Cactus Jack: Against All Odds

by Joe Worrel

Overview

What sets Jack Mason Carlisle's story apart is the adversity he overcame and the many lives impacted because he did. He constantly coached and taught as if he had something to prove, because he did. After a boyhood accident resulted in the amputation of his leg, the odds were stacked heavily against him to ever fulfill his dream of becoming a coach.

Coach Carlisle was old school. He was tough. Players did not often make his team without first adopting a bit of his personality and a large portion of his commitment. When it came down to a player making his team, talent played second fiddle to just wanting it more than the next guy. The extreme physical demands he put on players stemmed from a philosophy that young people will only do what you make them do and everybody can do more than they ever imagined.

The storyline here is not a distinguished sixty-one-year career or a Mississippi high school football record of 262–70–17, it's the number of hearts changed along the way. Stories and testimonials illustrate how players took their sweat equity with them long after old-school football. Although his teams frequently felt the thrill of victory, Jack's career was more about young people experiencing the true meaning of commitment.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940157480905
Publisher:	Christian Faith Publishing, Inc
Publication date:	04/18/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	172
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Walter D. Hubbard is married to Jack Carlisle’s third child, Jane. Walter and Jane have lived and worked across Mississippi for more than thirty-six years, she as a school teacher/administrator and he as a wildlife and fisheries biologist (retired) and now a pharmacy technician. Walter knew Coach Carlisle long before Jane came on the scene since he played high school quarterback for Council McCluer in Jackson, MS, while Jack coached their cross-town rival, Jackson Prep. Walter then attended the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) to play baseball and study biology. Two years later, Jack became an assistant football coach at Ole Miss and Jane enrolled in the school of education. Walter and Jane now have three adult children and a granddaughter. Scientific articles were this author’s primary focus until he agreed to write about Jack’s story during one of the family’s Christmas gatherings. Walter and Jane now live in New Albany, MS, with Jack and Jean in the house next door. That arrangement lends itself well to sharing old football stories and enjoying new fishing adventures for the author and his newest fishing buddy, Cactus Jack.