A legend is gone. Coach James Wymon "Whinny" Ingram said goodbye to a grateful community this week. He died peacefully at the age of 95…

To fully appreciate his impact on the community of Lexington, SC, you had to be one of the thousands of people he coached and taught in his four decades on the gridirons, diamonds, hardwoods and classrooms of Lexington.

In some cases, he actually coached or taught as many as three generations in one family. He coached many of my immediate family members as well as my uncles, Arthur and Eli Mack. He coached the late Congressman Floyd Spence, who not only earned a Shrine Bowl nomination, but also a full scholarship to the University of South Carolina.

On February 18, 1984, I had the privilege of heading up an Ingram-Driggers Appreciation Day Banquet honoring both Ingram and his long time sidekick, E.T. "Charge" Driggers. One of Ingram's "boys," as he liked to call them, the late Congressman Spence, could not be there that night.

He wrote in a letter to the gathering that evening that no one other than his parents had had a greater impact on his life than Coach Ingram. "I might not be where I am today were it not for Coach Ingram. He was solely responsible for my appearance in the Shrine Bowl and me getting a scholarship to the University of South Carolina."

Both led to Spence earning a law degree and later entering the field of politics. He wasn't the only political prodigy of Ingram's. Others included former Lexington Mayors Hugh Rogers and Eli Mack, Jr. as well as a variety of school board members, state representatives and other political officials.

But that wasn't Ingram's greatest contribution. One could make the argument that his own accomplishments as a four sport letterman at Newberry College were dwarfed only by his awesome record as a coach for nearly four decades at Lexington. His efforts at Newberry earned him membership into the Newberry College Hall of Fame in 1989.

In 1987, he was the very first inductee into the Lexington High School Hall of Fame.

In 1993, the South Carolina Coaches Association enshrined him into their Coaches Hall of Fame.

On November 24, 2001, Coach Ingram was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame for Dekalb County, the community where he scored the first ever touchdown for the schools newly formed football team in 1926.

His Wildcat teams amassed a 218-77-10 record on the gridiron including three state championships. His baseball teams earned one state title and 16 conference championships while amassing a 111-41 record. He also coached boys and girls basketball to a 174-75 record as well as track and Phys Ed.

At one time, he was the winningest active football coach in the state of South Carolina and in the top ten in the nation. He coached every sport at Lexington, drove the bus and even acted as the janitor. In his day, you did it all. In addition, he served as Athletic Director.

In 1949, he coached the very first Horse Bowl in Camden, SC. In 1954, Coach Ingram was selected to coach the Sandlappers in the annual Shrine Bowl. His squad was a prodigious underdog to the larger, faster North Carolina Tar Heel team. In fact, he had only one player over 200 pounds on the entire squad. South Carolina recorded the greatest upset in the history of the Shrine Bowl by a 27-7 score on the shoulders of 165-pound King Dixon of Laurens. The biggest reward for Coach Ingram was the inscription on the wall of the Shriners Children's Hospital, "strong legs run so weak legs may walk."

Ingram's football teams were known for their unique offensive alignments and unusual blocking schemes. While serving in the US Navy during World War II, he met the legendary Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns. When he returned to South Carolina, he brought back a blocking scheme never heard of in high school athletics at that time, a concept called cross-blocking.

Floyd Spence asked his college coaches at the University of South Carolina about cross-blocking. "We don't do that in college," explained the coaches. "That's something they do in the pros."

Ingram's stingy defenses were usually outmanned and outweighed. What made him so remarkable is that he took very ordinary kids from a very ordinary community and taught them how to play in an extraordinary way.

Almost every high school in America today platoons players. When you played for Ingram, you played four quarters and most kids played every down, which made what he accomplished at Lexington so remarkable. He won over 70% of his contests. His offensive football teams averaged over 300 yards per game and his defenses yielded less than 100 yards every outing.

Executive Sports Editor Herman Helms of Columbia's State Newspaper, speaking about Ingram at the 1984 banquet attended by over 1,000 fans and supporters, said Ingram looked more like a college professor than a football coach.

"He was as organized as any coach I've ever seen," said Helms. "His special teams were ahead of their time. I once asked him about the success of the special teams, and he remarked sensibly that on most kicking plays, all the players start out unblocked and open. Why not take advantage of it?"

Former Saluda and Lower Richland football coach Mooney Player called him the greatest offensive mind he had ever met, high school, college or pros.

Former Swansea coach Doug Bennett called him a gentleman. "In all the years I knew Coach Ingram," said Bennett, "he never said a word about his faith but I knew he was a God-fearing man."

"I first learned of him when my high school football team in York (near Rock Hill) was playing Lexington," said Bennett. "One of the kids on our team broke his leg against Lexington. Not even a week went by when we received a check in the mail representing money that Coach Ingram and the people of Lexington had raised for the young man. He had lots of class."

Former Presbyterian College coach Cally Gault, another of the speakers at the 1984 banquet, called Ingram one of the most gracious men he had ever met in athletics.

"It must be a wonderful thing to take a thin pine board and a bit of sting and some glue and to make of it a violin that would solve out the great Ave Maria," said Gault. "And it must be a beautiful thing to take a bit of gold and a few springs and to make of it a timepiece that would keep pace with the magnificent sun. And it must be a gorgeous thing to take a canvass and a bit of paint and a brush and to make of it a painting such as the Malaise Angelis. It is a splendid thing to take a boy, to discipline him, coach him and make of him a man. That's what Coach J. W. Ingram did with so many young men and women for nearly four decades."

Despite all the remarkable things Ingram did in both the classroom as an English and French teacher and in the athletic arena, he was a husband to two great women Christine B. (first wife) and Ethelyn J. (second wife) in his life, succeeding each of them. He was a father to Margni Shealy and James W. Ingram, Jr. (wife Sarah). He was a grandfather to 7, a great grandfather to 11, an uncle to 5 and even a great-great grandfather to 2.

Clearly, he was a surrogate father to many more. One touching story resounds even today about a young man named Tillman Craft, who came to Lexington from the Edmund community. He was a product of a broken home, causing him to be separated from his 7 brothers and sisters in the fifth grade. Coach Ingram learned of the young man's plight and became his surrogate father.

Unable to put him up in his own small home because of small children of his own, Coach Ingram quietly let the boy move into the old Lexington gym that stood some two blocks from his home on North Lake Drive in Lexington. He fed and clothed Tillman, never asking for assistance or permission.

In return, Tillman slept at night in the gym at night, bathed in the showers there and kept the floors cleaned as his rent. Coach and Mrs. Ingram kept him in clean clothes and saw to his medical and physical needs.

Soon the authorities found out about it and forced Coach Ingram to move the young man out of the gym. They found him a room over a doctor's office near Coach Ingram's home. Coach continued to feed and provide for Tillman.

After high school, he enrolled at the University of South Carolina, where he studied law enforcement. He graduated with honors from USC-- the first in his family to go to college. He entered the US Army, where he served his country and also excelled as an athlete.

Tillman entered the military and was a multiple sport standout in the armed forces. After completing his military duty, Tillman returned to South Carolina where he entered the University of South Carolina Law School, earning a Juris Doctorate.

He later went to work for the FBI and where he built a remarkable career as one of J. Edgar Hoover's finest. After retiring from the FBI, he opened his own security agency in Houston, Texas that named among its clients the Houston Rockets and the Houston Astros. He later retired a second time and bought an oil company.

You have to ask yourself the question: Which side of the law would a homeless fifth grade child have ended up on were it not for the love and concern of James Wymon Ingram?

Indeed, he was more than a humble teacher and football coach. He was an icon. And yes, he will be missed. A legend is gone, but will never be forgotten.