About Inductee

Jack Mitchell was born in Covington County, Alabama, in 1931 and attended Munford High School. While at Munford, he played on the football and basketball teams and boxed in the Golden Gloves Association. After graduation from Munford in 1949, he joined the United States Navy and studied Dental Technology for eighteen months at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. After he got out of the Navy, he married Jean and enrolled at Jacksonville State University in their Pre-Dental program; however, he changed his field of study to become a coach. His first coaching job was in Cullman County where he coached football and basketball for five years. According to The Huntsville Times story by Mike Easterling, Jack Mitchell said, I heard New Hope was looking for a football coach, but nobody would take the job. It had a reputation. It was a basketball school. Undeterred, Mitchell sought the job to start the football program at New Hope. I didnt get to New Hope until the day school started, he said. My wife went and did the interviewing for me. I was getting my Masters degree. I was there for the opening of school, and that was the first time any of the players had even heard of football. The Indians played a four-game schedule that first year and, according to Mitchell, We went to Gaylesville to play the first game and we had boys playing in that game who had never seen a football game in their lives. It was for sure starting from scratch. By the mid 1960s Mitchell had built the New Hope Indians into a championship program; they won County Championships in 1964, 1965 and 1966 and did not lose a county game during this time. In addition to his coaching, Jack and Jean started a playground program for kids in the summer of 1962, and this was the start of the YMCA program at New Hope. In 1964, the program had grown and a pool was installed at the New Hope YMCA for which Jack Mitchell was the first director. Following his coaching career, Mitchell was an administrator in the Madison County School System and was the director of the Northeast State Junior College, held in New Hope. The New Hope Football stadium was named the Jack Mitchell Stadium in early 1999 and Jack passed away later that year. He is survived by his wife, Jean, their three children, and many grandchildren.