Bill Cherry had a game plan that late summer in 1970. He was going to work at McCallie School for three years; then he and Mary would, in his words, “move on.”
Forty-seven years later in a large amphitheater inside the school’s Sports and Activities Center that forevermore officially will be known as the Bill Cherry Team Room, the longtime coach, teacher and administrator was honored early Friday evening for never moving on – mostly because, in his words, “It’s just a great place to be and good for my family.”
Cherry is 75 now, his daughters Rachel and McLean long ago grown with children of their own. He hasn’t been the McCallie athletic director since 2008 and hasn’t taught geometry since 2011, but his legacy reaches both across the state and across the river to archrival Baylor.
“He was my mentor when I became athletic director at Baylor,” said Austin Clark, who has remained the Red Raiders’ basketball coach since 1982, though he stepped down as AD in 2006. “Bill was the epitome of what an athletic director should be.”
Ronnie Carter, executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association from 1986 to 2009, seconded that assessment.