Johnny Parker, 79, a Shaw native and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame inductee, said a set of weights he received as a Christmas gift 65 years ago set him on a career that included four Super Bowls and three championship rings, Rick Cleveland reported.
“My momma and daddy got me a set of weights and changed my life,” Parker told Cleveland, recalling that he weighed 105 pounds and could only lift the bar when he started training. Parker said he added about 75 pounds of muscle, became a starting high school lineman and later attended Ole Miss, where he earned a degree in history.
Cleveland wrote that Parker went on to coach at Indianola Academy and influenced many young athletes, including novelist Steve Yarbrough and coach Joey Hawkins. Yarbrough wrote that meeting Parker in ninth grade changed his life, and Hawkins said Parker taught a daily commitment to excellence, Cleveland reported.
Parker pursued the science of strength and conditioning, studied under Russian Olympic coaches and became one of the earliest strength coaches in college football, Cleveland reported. He was hired by the New York Giants in 1984 after Bill Parcells decided the team needed a strength coach; Parcells credited Parker’s program with making the team bigger, stronger and more durable and said, “The weight program has unified our team,” Cleveland wrote. Parker later worked with Parcells in New England and earned another Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland reported.
Cleveland reported that Parker, who retired in 2008 and has battled cancer and other health issues, lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and was unable to travel to the Clyde Muse Center in Pearl for his induction after doctors determined he was too sick to make the trip. A private plane had been secured for the trip, Cleveland wrote. Parker will be represented at the ceremony by former players and will have taped remarks played, in which he said, “I don’t know that I did much of anything … If I have anything to be proud of it would be that I did fairly well at coaching people, not football.”
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
