From the Commercial Appeal - December 17, 2004
"Bill Todd put the children first in his life
Basketball coach, athletic director and school board member showed the way."
by Ruma Banerji Kumar - 901-529-2596
He was a bear of a man with the gruff voice to match. But it was the tender heart that always caught people off guard. A heart so big -- and weak, it turned out -- that a young sports reporter once told him, he had "twice the heart of anyone" he'd known. Bill Todd -- acclaimed basketball coach, former athletic director for Memphis City Schools, two-term school board member and heart transplant survivor -- died Thursday. He was 74. A fall had put him in the hospital about a month ago. But what started out as a quick visit to the hospital for a bum knee turned serious. His kidneys failed. "He fought it pretty well," son Bill Todd Jr. said. "But yesterday it was almost like he said, 'I've fought all I can fight.'" Bill Todd always had a lot of fight in him. And usually the fight was for children. (Emphasis on children. He hated the word 'kids', thought it was demeaning. Children were children, he always told his colleague Barbara Prescott (Allie's wife) when they were on the school board together in the 1990s.) As a basketball coach at Kingsbury High school from 1959-66 he fought for the children with boisterous protests of unfair referee calls. During a tough game his most famous protege, 1960s' Tiger great Mike Butler once chided him, "If you can just sit down and be quiet coach, I can go out and win this game for you." Mr. Todd fought for children as athletic director of Memphis city schools from 1970 to 1989. He took over athletics just as teams were integrating, and former Commercial Appeal sports reporter Larry Rea said Mr. Todd would go to five games a night just because he wanted to show his support for the students. But the job took its toll on his heart. He had a heart transplant in 1991. He rallied, strong as ever. He ran for the school board, and was the only white man in a citywide post between 1991 and 2000. Four months after his transplant he started a golf tournament to raise awareness about heart disease. In its 14 years the Bill Todd Golf Classic has raised more than $350,000 for the American Heart Association. "He was a man's man," said Allie Prescott, who was a regular participant in the tournament. (Prescott), the former president and general manager of the Memphis Redbirds first knew Mr. Todd as his eighth-grade homeroom teacher and later as his coach at Kingsbury. Over the decades Mr. Todd became like a second father, Prescott said. "I learned so much from this great man. Not necessarily from his words, but from watching him live his life. The way he loved his family, showed commitment with everything he did. It's just such a great loss." Mr. Todd leaves his wife of 46 years, Cecilia Todd; two sons, Bill Todd Jr. of Collierville and Chris Todd of Memphis; a sister, Jean Phipps of Memphis, and a grandson. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday (12-18-04) at Memorial Park Funeral Home with burial in Memorial Park.
The family asks that any memorials be made to the American Heart Association, in care of the Bill Todd Golf Classic.
In addition, Cards and notes can be sent to Mrs. Todd at:
Mrs. Cecilia Todd
1459 E Crestwood Dr
Memphis, TN 38119-6001
Phone: 901-683-3195
Please send any memorials to either the family request OR to the
KHS Alumni Association, Inc.
c/o Bill Todd Memorials
7438 Olivia Hill Drive
Bartlett, TN 38133
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