Graham remembers longtime educator, coach

The Graham community, in particular the high school and athletic programs, mourned the passing of longtime educator and coach Jimmy Hogan last week.

Hogan passed away Tuesday, March 5 at the age of 79 after a life and career full of coaching and teaching. After graduating from Graham High School in 1963, he earned bachelor and master’s degrees from Tarleton State University before setting out on his lifelong journey of being a teacher.

He began his teaching and coaching careers at Garland High School before returning to teach at GHS. He left for a time to Breckenridge High School before returning to Graham, where he would remain until his retirement.

Throughout his educational and athletic career, Hogan coached a variety of sports including football, basketball and baseball. Upon his return to Graham, Hogan was a part of creating the first softball team at GHS, which played its inaugural season in the spring of 1994.

Softball became a primary part of his life throughout the rest of his teaching days. Hogan quickly found success with Graham’s softball teams, and found a lot of it. Within a few years of the creation of the program, in 1999, Hogan took the Lady Blues to compete for a state championship, where they came up just short and were state runners-up.

“He came up three runs short, but you would have thought after that game listening to him that they had just won a world championship,” Rick Edwards said about Hogan after that championship game.

Hogan liked to win — and he certainly did a lot of that — but more than anything he was interested in building up the student-athletes. His passion showed up in every game and every practice because he loved Graham and wanted his teams to represent the school and the community the best they could.

“He did not care who you were, he didn’t care what your name was, he didn’t care where you came from, he didn’t care how much money your parents had. All he wanted to do was put the best player on the field and on the court that (would) represent Graham High School,” Edwards said.

As a newly established softball program, Hogan’s teams began to win and continued to do so throughout his entire tenure. His Lady Blues teams made the playoffs 14 times, won four district championships, finished as runners-up nine times and came in third place once. One of the highest points of his career came in that state championship run, but his teams always found ways to succeed.

Just a few days after his passing, the current Lady Blues team hosted a tournament in Graham.

Before their final game Saturday, March 9, current head coach Adam Arrington and the Lady Blues held a tribute to honor Hogan and remember everything he had done for the program.

The team was joined by the Kennedale Lady Wildcats, whose head coach, Philip Irby, was the man who took over Graham’s program when Hogan stepped down. Arrington later took over the program from Irby but retained Hogan as an assistant coach for the first few years.

“When (GHS) offered me the job I said ‘I’ll do it, but he’s going to help me.’” Arrington said about Hogan. “He’s taught me a lot and he was with me the first three years here and then his health got to where he was just here sometimes but I told him no doubt, anytime he can show up he’s got a spot in the dugout.

“The man taught me a lot about softball and I thought I knew a lot. There was so much I didn’t know and he told me what I needed to know to get better.”

Hogan was well-respected throughout the community and since his passing, support has increased tremendously in favor of renaming the softball field in honor of the deceased coach. It’s something the Graham ISD Board of Trustees will consider in a future meeting and has been pushed for by a group of citizens.

“He was a well-respected man in this town and not only in this town, but like they said… I’ve been to places this year and the last three (years), they always got to ask, umpires, coaches like ‘How’s Jimmy doing?’” Arrington said. “That’s awesome that he’s remembered by so many people just because of what he did here for all the kids in the community.”