Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis talks to the Wildcats football team after a 42-6 win over Clinton on Blankenship Field on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. It was Gaddis’ 300th coaching win. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 11 a.m.
Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis got his 300th win as a football coach during a 42-6 win over Clinton on Friday.
Gaddis is only the seventh football coach in Tennessee to get 300 career wins, and he is one of only two active coaches with 300 wins, Oak Ridge school officials said. Gary Rankin of Alcoa is the other. Rankin was the first in Tennessee to win 400 games, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported in September.
Fans and players, parents and coaches, and students and school officials celebrated Gaddis’ milestone 300th win with a brief ceremony on Blankenship Field on Friday that included fireworks and photos, and signs and a football painted with the number 300 that was presented to Gaddis.
More than half of Gaddis’ wins have been at Oak Ridge, where he is 162-36. Gaddis first coached at Oak Ridge for 11 seasons, from 1988 to 1998, and he is in his fifth season back, after returning in 2013.
“I’m coaching at the best place there is to coach,” Gaddis said. “This is just a special place.” [Read more…]
