Parks began his coaching career in Elkhart but one year later moved to Kilgore High School. Then, in 1938 he began his career at Kilgore College as head basketball coach and as an assistant football coach, also teaching business and economics classes.
At his core, Parks was a sportsman, Stembridge said.
“He loved sports; he was well known all through the sports circles,” he continued, noting he was an accomplished teachers also with many players citing him as their favorite while attending KC.
Parks continued to serve as head basketball coach until 1951 and became head football coach in 1942, serving in the position through 1947. Then from 1947 to 1958 he was the college’s athletic director.
In the realm of sports, a plaque in the Parks Fitness Center reads, “James Parks built a championship tradition at Kilgore College and helped elevate the school to regional and national prominence… He set the stage for a legendary era in the college’s athletic history.”
The 1946 KC Ranger football team, which Parks coached, was undefeated going into the “Little Rose Bowl” game in Pasadena, California, to face Compton Junior College. Compton would go on to win, 19-0 according to the KC Athletics website, but Stembridge said, the game might be one of the greatest athletic highlights for the college because of the support the team had at the game from community members and the Kilgore College Rangerettes.
“It was just a tremendous social and sporting event,” he explained.
Although the Rangers did not win the Junior Rose Bowl, Parks had three championship teams during his 13 years as head basketball coach – in 1942, 1943 and 1949.
Following his retirement from the athletics side of the college in 1958, Parks served as director of the student center and placement services until he retired from the college in 1972.
The college honored Parks as its Ex-Teacher of the Year in 1981 and the fitness center was named in his honor, posthumously, in 1991.
