JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Hundreds gathered at a graveside service and even more afterward at a celebration of life for legendary high school football coach Corky Rogers.
The celebration of life at Deerwood Country Club drew perhaps a thousand people, including several of Rogers’ longtime assistant coaches, rival coaches, and former players. Parents of some of Rogers’ players and long time supporters from Bolles and Lee High School were there to remember the life of a coach who won more games and state championships than any man in the history of Florida high school football, and to share stories about the impact Rogers made on their lives.
“I lost a good friend. We were together since 1982 when he coached me,” Wayne Belger, who played for Rogers at Lee then joined him as an assistant coach at Lee and Bolles and succeeded Rogers as the Bulldog’s head coach said. “I don’t know if it will happen again between two guys. I’ve shed a few tears, but shared a lot of laughs with these guys.”
Terry Alexander was Rogers’ first captain and tailback on Rogers’ first team at Lee in 1972. He went on to become the most successful baseball coach in Jacksonville University’s history. Alexander coached with Rogers after his playing days.
“He was one of my best friends,” Alexander said. “The turnout here speaks to what kind of a coach Corky was. It wasn’t that he was just a football coach—of course, he was one of the best ever at that—but he was a guy who changed lives. He changed my life. I had a pretty good run as a coach myself, and I owe him most of the credit. I give it to him freely.”
Rogers won 465 games and 10 state championships at Bolles. D.J. Stewart played on three of those championship teams. Now an outfielder with the Baltimore Orioles, Stewart believes the lessons he learned from Rogers continue to make a difference in his career in the Major Leagues.
“That work ethic that he instilled in me and to grind every day—with my life in professional baseball, those same values apply. What he taught me off the field, to be a good person if you want something in life you have to work hard for it and to be kind to others.”
Rogers engendered rare loyalty from his assistant coaches. Rich Thoman spent 19 years as an assistant under Rogers at Bolles.
“I think what made him special is that everybody has a playbook, but what he had was not just the plays. He knew when to call the right play at the right time against the right defense better than anybody I ever saw,” Thoman said. It was all timing.
One of the coaches that felt the genius of Rogers was Deran Wiley, who coached against Rogers when his Raines teams were in the same district with Rogers’ Bolles teams.
“I told (longtime Bolles assistant) Mike Barrett and Wayne Belger, 'You guys are a humongous reason why we (Raines) had success. Ali had Frazier. Bird had Magic," Wiley said. "I thought putting Bolles in the district years ago had some malice of intent. But you know, hindsight 20/20, it was the best thing that could have happened to my staff. Because those guys made you prepare, compete and get your stuff together, or else.”
Whether they remembered Rogers’ coaching or his mentoring or his presence on campus, the hundreds who gathered on Thursday were all testaments to the man Charles “Corky” Buxton Rogers IV was.
“Look at the turnout. It’s unbelievable the number of people he touched,” Belger said. “I know he made me a better person.”