2021
LARRY COE, 73, WAS ABILENE ISD COACH, REFEREE AND, ONCE, A LIFE-SAVER
NOTE: Larry was on the TASO Softball Board of Directors as the Ex‑Officio member and served both the TASO Football Abilene Chapter and TASO in many different capacities.
Larry Coe was a coach, teacher and administrator in the Abilene ISD for years — 37 to be exact.
But that’s just part of his story.
He also refereed athletics and was an official and a track meet starter — the person who fires the pistol to begin races — at UIL state track and field meets for 48 years.
He once made the newspaper — or, at least, his roof did — in February 1980, when fireplace debris ignited. A photo caption read that it took just one gallon of water poured by firefighters to douse the fire.
But in 1981, he added “life‑saver” to his resumé.
When substitute teacher Milton Bryant had a heart attack during the noon hour on the Lincoln Junior High campus Dec. 18, 1980, Coe and fellow coach Jim Reeves joined nurse Bea Schulz to give the man CPR. That kept him alive until an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital.
