Happy Birthday up there in the Coaches Heaven, for Bill Slayton:Guilford County Coach of the Year 1969(Coach Slayton would be 95 years old today)
Happy Birthday today, to Coach Bill Slayton…Coach Slayton would have turned 95 years old today…Born on the Fourth of July, Bill Slayton.
The Guilford County Coach of the Year for 1969, that has to be Bill Slayton.
During the 1968-1969 school year/season, Coach Bill Slayton coached the Southeast Guilford Falcons to the NCHSAA 3-A State Title in Baseball and during the Fall of 1968, he coached his SEG Falcons football team to the 3-A Football Semifinal round…
Definitely Coach of the Year credentials right there…
Bill Slayton was not easy on his kids at Southeast Guilford HS…Coach Slayton is a former military man and his coaching style might be categorized as “Tough Love”….But I bet those Falcons, from SEG, were loving it when they saw their football fortunes go from (0-30) to the State Semifinals, just a few years after Coach Slayton got there to SEG..
Going from (0-30) before he arrived at SEG, to the 3-A State Semifinals….Not bad at all….
Then the baseball team from SEG goes all the way to the 3-A Championship Series in the Spring of 1969, and the SEG Falcons win the State Championship….SEG had a pretty solid battery of pitcher Terry Clapp and catcher Jay Terrell…Clapp was (11-0) on the hill for the SEG Falcons in 1969, and Clapp went on to the Baltimore Orioles, in the MLB Draft of 1969….
Coach Slayton had Clapp, Terrell, Larry Dale Coble, the FBI-man Mr. Don Causey and many other outstanding SEG Falcons….
But, ole Coach Slayton is the man that got them there….And can you believe it, that was 57 years ago, and now here today, in 2026, Coach Bill Slayton is now 89 years old…
As the old saying goes, “He’s was not as good as he once was, but he was as good once, as he ever was”…That’s Coach Bill Slayton, a very rare breed/bird/Falcon….
We need to recognize leaders and legends like this in our community…This ole Bird/Falcon got the job done…And he did it with “Tough Love”….The man was tough on those SEG Falcons, but it paid of to the tune of Championship Level teams…
Not sure about the tales of those Friday nights when the Falcons would lose, and Coach Slayton would have his Falcon footballers up on the hill, and running those hills after a Friday Night Finish that didn’t fit the Falcons…The cars would line the field, with headlights turned on, and the Falcons would be running those hills…At least that is part of the legend, and when you become a “Coaching Legend”, these type of stories are going to follow you around…Not sure how much of it is true, but this old Falcon, Bill Slayton, caused people to stop, take notice, talk, and listen…
Coach Slayton became a legend and he still is today…
That is why we are still writing about him here today…..Would be 95 years old today, and born on the Fourth of July…..
Coach Bill Slayton(SEG), Coach Marion Kirby(Page HS), Coach C.K. Siler(Southern Guilford HS), Coach Richard Kemp(Ragsdale HS), Doug Henderson(Western Guilford HS)….We have have had some real good ones around Guilford County, over the years…
As the years roll on by, we need to keep on remembering these coaches…They all showed their own form of “Tough Love”, but these football men/leaders showed compassion too….Keep these men in your thoughts and prayers these days…..It is not getting any easier on them, as many MORE of them get older….
You sure wanted to beat those coaches back in day, and if you did, you were lucky/fortunate….
Coach Slayton had Ernie Woods in his backfield and Ernie Woods was hard to catch…Coach Kemp had RB Ricky Adams, and “Buck the Truck” was a full load…We could tackle Adams and throw him to the ground…(Nope, never really happened.)
There was a lot of running back talent around here back in those days in the 1970’s, and the Mid-State 3-A Conference was as good as any conference in the state of North Carolina….
Those old coaches got the job done, but who is left to fill their shoes???
These are hard long-term shoes to fill….Slayton, Kirby, Siler, Kemp, Henderson….Maybe Steven Davis(Dudley HS), Darryl Brown(Grimsley HS) and Earl Bates(Southeast Guilford HS)…Maybe so, as those men are high on Coach Slayton’s list of coaches that he still followed closely…
Usually here on the Fourth of July, I will go back and do a Coach Bill Slayton reprint of some of his birthday posts from previous years…And this one was one of our favorites…Not many writers of sports in this state, or area, actually were there in the trenches battling against those legendary coachs, but I was one of few that really did lock horns with all of them…Hard work, and fond memories….Still bringing it all back in 2026, on the Fourth of July….
Our salute to Coach Bill Slayton reads from 2020:
Happy Birthday Bill Slayton:Guilford County Coach of the Year 1969(Coach Slayton 95 years old today)
Everybody wants a chance to Bring it All Back, and Do It One MORE time….We have done some of that here today, so let “The Roll Call Be Called Up Yonder, Some Day We All Will Be There”…………
Thank you,g Andy,for your comments about Coach and especially remembering all the other
Coaches during the time when they all coached together.I know their players will never forget them.
This 4th of July would have been Coach’s 95th. I miss him so much,and I am sure his friends do too.
I will agree that Coach Slayton gave out a lot of tough love at SE and at EG. There was another coach at Eastern Guilford with Coach Slayton who gave out tough love and his name was Coach Tommy Grayson. I had the privilege of being on both of their staffs and one time or other. I think it is great that these icons of Guilford County coaching are being remembered by Greensboro Sports. Keep up the good work.
g
We do appreciate all that Coach Slayton and the other coaches did for our Guilford County Football Teams. Coach Slayton was a good man, and a good friend to many people over the years.
Thanks for the memories.