Mark Malcolm MVP COACH
Editor’s Note: In each issue of Richardson Life Magazine , we will highlight an individual who has made a difference in the lives of Richardson Independent School District students. If you would like to nominate an educator, email pmotte@hylogroup.com . Our inaugural spotlight shines on Coach Mark Malcolm, a legendary teacher and coach. He was nominated by Pastor Clayton Oliphint of First United Methodist Church Richardson. Several of Coach Malcolm’s former players interviewed for this story played on Coach Malcolm’s 1983 Apollo Junior High School eighth grade football city championship team. Tell us about your early years. Where did you grow up and what was your early family life like? When did you know you wanted to teach and coach? I was born in Odessa, TX, to parents who were both educators. My father Bill had been a teacher and a coach at Texas High in Texarkana, moved to Odessa, and became a principal in Brownfield and then Richardson. He retired as an Assistant Superintendent. My mother was an art teacher at Texas High in Texarkana, where she met my father. She then became an elementary school teacher. My brother Matt was born in Brownfield. On my birthday in 1967, we drove through a hailstorm and a tornado for my parents to interview in Richardson. I attended Greenwood Hills, North Junior High, and J.J. Pearce, graduating in 1975. I was blessed to have the powerful influence of good teachers and coaches in my life. Grown men still called my father Coach. All of these factors drew me to teaching and coaching, which are really the same thing. Where did you attend college and did you play college football? I am a 1979 Texas Tech graduate. I did not play football past junior high. I tell people often that I don’t coach because I was a good or successful athlete. I coach because the men who coached me changed my life. Even from the vantage point of a skinny bench-sitter, what my coaches accomplished in building our team seemed magical to me. We’d love to get to know the Malcolm family… My wife Kim and I met teaching at Apollo Junior High in 1979. She taught French and was the department head at Apollo and then JJ Pearce before becoming Richardson ISD’s LOTE (Language Other Than English) Curriculum Director. We married over Labor Day in 1980. We have two children who are Mohawk, North, and JJ Pearce graduates. Our son Major Rob Malcolm, Mark Malcolm is the kind of teacher and coach every student should have at some point in his or her life. Someone who is passionate about helping the student understand the concepts and gain information, but who is just as interested in his or her character development and well-being. I love that so many of Coach Malcolm’s former students come back to see him and acknowledge his impact in their lives. He is a difference maker who has shaped generations of young people in RISD and beyond. – Pastor Clayton Oliphint USMC, is a Naval Academy graduate. He and his wife Vanessa and their daughter Cora live in California. Our daughter Reverend Hailey Malcolm is an ordained Presbyterian minister. She and her husband David York live in Michigan. Coach Malcolm remembers every play, every kid, every story. He has coached generations of kids that are today 55+ years old all the way down to 13 years old that will all tell you their team was his favorite team or a story about their season was one that he always talks about. That’s roughly 40+ years of teams of kids playing football, basketball and other sports that will tell you the same thing. – former player Brent Burton Tell us about your teaching career. I have coached football for forty-four years and taught academic classes for forty-three of those, even when I was a high school head coach. I started as an English teacher and, counting summer school, I have taught every secondary English class from grades 7 through 12. I have taught both parts of U.S. History, Economics, Government and World History. Teaching is a performance art with an element of improvisation. As you engage your students, the lesson changes from one class to another. It is always interesting and often magical. Name three adjectives which best describe you. I am the wrong person to select these, but I hope that people would describe me as passionate, relational and caring. You have mentored so many young people. Did you have a mentor of your own growing up? Two of the best teachers I ever had were at North Junior High. Coach Larry Robertson taught me from the first day that you can always do more than you think you can. My English teacher D. Ann Gorman taught me to love the art and discipline of good writing. Coach Malcolm teaches every bit as much about character, integrity and honor as he does about football. And he coached some of the best teams in RISD history at Apollo Jr High in the 80’s alone. A true legend. People throw around the GOAT acronym a lot, but he really is that. Year after year, pouring his heart and soul into his craft, and doing it at such an exceptional level – if this man is not in the Hall of Fame, then there shouldn’t be one. I’m beyond grateful that he was my coach and my teacher. And now as a 52-year-old father of three myself, I’m truly honored to call him my friend. Words cannot express how much I admire, appreciate and respect this legend of a man. Coach Malcolm would be the first to say that he is the product of two exemplary parents. His father was a longtime RISD principal and administrator who was legendary throughout the city for his memory of students and parents. Coach Malcolm is blessed with his father’s memory of people and sporting events and has continued his parents’ legacy by being