Morgan Hall of Fame to induct Bob Godsey
For the Enquirer
Numbers tell a lot in the game of football.
They certainly tell a lot about the 16 seasons that Bob Godsey coached the Hartselle Tigers. His teams won 141 games with 15 winning seasons, five region championships, six seasons with 10 or more wins and 25 All-State selections.
The cherry on top came in 2011 when the Tigers won the Class 5A state championship. It was a milestone event for a community and athletic program that takes pride in competing at the highest level in every sport.
Godsey will be inducted into the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame on May 3 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Decatur Riverfront.
“When Bob came to Hartselle, the cupboard was pretty bare,” said retired judge Glenn Thompson. “He gradually built a good base of kids that eventually resulted in that special team that won the state
Legacy, Page B-2 championship that made everyone in Hartselle so proud.” Thompson has followed Hartselle football since he played for another Hartselle coaching legend, J.P. Cain.
After leaving Hartselle following the 2018 season, Godsey, 58, became head coach at Madison Academy. In his six seasons there he’s continued to win. His career record sits at 240-84 over 28 seasons. The number that may best tell the Bob Godsey story is 3. That stands for three coaches named Godsey. It starts with the late R.L. Godsey, Bob’s father, and includes Bob’s son, Luke, now an assistant football coach at UAB.
“There’s a family story about my grandfather that we’ve heard many times. It’s about how he grew up with nothing and really didn’t have much of a future,” Luke Godsey said. “One of his high school coaches took a special interest in him and helped him get a scholarship to play football at Itawamba (Community College in Mississippi).
“From there he went to Florence State (now UNA) and became the first member of his family to graduate from college. What that one coach did changed my grandfather’s life and changed my family for at least a couple of generations.” The story of a coach or teacher stepping in to make a positive impact on a young person’s life is not unique. It happens in other places, too, and the Godsey version is an example of how far the impact can spread.
“My father has always been passionate about being a football coach,” Luke Godsey said. “He’s been successful, but it’s not always about the wins and losses. It’s also about the opportunity to impact so many lives like that coach who helped my grandfather.
“I grew up seeing my father passing it forward. I can remember several times when one of his players would spend the night with us because that player was dealing with a situation and needed a place to stay. Since I’ve been in coaching, I see it all from a different viewpoint. I see how important it is to pass it forward. That’s something I want to do in my coaching career.” After college, R.L. Godsey went on a 30-year coaching odyssey that carried him across the state and briefly into Georgia. Bob was born when his father was the head football coach at Abbeville. It wasn’t long before Bob was following R.L. to work.
“I was so blessed to grow up in the field house being with my dad,” Godsey said. “That was a great place to grow up.
“My parents taught me and my sisters the importance of a good work ethic. That work ethic is what I live by today.” The work ethic paid off for Godsdey the athlete in the 1984-1985 school year at Wilson High. He was the quarterback in the fall of 1984 on Wilson High’s winningest team ever at 12-2. The next spring he was the starting catcher on Wilson’s Class 4A state championship baseball team.
Godsey moved on to play football in college at what was then Troy State. The option quarterback helped the Trojans win the NCAA Division II national championship in 1987.
The coaching odyssey for this Godsey would start at Decatur High. He coached football, basketball and baseball.
“My first coaching job and I’m on Steve Rivers’ coaching staff at Decatur,” Godsey said. “Coming out of college, you aren’t supposed to get an opportunity like that.
“I was truly blessed to get to work with coaches like Coach Rivers, Jere Adcock, Allen Creasy, Mike Smith, Wally Sanders and Lee Cagle. They pushed you to meet a standard. You had to bring your A-game to work every day or be left behind.” In the summer of 1996, Rivers left Decatur to become head coach at Athens. Godsey and Adcock both applied for the job to replace Rivers. They worked out a deal where if one of them became head coach, the other would stay as an assistant.
Adcock got the job and Godsey stayed two years before leaving for Brooks in Lauderdale County. He was there for five seasons before taking over at Hartselle. “Honestly, I didn’t know a thing about him,” said Nikita Stover, who was a senior on Godsey’s first Hartselle team. “I was a senior, and I already knew I was going to play in college.
“Our practices were different. They were full tempo with no idle time for anybody. It was more like a college practice. That definitely helped prepare me for college.” Stover went on to play for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
That first season at Hartselle was the start of a 16-year rivalry between Godsey and Adcock, who have remained best friends. Adcock won the first three meetings, but the final 13 games were split almost evenly, with the Red Raiders holding a 7-6 edge. Godsey won the final meeting in 2018, 35-14.
“I worried myself to death the week of those games,” Adcock said. “I was always thinking about what does he have up his sleeve? What’s he seeing on the film about us that we don’t realize and that could give him advantage?
“Bob’s a hard-nosed coach with keen insight on the game. He’s won a lot of ballgames with players that most people couldn’t win with. It’s how he gets his players and coaches to compete that makes him a special coach. He’s the kind of coach you would want your son to play for.” Hartselle got its first double-digit win season of the Godsey era in 2006 at 11-2. After a dip to 4-7 in 2007, Hartselle won 49 games over the next four seasons with four region championships and the state championship in 2011.
The Tigers advanced to the third round of the playoffs in 2008 (12-1) and 2009 (10-3). The 2010 team (12-2) got all the way to the semifinals before falling to Briarwood Christian, 24-21, in overtime.
Hartselle would not be denied in 2011. The Tigers marched through an undefeated season that ended with a state championship victory over heavily favored Vigor, 13-3.
“I still get chills up and down my spine thinking about that day,” said Deacon Aldridge, Hartselle’s quarterback that season. “That was my first year as the starting quarterback. I went through a lot of growing pains.
“To play quarterback you have to be a leader, and I had to learn to be a leader. That wasn’t easy for me. I’m not a real vocal person. Coach Godsey navigated me through it.” After that championship season, Godsey remained at Hartselle for seven more seasons. The Tigers moved up to Class 6A for the final five seasons. His last season in 2018 saw Hartselle go 11-1 and advance to the second round of the playoffs.
One of the assistant coaches in Godsey’s last season was Will Lang, who quarterbacked Hartselle’s 2010 team to the playoff semifinals.
“As much as I thought of Coach Godsey when I played for him, I think even more of him having coached with him,” Lang said. “Coach is like a second father to me. He’s a good man who molds coaches like he molds players. You learn that the decisions he makes are not taken lightly. A lot of thought goes into each decision.” Today, Godsey’s coaching takes place at Madison Academy in Huntsville. He and his wife Amanda still call Hartselle home.
Occasionally, Godsey is visited at Madison Academy by the quarterback of his 2011 state championship team.
“I work at Redstone, which is not far from Madison Academy,” Aldridge said. “I can pick up a couple of sandwiches and be at his office for lunch in just a few minutes.
“We talk a lot about football, but I still lean on him with questions about life in general and family decisions. I still learn from him every time I’m with him.”
