Legendary Track and Football Coach Harry Jacobs has died. The Sumpter County native who led Jefferson County and FAMU DRS to over a dozen combined state track and field titles in the late 90s, passed away on Tuesday.
Most knew Jacobs as just a coach, but Anthony Thompson, a former track runner and assistant coach of the FAMU DRS Track & Field team saw him as a great teacher and even better role model.
“Throughout casual conversations I was able to learn so much about what it meant to be a coach," said Thompson. "I was able to observe how he dealt with the students and how he dealt with other coaches and it left an impression on me that this would be a long life journey in order to be an effective coach.”
On and off the track, Jacobs was a winner, racking up over a hundred victories as a football coach. He helped nine students reach the NFL, along with eight high school All-Americans in track & field.
Jacobs was inducted into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame with a total of 16 Coach of the Year awards.
In 2016, Jacobs came out of retirement to rejoin the Jefferson County Tigers for a stint.
The school named its track and field facility after Jacobs and ever since has hosted an annual invitational track meet in his honor.
He was 81.