High school football: Legendary Alcoa coach Gary Rankin retires after 466 wins, 17 state titles

A decade after being inducted into the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, Gary Rankin decided to hang it up this week. The legendary high school football coach at Alcoa piled up 466 wins and 17 state championships, including seven straight to close out his career with the Tornadoes.

The 68-year-old leaves as the winningest coach in Tennessee history after claiming 13 titles in 16 seasons at Alcoa. Rankin's longtime defensive coordinator Brian Nix was named Alcoa's new head coach.

The most famous player Rankin ever coached was Green Bay Packers receiver Randall Cobb (Class of 2008).

"I'm proud of how much success we had and I'm proud we did it the right way," Ranking told the Knox News. "We didn't cut corners. We've never been investigated by the TSSAA that I know of. We always tried to treat kids with respect and make sure they left our program better people." Rankin finished with a sparkling career record of 466-78 for a winning percentage of .856, including 215-16 at Alcoa.

He went 0-10 in his first season at Smith County.

"It was a big turnaround (after that)," he told WATE.com. "I never had state championships in my mind. The only thing I knew I wanted to do was develop a consistent program."

His last two teams were two of his finest, going 14-1 in 2020 while outscoring opponents 635-63 and 13-1 in 2021, outscoring foes 556-104. Each won Class 3A titles.

"I couldn't do anything else and I just wanted to work with kids," he said about entering the coaching field. "I was competitive. I loved sports. I knew it was a field I would try and see how it would go."

In 2021, John T. Curtis of John Curtis Christian (River Ridge, La.) became just the second coach to reach the 600-win mark and now has 603. He's chasing the all-time leader, the late John McKissick, of Summerville (S.C.), who finished with 620 wins.

Rankin joined two other top 10 all-time winningest football coaches who retired after the 2021 season: Mike Smith, of Hampton (Va.), and Phil Danaher of Calallen (Corpus Christi, Texas).

1. John McKissick, Summerville (S.C.), 620-156-13

2. John T. Curtis, John Curtis Christian, 603-75-6 *

3. Mike Smith, Hampton (Va.), 505-97-2

4. Robert Hyland, St. Mary's Springs (Fond du Lac, Wis.), 492-113-2 *

5. Phil Danaher, Calallen (Corpus Christi, Texas), 490-118-4

6. Larry Campbell, Lincoln County (Ga), 477-85-3

7. Charles "Corky" Rogers, Bolles (Jacksonville, Fla.), 471-84-1

8. Jim Roth, Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa, Pa.), 471-64-2 *

10. Phillip Haywood, Belfry (Ky.), 465-148-0 *