James coached Carter from 1982 to 1995 and helped turn the Dallas ISD program into the most dominant in Texas during that span.
By Ishmael Johnson, Staff Writer
One of the most iconic coaches in Texas high school football history, Freddie James, died Thursday morning, his family said. He was 89.
James coached Carter High School from 1982 to 1995 and helped turn the Dallas ISD program into the most dominant in Texas during that span. Some consider his 1988 team, which had its state championship stripped for using an ineligible player, the greatest in Texas high school football history.
“One of the better teams that’s ever been through Dallas, probably,” James told The Dallas Morning News in 2008. “I think that particular year we could have competed against any school in the United States.”
During James’ 14-year coaching career, he achieved a record of 139-27-5 and saw eight players reach the NFL, including All-Pro linebacker Jessie Armstead, who played on the 1988 team, and two-time Super Bowl champion Chet Brooks.
James was depicted in two film adaptations about Carter: 2004’s “Friday Night Lights,” in which he was portrayed by Julius Tennon, and 2015’s “Carter High,” in which Charles S. Dutton played James. It was written and directed by former receiver Arthur Muhammad and co-produced by former Dallas Cowboy Greg Ellis.
“When you think of football, up until probably the recent success that Coach Samples has had in Dallas, Freddie James was what was the benchmark of what success was in football,” South Oak Cliff head coach Jason Todd said. “Other people had good programs, but the success he had, the national attention that he had, the amount of kids that he helped get to college, the movie coming out, different things like that. He was an icon.”
James was part of the inaugural Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame class in 1996 and was inducted into the Dallas ISD Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018. He graduated from Booker T. Washington in Dallas before playing for Prairie View A&M’s 1958 national championship team at both running back and defensive back. He started his coaching career in 1964 at Spigner Colored School in Calvert, Texas.
“This man served as a role model to boys of what a real man is and, in many instances, how they should act and be responsible,” state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, told The News in a prepared statement. “He exemplified manhood and served as an example to not only his players but the community. The branches of his professional tree are plentiful. Many upstart coaches got their start from Coach.”
James was preceded in death by his wife, Eva June, in 2018 and is survived by their son, Rev. Frenanda James (wife Marie); and grandchildren Montrice Evette, Freddie Lawrence and Faith Moriah.
Forging a Dallas football legacy
In 2021, Todd’s South Oak Cliff team became the first Dallas ISD program to win a state title since Carter in 1988, although the forfeiture meant the most recent champion was Sunset’s 1950 team.
After the win, his first of three state titles in the last five years, Todd paid tribute to James during a postgame interview.
“I brought my lucky Blow Pop too, Freddie!” Todd said as he walked off camera.
James was known for coaching with a lollipop in his mouth, a trademark Tennon borrowed to portray the legendary coach in “Friday Night Lights.”
“I just remember all the times I was sitting in the stands going out to games,” the 49-year-old Todd, a Lincoln graduate, said Thursday.
Todd remembers James’ Carter players as icons on and off the field. The late Darren ‘Tank’ Lewis, who played running back at Carter until 1987, used to pick him up from school and swing by his house. Armstead’s mother worked at Johnny Brewster’s pharmacy in South Dallas.
“They all kind of looked like everybody’s hero, those guys around here,” Todd said. “They all spoke very highly of Coach James. It influenced me to one day want to become a Coach James myself. He actually is a person that I wanted to have the kind of success that he had at Carter, and try to help elevate and take it to the next level.”
Carter played with a flashy, but intimidating swagger the players inherited from James. They didn’t run out of the tunnel before games. They walked as if they were there to do a job.
“Armstead was probably my favorite Carter player of all time,” Todd said. “With just the whole aura he had around him, they were like real heroes.”
Carter’s 1988 title was stripped in January 1991 after the UIL received an anonymous tip that defensive back and running back Gary Edwards’ grades didn’t meet the state’s no-pass, no-play law.
“That’s part of our past,” Edwards told The News in 2008. “I’m sure there is some hurt because people heal differently.”
Edwards was also one of six Carter players among the 15 teenagers from the Carter neighborhood police traced to the “Carter robberies” in 1989. Edwards was sentenced to 16 years in prison and paroled in 1993.
The news tainted but didn’t negate the impact James and the football program had on the city. Despite not being officially recognized in the history books, many people in Dallas acknowledge Carter and James as the 1988 state champions.
“His steadfastness guided the program through some very difficult times in the late ’80s,” West said. “He was able to navigate them through those waters and make certain that most of his boys kept their head on straight, performed on the football field and ultimately win a state championship. And no one can take that away from them.”
James’ memories of 1988 team
When interviewed by The News in his home in 2008, for a series about the stripped 1988 state title and aftermath, James wore on his middle finger a faded state title ring with inscriptions “F.J.” and “1988.”
Twenty-six players from that team wound up receiving Division I football scholarships. But after legal challenges virtually every step of the way during the Cowboys’ playoff run, there was uncertainty even after the 31-14 title-game victory over Judson in Texas Stadium whether Carter would in fact get to keep the title and trophy.
“It didn’t worry me,” James said of that Dec. 17, 1988 day. “We proved on the field who was the best. I wasn’t worried about the trophy. That’s just a thing. In the mind of the people, Carter High School was the best team. We were the greatest that particular night.”
More than two years of legal challenges ensued, miring the championship in limbo until the UIL formally stripped the title in June 1991.
“A lot of people in the Carter community told me, ‘It’s just a plaque. Coach, you hold your head up high. Don’t let this put you in the grave. There’s always tomorrow,’ ” James recalled.
On the day the trophy had to be returned, it was James who was tasked with removing it from the Carter High School trophy case.
“With the uplifting of the school and parents and community, I didn’t feel a thing,” he said. “I kissed the trophy, though. I said, ‘That’s the end of it.’
“Whenever I passed the trophy case after that, I didn’t ever miss it. Like it was never there.”
Senior staff writer Brad Townsend contributed to this report.
More on 1988 Carter team
2008 series
Part I: Scandal taints legacy of 1988 Dallas Carter football team
Part II: Bad habit: Robbery spree involving 6 1988 Dallas Carter football players was ‘just for kicks’
Part III: Former players on 1988 Dallas Carter football team tried to move on who was to blame for 1988 Dallas Carter football grade controversy
Senior Staff Writer | SportsDayHS
Ishmael Johnson is a Senior Staff Writer for the Dallas Morning News covering high school sports with over 10 years of experience covering preps in Texas. Before joining the SportsdayHS Staff, Ishmael previously served as managing editor of Dave Campbell’s Texas Basketball and was an editor and social media strategist at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine. He is an avid soccer and professional wrestling fan.
