By T. Scott Boatright
His ties to Lincoln Parish were long and strong beginning with his days as a Louisiana Tech quarterback and then later as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs and eventually head coach of the Ruston High School Bearcats.
But the late Billy Laird was a man loved by many anywhere and everwhere he went.
Before becoming head coach of the Bearcats, Laird, who passed away in 2015 in Shreveport at the age of 71, served as head coach at Nashville High School in Arkansas from 1992-2003, where he led the Scrappers to their first state football championship in 1996 when they finished 15-0 and won the Arkansas Class AA state title.
Laird, who also served as an assistant coach at Arkansas, Northwestern State and Tulane, posted a 130-34-1 coaching record in 12 seasons at Nashville and led the Scrappers to five state championship games.
And it’s for that reason that Laird earlier this week was named to be part of the first class to be inducted to the Nashville Scrapper Hall of Fame.
Laird first quarterbacked in high school for Shreveport’s Byrd High School before moving over to Woodlawn High School when it opened in 1960, went on to turn in three outstanding stellar seasons as Louisiana Tech’s quarterback, Laird was drafted by the then-called Boston (now New England) Patriots in the 15th round of the 1966 AFL Draft, played one season with the Patriots.
Laird was an All-State choice at Woodlawn in 1961 and was All-Gulf States Conference at Tech from 1963-65, earning honorable mention All-American accolades in 1965.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Arkansas in 1968 and coached the freshman team there the following season under the legendary Frank Broyles.
Laird then returned to college football, serving as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at NSU from 1979-82 under the legendary A.L. Williams and coaching players including Bobby Hebert, Mark Duper, Ed Orgeron, Victor Otis and the late Joe Delaney among others.
One of those others was J.P. Dunbar, who ended up serving as Laird’s defensive coordinator at Ruston High, reinforcing what was already a longtime bond between the two.
“I was a senior playing defensive back at Northwestern State when he joined the staff as offensive coordinator,” Dunbar said. “When I finished playing, I stayed on scholarship as a student assistant coach and started helping coach the Northwestern secondary while working on a second undergraduate degree.
“Then when he came to Louisiana Tech, I was finishing up my second degree at Northwestern so I came with Coach Laird to Tech and helped coach the tight ends and wingbacks there while working on my master’s degree. Billy was the offensive coordinator.”
That wasn’t the last time Dunbar and Laird coached together.
Dunbar was defensive coordinator at Ruston when Tommy Reeder was dismissed as head coach of the Bearcats.
“That’s when they (RHS) hired Pat Collins, but Pat stayed for about an afternoon and decided it was something that wasn’t right for him so he turned the job down,” Dunbar said. “Kenny Henderson was principal at Ruston then and I was named interim head coach.
“He called me in and told me he thought he needed to interview me for the head coaching job. We talked a little bit about it. I asked Kenny what he wanted for a head coach, and he admitted that he wished he had somebody that was more experienced as a head coach and had maybe won some state championships.”
So Dunbar asked Henderson if he had anybody in mind.
“Kenny told me he had a guy whose son had played quarterback for Ruston some years ago and was off in Arkansas somewhere,” Dunbar said. “So I asked him if he was talking about Billy Laird?
“He said, ‘Yeah,’ so I just took my cell phone out and started looking up Billy’s number. Kenny asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was calling Billy Laird. Kenny asked if I knew him. I said, ‘Do I know him? You’re talking about my second dad.’ So Billy gets on the phone and later comes down and talks to Kenny about it and becomes the head coach of the Bearcats.”
Dunbar said Laird’s coaching magic was all about the person he was.
“Billy was loved at Northwestern the day he got there,” Dunbar said about his old hunting and fishing partner. “He brought a fire that made him a guy who could motivate anybody and bring out the best in them. He did it at Tech, He did it at Nashville and he did it at Ruston.
“I experienced that as a player and later as his defensive coordinator at Ruston. He was always that way from the day I first met him. “We just hit it off at Northwestern and just became good friends for life. As a matter of fact, he served as best man at my wedding.”
Current Delta State head football coach Terry Cooley said he learned the same thing when he quarterbacked Nashville High School to the Scrappers’ first Arkansas title game appearance in 1993 under Laird’s guidance.
“Coach Laird changed my life,” Cooley said. “ He helped me as a player in Nashville. He developed me as a quarterback which allowed me to get a football scholarship to play on the college level.
“As a coach, I always think about the things he taught me and how he handled situations. I am sure there is a lot of his coaching style in me. Coach Laird was a classy coach and an even better person. Our relationship was special. I called him Pops because he was my second dad. We were very close and I was blessed to have him and his family in my life.”
