Dan Pitts, legendary former Mary Persons High School football coach, dies at age 88

Dan Pitts, who retired from a 39-year high school football coaching career with the most wins in Georgia history, died Tuesday, Monroe County Schools announced. He was 88 and was battling Stage 4 lung cancer.

Pitts led Mary Persons High School to an undefeated season and state championship in 1980, 34 winning seasons and 346 wins by the time he retired after the 1997 season. He finished his career 346-109-4 with 15 region titles and the state title.

In 1995, Pitts was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. In his 39 seasons as the head coach at Mary Persons, he never missed a day of practice. A city street and the high school football stadium in Forsyth are both named after Pitts. His wife, Mary Lynda, died in 2019.

Pitts graduated from Lincolnton High School, where he played football and baseball, and attended South Georgia College before graduating from the University of Georgia in 1959 and later serving in the U.S. Army.

Pitts was also an avid golfer and enjoyed going on daily walks. His hero was Ben Hogan who he would follow at The Masters each year from the practice rounds to the final stroke of the week.

“I admired him because he worked harder than anybody else,’‘ Pitts told columnist Ed Grisamore.

Many of his former players and those who learned under Pitts applauded his work ethic in the same way that Pitts admired Hogan’s.

Grisamore wrote in 1995 that Pitts was buying laundry detergent to wash uniforms hours before his record-setting 316th victory and was reviewing film in his office after the game, preparing for his next opponent.

In a 1998 Telegraph article, former Bulldogs player Michael Ogletree, then an investigator with the Monroe County Sheriff’s department, credited Pitts with helping change his and other lives.

“That’s a great man,’‘ said Ogletree, who played at Mary Persons from 1984 to 1986. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. He treats you like you’re one of his own kids.’‘

Pitts loved everything about coaching. Everything, that is, “but the games,” he told the Telegraph in 1994.

“All I ever want out of the game is to get ahead and to get it over with,” he said. “They’re too important I guess. Lord yes, I’m relieved when they’re over.”

Rodney Walker, who grew up in Forsyth and later played for and coached at Mary Persons after Pitts as part of his own 40-year coaching career, told the Telegraph in 1994 that Pitts was always focused on the students.

“I’ve never seen him worry about Dan Pitts. He just worries about his players,’‘ he said.

In a press release, Monroe County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mike Hickman Jr., a former player under Pitts, asked Middle Georgians to keep Pitts’ family, the Mary Persons High School family and the hundreds of Mary Persons football alumni in their thoughts and prayers over the coming days.

Graveside services will be held 11 a.m. Friday in the Forsyth City Cemetery.

This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 2:23 PM.