HIGH SCHOOL NOTES
Coolidge teammates get championship rings 50 years late
They were state football champions in 1967, part of a powerful backfield that led the Coolidge Bears to a 12-0 season.
Governor Mitchell (yes, that’s his real name -- “My mother figured one day I’d be governor”) and Burton Jordan became builders.
Mitchell was an iron worker, a guy on the roof of then-Bank One Ballpark when the Arizona Diamondbacks’ ballpark was being built in the 1990s.
Jordan went into carpentry, doing construction on residential homes, after serving in the military.
Now retired and living in west Phoenix, something was missing from their lives: championship rings.
“We only got what they gave us,” Mitchell said. “They gave us – I think I still have it – a little football tie pin. It might have said ‘champions’ on it. I’d have to look it up.”
Jordan said he still has the pin. “But a ring is a different thing,” he said. “When you win a championship, the thing is to get a ring. But in that day, it was not encouraged. We didn’t have the funds to do that.”
Burton got the idea after the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl in February. He mentioned the void he felt about never getting a ring with Mitchell. They were soon on their way to the local jewelry store to order championship rings.
Each ring cost about $400. They have a blue stone in the middle to represent the Coolidge team color. It has the words ‘state champions’ on them. On one side is the year they won state (1967) and on the other side the year they graduated (1968). Their names are engraved on them.
“It took us a few weeks to get it done,” Jordan said. “It turned out pretty nice.”
The two men lost track of their teammates after leaving Coolidge.
But Mitchell and Jordan remained close as they both took root in Phoenix.
“We’re a small school,” Mitchell said. “I’m thinking that they did what they could. They didn’t give us rings back then. They gave us a pin. They gave class rings back then. I don’t think we got anything for track, football and basketball. But they did recognize us. We went to the all-star game.”
They only wear their rings for special occasions.
They’ll soon be having their 50-year class reunion, at which time they’ll be able show off their bling.
“We’ll wear it,” Jordan said.
Carl Hayden coach claims national honor
Phoenix Carl Hayden longtime boys basketball coach Argie Rhymes, who has coached three generations of family since the 1970s and has won more than 700 games, on Wednesday night was awarded National Coach of the Year from the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.
Rhymes, 71, who graduated from Phoenix Union High School and has coached his entire career in the Phoenix Union district, received the award during a ceremony in Sioux Falls, S.D.
He was nominated the Arizona High School Basketball Coaches Association and was among eight candidates from all over the country.
“It’s a really humbling experience,” said Rhymes, who has been head coach at Carl Hayden since 1982, after Phoenix Union closed its doors for good. “It’s humbling to see all of the great coaches from all over the country and to be chosen.”
Rhymes, who was a football and basketball standout at Phoenix Union in the 1960s, coached his brother Billy at Phoenix Union. He has coached his sons and his grandsons at Carl Hayden.
He led Carl Hayden to back-to-back state championships in the 1980s and last led the Falcons to the big-school state championship in 1997.
The national award recognizes Rhymes’ lifetime service coaching high school basketball.