Jerry Partridge

Jerry Partridge was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1939. He was very young when his father passed away at the age of only 27. Partridge moved to Leeds while in the third grade to live with his grandmother until he was in the 10th grade. Attending Leeds High School, he played football, baseball and basketball in junior high school. He became a starter at running back on offense and defensive back on defense during his junior season. His football coach at Leeds was Charlie Langner, who later coached at Pell City High School. Partridge graduated from Leeds in 1957. Partridge worked for two years at Bakers Dairy before deciding to go to Howard College. He walked on and started playing football at Howard College in 1959. By the next year he had earned a scholarship. His coach at Howard was none other than Bobby Bowden of Florida State fame. Partridge graduated in 1964 with a B.S. degree in physical education and a minor in social studies. In the fall of 1964, Partridges first coaching and teaching job was at West End High School in Birmingham where he was an assistant football coach for three years. He then moved on to Jones Valley High School where he once again was an assistant football coach for about 18 months. Partridge landed his first head coaching job in 1969 at Phillips High School in Birmingham where he stayed for two and a half years. When the new Midfield High School was built, he became the first head football coach and stayed there for a year and a half. Midfield High School fielded the first football team at the new school in 1971 and they called upon Jerry Partridge to be their first head coach. In two seasons at the upstart program, Partridge's Patriots finished 3-11-4. In 1973, Partridge resigned as the head coach at Midfield to accept a position as an assistant football coach at Huffman High School. He became the head coach just five years later and stayed with the program for 21 years until he retired from public schools in 1994 with 30 years in public education. Partridge enjoyed much success as the head coach at Huffman. He led the Vikings to the state playoffs six straight years and in 1985, the Vikings played in the Class 6A State Championship game. Moving over to the AISA after retiring from public education, Partridge became the head football coach at Coosa Valley Academy, and remained there for six years. His overall coaching record is 121-138-6 in 25 seasons as a head football coach.