Jim Lofton, who won 258 games as a high school football coach and was an Auburn college roommate of Vince Dooley, died on New Year's Day. He was 85.
Lofton led Greater Atlanta Christian to an 11-3 finish in 1998, his final season as a head coach. He remained on GAC’s staff through 2002 as an assistant coach. During retirement, Lofton wrote a book, ‘’So You Think You Want to Coach.’’ Dooley wrote the forward for the book.
Lofton was a native of Memphis and joined the Army out of high school. According to his book, Lofton was recruited to Auburn when coach Shug Jordan saw him playing for 11th Airborne Division's football team at Fort Benning, Ga. Lofton played end. His position coach was Joel Eaves, later Georgia's athletics director who hired Dooley as the Bulldogs' football coach in 1964.
Lofton coached high school football for almost 50 years, first at North Fulton in Atlanta as an assistant. His first head-coaching job also coached at Dykes of Atlanta (1961-64). He went on to coach Jefferson (1965-74), East Hall (1979-86) and North Hall (1987-93) in Georgia. He won region titles at Dykes (1964), Jefferson (1971), East Hall (1982) and GAC (1997, 1998).
Lofton had another 25 wins in Alabama, according to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society. He led Lee Academy of Auburn to a state championship in 1975.
Lofton’s overall record was 258-140-11, according to combined records of the Alabama and Georgia high school football history Web sites. His record was 233-123-8 in Georgia.
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