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Coach Hook Eales ~ In Memory

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MHS football legend ‘Hook’ Eales dies at 86

McAlester News Capital, McAlester, Oklahoma
Published: June 04, 2008 11:34 amBy James Beaty and Porky Falcon
Staff Writers

A McAlester coaching legend has died. Warner “Hook” Eales died early today at a local nursing center. Eales had a long career, coaching the McAlester Buffaloes football team from 1956 until Feb. 1973.

After he stepped down as coach, Eales continued to work with McAleter Public Schools as an assistant principal and athletic director from 1978 until 1983.

He had been hired by the McAlester School Board in 1956 as the new head football coach and athletic director at McAlester. Eales, who was 34 at the time, had been the assistant football coach at Ada when hired to come on board at McAlester Public Schools.

He went on to an outstanding career during his 17 years at McAlester, with 107 career wins. He guided the Buffs to the state championship in 1968. A grateful school system paid him a high honor by naming the school’s football stadium Hook Eales Stadium as a tribute to the outstanding coach.

In addition to his remarkable record, Eales also had a tremendous influence on some of those he coached. “He coached me in high school when I played football,” said McAlester Public Schools Athletic Director Billy Ray Holt. “He is responsible for me going into coaching.” Holt said he closely observed Eales’ coaching techniques. “I watched the way he coached and how he did things,” Holt said.

Eales had been an outsanding football player himself. He played high school football in Ardmore before graduating in 1939. He then attended East Central University in Ada to pay college football — but saw those plans interrupted by World War II. He spent a three-year tour of duty with the U.S. Marines in Hawaii and Japan before returning to college and earning a degree from ECU and going on to earn a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma. Eales also served as an assistant coach at Muskogee Public Schools in 1948-49 before he made the move to Ada. He also spent two years as coach of the 45th National Guard Division team in 1950-52, when the National Guard was mobilized during the Korean War.

Eales married Bobbie Jean Aston of McAlester. They are the parents of David “Rocky” Eales, the Oklahoma Highway Patrolman who was killed in the line of duty while participating in a drug raid near Sallisaw in 1999.