Roy "Doc" Walker (2005)
Texarkana High School coach for 14 years and a total of 35 years in the Texarkana School District.
His athletic career began at the all-black Washington High School in Texarkana, where he played offensive end and defensive back. Washington won a state championship in his senior year, 1948. At Arkansas AM&N (now UA, Pine Bluff), he played both football and baseball for three years before entering the Army for two years. He returned to AM&N after service, worked for a year as athletic trainer and assistant baseball coach, and got his degree in 1954. He coached part of one summer in Holly Grove and then returned to Texarkana, where he coached football under Nathan Jones at Washington from 1956 until 1969, when the school was combined with Arkansas High. Walker coached in the Texarkana area for 35 years, 14 years at Booker T. Washington and 21 years at Texarkana High School. He became an assistant football coach under Lynn Nix. He was the head coach of the AHS baseball team during the first five years of that program’s existence, winning the district championship and a state runner-up trophy the first year. Although, as an athlete he played football, basketball and baseball, he never ran track on the high school or collegiate level. However, he was best known for developing some of the best track and field talent in the state. He was the head track coach for 14 years, winning three state championships in 1978, 1979 and 1980. His 1981 team finished as the state runner-up. Walker’s goal as a coach was to prepare his teams for life after athletics, stressing his famous Three D’s – Discipline, Dedication and Desire. In 1991 Texarkana renamed its Hog Relays the Roy “Doc” Walker Relays. Walker was the first recipient of the “Honors Boulevard” in the Hobo Jungle Park in Texarkana in 2000 when it was named “Doc” Walker Boulevard 2000. |