by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Coach James Day picked up another award recently.
He appreciated the gesture; he’s glad so many people think highly of him.
But his life has never been about awards and recognition. His eyes have been fixed on a bigger prize.
“I don’t rate myself as a great or a good coach,” said Day. “But I rate myself as a coach who had plenty of time for anyone who wanted to succeed. That’s the key to it all.”
By his estimation, the former athletic director and track coach at Raines High School has received more than 250 plaques and awards. Still, being named the 2003 Outstanding Educator at the Conference on the Education of Minorities pretty much came out of the blue.
“It was a surprise,” he said. “Maybe it was for the things that happened in my life, but, here again, I would never know.
“Somebody thought it was a good idea. My family loved it, and I certainly appreciated it. It’s one heck of a gesture.”
The presentation was made at a ceremony in Orlando.
The 1,800 friends who attended his retirement party in 1997 may be surprised at how active Day still is. He spends half a day at Edward Waters College as special assistant to the president and the other half as executive director of the Bob Hayes Track Meet.
“When I retired from Raines, I declared I would never work again after 39 1/2 years,” Day said. “But [former State Sen.] Betty Holzendorf came by and said, ‘I’m going to take you to meet a good man.’ I met Dr. Jenkins [president of EWC].
“Three hours after I retired, I started working as athletic director at Edward Waters College.”
Day received most of his awards while working as track coach at Raines. His teams won more than 600 meets, lost 82 and tied nine.
His first state champion was Kenny Burroughs, who paired up with Billy “White Shoes” Johnson to play wide receiver for the Houston Oilers.
Harold Carmichael, a former wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, was another of Day’s athletes.
“I had some great ones,” said Day. “At one time, I guess, we had 20, 25 guys in the NFL. I couldn’t pull for a team. We had to pull for our kids to do good.”
He was named Coach of the Year “about nine times” by the Florida Times-Union. He was the first African-American president of the Florida Coaches Association. He’s in the Florida Coaches Hall of Fame. He was named National Track and Field Coach of the Year in 1989.
“I never had a bad athlete out of my 39 1/2 years coaching, Day said. “When you start thinking about bad or not good, you can give it up. All I want to know is if they want to work. I’ve got plenty of time.”
However, he is most proud of his work in inaugurating and maintaining the Bob Hayes Track Meet, which will be run for the 40th time the third weekend in March.
“We developed from five teams to well over 150 teams and thousands of athletes every year,” Day said. “It is now the largest track meet in the nation.”
When Hayes died in 2002, Day resigned as Edward Waters’ athletic director to become executive director of the meet.
“I certainly didn’t want to lose the Bob Hayes Track Meet after putting all of my life into it,” said Day. “We have over 300 volunteers — not just in Jacksonville, but throughout the country. They come here to work it. It takes time to run it.
“You can’t just get up in the morning, run out and shoot the gun. You have to work year round to make it work.”
Day was persuaded to work part time at EWC as a special assistant until a replacement could be found. Bob Alan took over the job in July.
“I will probably never resign or retire again,” said Day. “That was the worst three hours of my life, when I retired.”