There's an old saying of not being able to make chicken salad out of other things that come out of a chicken and there's a saying that you can't make lemonade without lemons. But most people who knew Frank Cotten would tell you if there was anybody who could make lemonade without lemons or chicken salad out of you know what, it was Cotten.
As I talked to people following Cotten's death, there was a familiar theme that he was the best motivator they had ever known. He was known for taking average or below average athletes and turning them into winners. He was always trying to encourage young people to try harder and it wasn't just about being a better football player or basketball player, it was about being a better person.
I didn't know Cotten back in the days he was coaching at T.R. Miller. I moved to Brewton in the spring of 1984, and he was already serving as the high school's principal.
I knew him in that role, had talked to him, but I didn't really know him.
I'm guessing it was in the late fall or early winter of 1985 that I really got to know Coach Cotten. He had a hunting camp over in Coffeville (that I later got to visit and hunt). As the story goes, they had a deer-dog drive on the hunting property. My guess is there were probably 15 to 20 standers, some dogs and some drivers.
Cotten was on a stand and a big buck ran by him at about 20 to 25 yards. Cotten started shooting. He unloaded all five shells out of his .12-gauge shotgun but the deer didn't flinch. Other standers then went to see if Coach needed any help. I hear he was stomping around, spitting tobacco, uttering several cuss words and also scratching his head. He told them there was no way he missed the deer but he couldn't find a drop of blood. Somebody finally asked Cotten where he was standing when he began shooting. He showed them. They went over there and found five spent birdshot shells and everybody but Cotten fell to the ground laughing.
Cotten accused them of switching his shells and they simply told him he loaded the gun with the wrong shells.
I wasn't there. I didn't witness anything. But it didn't take long before some of his hunting buddies, namely David and Roy Stokes, wanting me to write about Cotten's hunting expedition and how he tried to kill that big buck with birdshot.
I wasn't sure. I've written such embarrassing columns about people that I knew well enough to know they wouldn't get mad. I told them I didn't know Cotten well enough to tell the story. Then the Stokes' and others chimed in about all the pranks Cotten had pulled over the years and he wouldn't get mad.
I wrote the column about 'Birdshot Cotten' that appeared in the Thursday edition of the Brewton Standard.
At 8 a.m. that day Cotten called the office. He first acted mad and I thought I had been set up. Cotten then started laughing and told me somebody at the camp switched his shells.
I asked David Stokes this week if they had replaced Cotten's buckshot with birdshot and his reply was “I think we did.”
I became friends with Cotten after that. I hunted with him a few times and even bought a truck from him. I called him 'birdshot' one time and got that look many of his former players said he used to give, but then broke out a smile still claiming he was set up.
When I moved to Flomaton he was the one I'd call if I had questions about something involving the Brewton City Council.
I learned people genuinely loved Coach Cotten. I remember when he ran for the state legislature against Skippy White, I thought there would be no way the people of East Brewton would vote for a former T.R. Miller football coach or principal. I was wrong. It was neck-and-neck across Murder Creek.
But I learned by talking with people like Tom Ogletree, that Cotten reached out to help people, whether they were T.R. Miller Tigers or W.S. Neal Blue Eagles.
Coach Cotten will be missed, but his memories will live for eternity in the minds of the many lives he touched
