Retiring Butch Ford Built Own Legacy at Celina

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Butch Ford announced his retirement as Celina’s head football coach yesterday. The unexpected move ends a successful career that could have flown under the radar in a town and a state immersed in high school football.

Ford, 60, ends a 39-year coaching career. He will be replaced by Celina offensive coordinator Bill Elliott. Both Ford and Elliott know a thing or two about replacing highly successful head coaches.

In 2002, Ford took on the unenviable task of following a legendary head coach G. A. Moore in Celina. Ford had served as an assistant and defensive coordinator under Moore, the winningest football coach in Texas high school history, for 25 years.

Moore’s five state championships cast a big shadow over the Celina program, but Ford managed to forge his own legacy in the Collin County town:

- Ford amassed a record of 122-16. Amazingly, Ford’s .884 winning percentage ranks just a percentage point behind Moore’s Celina career of 215-27-2.

- Ford has state titles to call his own. As head coach, he won two state titles (2005 and 2007) and led Celina to two state final appearances (2006 and 2008). That’s four straight trips to the state finals.

- Ford has won six state titles as a member of the Celina coaching staff.

- Ford’s first Celina team played beyond expectations as the smallest schools in a newly realigned Class 3A. The Bobcats were undefeated, extending a state-record win streak to 68 games, before losing to Daingerfield by a point in the area round of the playoffs.

Now Ford turns over a Celina program to another longtime Bobcats assistant in Elliott.