hate to see Jack coming, since he was always asking for donations for his projects.  One of his prized possessions is the leather athletic jacket he was given from the teams for all he did for them. 

Jack finally retired from teaching in 1981. Then mayor of Lawrenceville Bartow Jenkins called Jack to be the project manager in the remodeling of downtown Lawrenceville. And, he was called again to manage the development and building of the recreation department.

He was also instrumental in the campaign to name Grayson High School, to choose the colors and mascot. The original Grayson School was also green and gold with the ram as its mascot.  As a thank you to Jack and dedication to Grayson High school and the community, the football field was named after him and Mike Moody, the first principal. 

And Then There's Now

Jack and Peggy are both very active. Jack works out a gym three days a week and plays golf nearly every day. I was talking to one of his sons, Little Jack and he said his dad really works out, following pretty much the same routines he laid out for his ballplayers. 

My husband Snell and I spent a most enjoyable day with Daddy Jack and Peggy Britt, as I talked to them for this piece. Jack truly did have a story about everything, and if he couldn’t think of one, Peggy did.  These two are well-suited for each other. There is so much love and laughter between them. It was a joy to spend the day with them.

Jack has a hat from each school with which he worked. If only those hats could tell stories about the impact of this man on the children and adults of Gwinnett County. Everyone knows Coach Britt. He still has a loyal following.  People tell stories of the many ways he has influenced their lives. He built a lot of field houses and built character in a lot of people. He did more than teach them government and sports, he helped to make them better parents and role models.

Happy birthday and many thanks, Jack.  I know you have another story to tell, and I can’t wait to hear it.