Long-time Freedom assistant football coach Crawley dies at 61

Robert Crawley, who spent five decades around the Freedom High School football program, died at age 61 on Jan. 15.

Crawley was a 1981 FHS graduate and former football player turned Patriots assistant coach under a slew of different head coaches, starting with Pete Stout in the late 1980s and also including Tim McMahon, Jason Watson, Blair Hardin, and Brandon Allen into the mid-2010s.

Crawley attended Glen Alpine Elementary School, and according to his obituary, first developed a love of football while playing under legendary former coach Jug Wilson, who later coached Crawley at Freedom as well.

Tommy Sain, who graduated the same year as Crawley and who lined up next to Crawley along the left side of the Patriots offensive line, recalls it was more enjoyable playing with him at Freedom than being beat up on when Sain’s Salem squad played against Glen Alpine.

“Robert and I first met each other taking guitar lessons over on Starmount Circle from a Methodist preacher’s wife,” Sain said. “That woman called my mother and said, ‘Mrs. Sain, it appears you’re wasting your money. Tommy and Robert, she called him Bobby, are more interested in wrestling than they are the guitar.’

“So, one day after that happened, I said, ‘Mom, if you will, take me over there early.’ She said, ‘I’m so encouraged that you want to take an interest in playing guitar.’ Well, I climbed up in a tree and jumped on Robert when he got there and walked under me. He still got me. He was so big I couldn’t do nothing about it.”

Crawley was loved by many, among other reasons because, as Sain put it: “He was a big old kid in a grown man’s body.”

“He never married, never had kids, so the community and the teams were his family,” Sain said. “And he invested in them. He was loyal, and he loved people, and they loved him back.”

Crawley listed Wilson, Stout, and his position coach at FHS, Johnny Anderson (who was later Freedom’s head coach), among his heroes, according to his obituary.

He also had a fondness for former Freedom assistant coach and East Burke head coach Tom Harper, who recently did Crawley’s eulogy at his memorial service.

“They always called him ‘Big Head,’ even where he worked,” Sain said of Crawley. “And he was very loyal to Tom Harper. When Tom went to East Burke (and Crawley went to coach under him there), they called him ‘Traitor Head.’ But to be a Freedom guy, bleed red like he did, that shows you just how much Coach Harper meant to him.”

Crawley got his coaching start at Oak Hill before his time at Freedom. In addition, he also served as an assistant coach at Patton briefly. For most of his coaching career, Crawley was a defensive line coach.

Moon Pies and RC Colas were among Crawley’s favorite snacks and also served as motivational tools for his players, though Sain also recalls some Crawley high school breakfasts that consisted of a family-size bag of potato chips and a two-liter soda.

“More than just a coach, you believed in me at 14 (years old) to jump in the trenches and go to work,” former FHS player Marcus Hawkins wrote on Facebook. Hawkins excelled at the prep level before playing at two different colleges, including at the NCAA Division I FCS level, and he coached at Patton this past season.

“You spent some weekends taking us to ball games,” Hawkins added, “told me don’t come to no damn steakhouse and order chicken tenders. You inspired me in so many ways, and I’m forever grateful the good Lord let me experience four years of Crawley-style coaching. A lot of coaches will say they love you, but you showed your players you did. ... RC Cola and Moon Pie ... Godspeed.”

Another of Crawley’s former notable local players is current Draughn seventh-year head coach Chris Powell.

“When I took the job at Draughn, he was one of the first to reach out and tell me how proud he was of me,” Powell wrote on Facebook. “He would show up (to) random games just to support. He constantly would send you (messages) of football-related material or life and faith stuff.

“Not only was he a great coach but a phenomenal man. He would coach you hard every day but would put his arm around you and love you up. He was never afraid to tell his guys he loved ’em. Love ya Coach, and gonna miss ya. Thanks for the impact on my life!”

The Crawley family will receive friends starting today (Jan. 25) at 11 a.m. at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, where the funeral starts at 2 p.m.

According to his obituary, the family requests those in attendance wear Freedom apparel or FHS’ colors of red, white, and blue to his service.