Former Jonathan Alder head football coach Barry Blackstone signals in the defense in this file photo. Blackstone will be inducted into the Central District Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame next week.
(Journal-Tribune file photo by Tim Miller)
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A long and successful coaching career has earned Barry Blackstone the title of “Hall of Famer.”
The former Jonathan Alder High School head football coach will be inducted into the Central District Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Ceremonies will be conducted next Wednesday (March 21) in Columbus.
“It’s quite an honor,” said the former Pioneer coach.
Blackstone said that one of his former JA players, Joel Cutler, was instrumental in his nomination and election into the Hall of Fame.
Cutler is currently the head football coach at Upper Arlington High School.
This is the second year for the Hall of Fame. Blackstone will be inducted along with former Columbus Walnut Ridge coach Gary Carter and Darryl Mayne, who previously was the head coach at Upper Arlington (where he won a state championship) and Delaware Hayes.
Football has played a big role in Blackstone’s life.
A 1964 graduate of Liberty Union High School, he went on to play collegiately at Fairmont State University in West Virginia.
He was a senior defensive end on the team that won the 1967 NAIA Division I national championship.
Blackstone went to Fairmont, not originally intending to get into education and coaching.
“I grew up on a farm and I didn’t want to be a farmer,” he said. “That motivated me to go to college.
“I went to college with the intention of playing football until I was 21 years old,” he said. “I wanted to become a highway patrolman and you couldn’t do that until you were 21.”
Blackstone eventually majored in industrial arts with a minor in health and physical education.
He said he was inspired to get into the profession by his college coaches.
Blackstone briefly worked at Lewis County High School in West Virginia before returning to Ohio.
He served as an assistant coach at Troy High School before taking over the program.
“Our 1971 team at Troy was one of the best high school teams to play in Ohio,” said Blackstone, who was an assistant coach that year. “We had Gordon Bell, who went on to play at Michigan, and Randy Walker, who went on to be the head coach at Miami University and Northwestern.”
Blackstone served as head coach at Troy High School for six years.
He moved on to Lima Senior, where he was head coach for six years before another six-year stint as head coach at Hilliard Davidson.
Along the way, he taught industrial arts, specifically welding, before schools began phasing out that program.
“It was fun teaching industrial arts because those students wanted to be in that program,” said Blackstone.
Once industrial arts was removed from schools, Blackstone began teaching physical education.
“Not every student wanted to be in phys ed,” he chuckled.
Blackstone’s Jonathan Alder coaching career began as defensive coordinator under head coach Paul Jenne in the early 1990s.
Blackstone became the Pioneers’ head coach in 2001. He posted a 45-13 record during his five years at the helm and began the school’s string of 10 consecutive years with a state playoff berth.
He stayed on for several years as defensive coordinator when Steve Coate took over as the Pioneer boss. Included during that stint was a state runner-up finish in the 2006 state playoffs.
Blackstone later served two years as the head coach at Madison Plains.
He also was an assistant coach at Limestone College, an NCAA Division II school in Gaffney, South Carolina.
Mike Furrey, Blackstone’s son-in-law, was Limestone’s head coach during that time.
Furrey has since become the receivers coach of the Chicago Bears.
Blackstone said he has many other good memories of his career.
“We had William Howard as a player at Lima Senior,” he said. “He went on to play at Tennessee under Johnny Majors. During one game, he had 16 consecutive carries and that’s a record that I don’t think will ever be broken.
“William White (Ohio State), who went on to play 11 years of professional football, also played for me at Lima Senior.”
Blackstone said there were also many great players he had the privilege of coaching at both Hilliard and JA.
Former Ohio State standout and professional player Donnie Nickey was among the group.
“I enjoyed every second of my coaching career,” he said. “I can’t imagine any other profession where you could have more fun.”