Well past retirement age, Richard Bell continued to heed his calling.
A longtime college coach whose positions included defensive coordinator at Georgia and defensive assistant coach at Georgia Tech, Bell coached the defense at Prince Avenue Christian in his 70s, turning 80 in his final season in 2017.
Bell “wanted to be around the young people and kids and coaching,” said Mac McWhorter, a friend and coaching colleague. “He just loved the experience and wanted to continue it.”
The coaching influence of Bell, who died Saturday in Woodstock at the age of 88, might be illustrated this way. Three men whose lives intersected with Bell’s across a span of a half-century remembered him in similarly glowing terms.
“He was just a fine Christian man,” said Billy Schroer, who played for Bell at Tech in the 1960s. “He loved his Lord, he loved his family and he loved his football players, and it showed in the way he treated us and the way he coached us. He was a role model for us.”
“I know he was one of the top five best people the good Lord ever put on this Earth,” said McWhorter, who coached alongside Bell in the early 1990s at Georgia on the staff of Ray Goff. “Just a tremendous person. A man of deep faith, and he lived it every day.”
“I don’t care who you talk to — I don’t think you could find anybody that would say anything bad about coach Bell,” said Jeff Herron, one of the greatest coaches in Georgia high school football history, who was head coach at Prince Avenue for three years during Bell’s postretirement tenure (2010-17). “Really one-of-a-kind, unique individual and just really one of the finest men I’ve ever known.”
Credit: Photo courtesy of Prince Avenue Christian School
Credit: Photo courtesy of Prince Avenue Christian School
Bell perhaps is best known within the state for his five seasons as defensive coordinator for the Bulldogs (1989-93). It was not the high point of his career; he resigned at the end of the fifth season as his defense played below expectations. Perhaps his greatest contribution was his being part of the recruitment of a defensive back from Bainbridge High named Kirby Smart.
McWhorter remembered the person, someone who coached his players hard, carried an invariably positive attitude and never let his language get any bluer than “dadgummit.”
“His character was just unbelievable,” McWhorter said.
Born in 1937, Bell was born and raised in Arkansas and played collegiately at Arkansas for legendary coach Frank Broyles. He got his coaching start there as a graduate assistant, beginning an illustrious career.
Starting in 1964 through 2006, Bell coached at Tech, West Virginia, Texas Tech, South Carolina, Duke, East Carolina, Georgia, Navy and Air Force. He was defensive coordinator at all of the stops after Georgia Tech and was head coach at South Carolina for one season.
Bell was on the staffs of numerous inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame — Broyles, Bobby Dodd, Steve Spurrier and Fisher DeBerry — which speaks to the regard his coaching ability was held with. When Bobby Bowden was offensive coordinator at West Virginia, Bell was his defensive counterpart.
In 1998, while at Air Force in what proved to be his final college job, he was named national assistant coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association when the Falcons defense allowed 14.2 points per game and the team went 12-1.
After retiring from Air Force following the 2006 season, Bell returned to coaching at Prince Avenue Christian. Living in the Atlanta area and traveling to consult with high school and college teams, Bell paid a visit to the small Bogart private school before the 2010 season. That led to a job offer to coordinate the defense, which he ultimately accepted.
“This is what the Lord has called me to do,” Bell said in a school news release at the time of his hire. “This is an opportunity to impact the lives of young men. Wins and losses come and go, but relationships continue forever. And the Athens area is such a special place to return to.”
When Herron took the Prince Avenue Christian job in 2013, Bell staying on was part of the job’s appeal, Herron said in a 2014 AJC story. Speaking Tuesday, Herron said that Bell was loved by faculty, staff and students.
As a middle school physical education teacher, Herron said, “Those kids absolutely just thought he was the greatest thing ever.”
Herron remembered Bell’s calm sideline demeanor. Once, on a team bus ride to a game, Bell revealed to Herron an influence on his behavior.
At Tech, Bell told Herron, he paced the sidelines, yelling at his players. It was the antithesis of Dodd, who famously coached while seated at a desk on the 50-yard line. One game, he felt someone grab him by the belt loop of his pants.
“And he turned around, it’s coach Dodd,” Herron said. “Coach Dodd said, ‘If you walk in front of me one more time, it’s going to be the end of your career.’ … I loved going on the bus rides with him, all the stories that he had.”
Both Herron’s and Bell’s families attended the school’s church, where Bell taught Sunday school. At services, Herron said, Bell’s entrance “was like the president walking into the State of the Union” because so many people wanted to stop him to shake his hand or share a word.
In Herron’s illustrious coaching career, he said he never had a coach to whom players responded so well. Even when Bell administered a staple disciplinary measure — up-downs, where players run in place, drop to the ground, kick their legs out to pushup position and quickly stand back up, usually many times over — it was received well.
“They could do 100 up-downs, and they’d still be smiling at him,” Herron said. “He just had that way.”
According to an online obituary, Bell is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Marilyn, four children and 10 grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Jan. 11 at Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Bogart.
Correction
This story was updated to change Air Force’s points allowed per game average to 14.2.
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