Throughout the course of the 2008-2009 academic year, we will seek to recognize some of the great names of the past to highlight the heritage of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association in honor of the Association’s 95th anniversary. In this edition we are pleased to recognize Gus Purcell of Charlotte.

Gus Purcell developed a reputation as one of the state’s most innovative head football coaches and a developer of outstanding quarterbacks.

A graduate of Laurinburg High School and a 1950 graduate of the University of North Carolina, Purcell compiled a brilliant mark as a head football coach. He made his mark primarily at Myers Park High in Charlotte, where he was head coach from 1952 through 1971. He coached four prep all-American quarterbacks during that stretch and was founder of one of the first successful “quarterback schools.”

He was the head coach for the North Carolina team in the 1960 Shrine Bowl and also coached in the East-West all-star game in Greensboro in 1959. Gus was inducted into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1995.