Gary Gaines, the iconic high school football coach at
Permian (Odessa, Texas) who gained fame from the book and movie "Friday Night Lights," has died in Lubbock, Texas. He was 73.
His family said the coach died after "a long battle with Alzheimer's disease."
Gaines coached for three decades throughout Texas, but it was his three-year stint at Permian that vaulted him into national prominence after writer H.G. Bissinger spent the 1988 season chronicling the program's run at a state championship.
Gaines had been an assistant coach at Permian from 1979-81 under head coach John Wilkins and returned to the school in 1986, inheriting a team that had made back-to-back 5A championship game appearances.
Bissinger's book focused on a year in which the Panthers entered with state title aspirations only to fall in the state title game against powerhouse Dallas Carter.
The book, released in 1990, was turned into a movie in 2004 with Billy Bob Thornton playing Gaines.
In 1989, the Panthers went 16-0 winning both a state title and national championship. He was 46-7-1 at Permian from 1986-89 before returning in 2009 for four seasons.
His college coaching resume includes assistant stints at Texas Tech and Abilene Christian.
Gaines was born in Crane, Texas, and played quarterback at Angelo State in the late 1960s. He's a member of the Texas High School Coaches Association and Angelo State halls of fame. He announced in 2017 that he'd been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.
