About Inductee

Daryle Quails grew up in west Huntsville. He credits his fathers guidance with seeing that he participated in sports the year round. He says he was very fortunate to spend most of his time at the McCormick YMCA and be influenced by such great people as Jim Puckett, Kenny Daniel, Bill Childers, and Abe Daniel. At Butler, he had great coaching, particularly Max Kelly and Glynn Stowe. In college at Auburn, Daryle was lead by the legendary Arnold Swede Umbach and Virgil Milliron. Daryle took the example of all these people and grew into a great coach in his own right. Daryle was an outstanding athlete at McCormick and at Butler High School and wrestled for Auburn University from 1974 until 1977. Coach Qualls coaching career at Athens has been ultra successful. He coached football at Athens Middle School and Athens High School for 12 years. He coached golf for nine years with a record of 732-217. He was head wrestling coach for 18 years with a record of 201-66(753). He has coached 31 individual State Champions and 5 All-Americans. His teams have won 6 State Championships and 4 State Runner-ups. Coach Qualls has won 4 National awards in wrestling: Americas Whos Who of High School Wrestling Coaches in 1998, Wrestling USA Magazine state Man of the Year in 1991 and 1993, and Coaches Care Award by Gatorade in 1994.