Clarence “Bo” McMichael Sr. was a longtime teacher, high school football coach and community leader in Nacogdoches. In addition to a long career in public education that began after he served with the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II, McMichael was elected to three terms on the NISD Board of Trustees.
In May 2003, NISD trustees voted to place McMichael’s name on the new middle school that was then under construction on SE Stallings Drive. McMichael Middle School opened a year later.
McMichael’s involvement in public education went back to the 1940s. After returning from the war, McMichael attended Texas College in Tyler where he played football. He then came back to Nacogdoches where he was a teacher and coach at E.J. Campbell High School, which served Black students in Nacogdoches prior to desegregation.
In 1971, when Nacogdoches ISD integrated, McMichael became the athletic director at the district’s junior high before later joining the staff at NHS. In 1984, McMichael was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor.
In 2015, after McMichael died at age 95, the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel published the following story:
World War II veteran, former high school football coach and community leader Clarence “Bo” McMichael Sr. died Saturday. He was 95 years old.
“He was an icon in the community,” Farshid Niroumand, Nacogdoches ISD athletics director, said Monday. “He was a true gentleman and a wise man that you could sit with and listen and learn. I did not get the chance to work with him. However, I visited with him a lot and was fortunate to work with his son, Clarence. The fruit of his work is very evident.”
McMichael was born Sept. 20, 1920, in San Augustine County to the late Hayne McMichael and Leroy Reed McMichael.
While attending Texas College in Tyler, McMichael was drafted into the first African-American outfit to serve in the European Theatre in WWII, according to a 1986 Sentinel article. He won three distinguished service medals during his time serving in the U.S. Army 77th Field Artillery Battalion.
“I can’t find adjectives to describe Bo McMichael,” said Ralph Allen, a long-time friend of McMichael and E.J. Campbell High School assistant coach. “We’ve been friends since 1939. He was just a top man, not only as a coach but was that type of teacher. He’d give you the shirt off his back. He was 100 percent friend.”
When he returned from the war, McMichael played football for Texas College, making it to the 1942 National Championship for black colleges before losing 13-6 to Florida A&M. He graduated from college that same year.
Returning to Nacogdoches to both teach and coach, McMichael taught five classes a day at E.J. Campbell High School. It was a dream long in the making.
“I would wake up on Saturday morning and they would have a newspaper clipping on my door, ‘E.J. Campbell High School lost 40-something to nothing,’” McMichael told about 780 students at the Nacogdoches middle school that bears his name in 2013. “I said to myself, ‘when I finish college, I’ll stop that.’”
And he did. The E.J. Campbell High School football team won their first 10 games with McMichael as coach.
He was remembered fondly for his dedication to both players and the community, often doing the football team’s laundry and offering players rides home from school.
When NISD schools were integrated in 1971, McMichael became the athletic director for the junior high school and later assistant coach at the high school. In 1984, he was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
A nine-year member of the Nacogdoches ISD school board, McMichael was named in 1986 “One of Nine” East Texans who make a difference by KTRE television station. He said his highest honor is having a local school — McMichael Middle School — named after him.
McMichael raised five children with his wife, the late Leora Sue Porter, who taught at Emeline Carpenter Elementary School.
E.J. Campbell High School alumnus Archie Rison shared this photo on his Facebook page showing the 1965 E.J. Campbell Dragons football team, coached by Bo McMichael (far right). The Dragons went 10-0 during the regular season, allowing only six points (they were scored by Kilgore in the regular season finale). The Dragons then advanced all the way to the state finals before losing in the championship game.