Coach A. J. Kilpatrick was a championship high school and JUCO football coach at J. Z. George in North Carrollton, Noxubee County, Wingfield, East Mississippi Community College, Louisville, Northwest Community College, Hickory, Holmes Community College, and East Central Community College. A native of Neshoba County, Coach Kilpatrick was a graduate of Philadelphia High where he lettered in football, basketball, and track. He attended Ole Miss as a freshman where he played football and basketball and then attended East Central Community College before graduating from Southern Miss. He received his master’s degree from Mississippi College. A. J. started his 38-year career in 1954 as an assistant football coach and head basketball coach at J. Z. George in Carrollton. He helped lead the Senators to the Cotton Bowl Conference championship and a runner-up finish the following season. His boys basketball squad won the conference title in 1955. His first head coaching job was at Noxubee High in Macon where he led his football teams for 6 years including an undefeated 11-0 season in 1961. He guided the football team to two Choctaw Conference titles and an overall record of 76-21-5. Coach Kilpatrick served as an assistant coach in the 1962 Bernard Blackwell All-Star football classic. His Noxubee basketball squads won the conference title in 1966 along with the district title and three invitational crowns en route to a mark of 24-4. As a track coach, his girls’ teams won three state championships, six district titles, and a conference crown. He moved to Jackson to coach Wingfield High for three years claiming a South Big Eight Conference co-championship in 1968. He was also head coach of the South All-Stars in the 1968 Bernard Blackwell All-Star football classic. He began his JUCO coaching career in 1969 before returning to Louisville from 1971 to 1974 where he would lead his first team in 1971 to a perfect 10-0 season. His final high school coaching stint was a Hickory in 1979. Coach Kilpatrick served as head football coach at four different MACJC programs. He led East Mississippi Community College from 1969 to 1971 while served as athletic director. He paced the Lions to a mark of 16-4 and the 1969 North Division title and a share of the title in 1970. From 1975 to 1979, he was head coach and athletic director at Northwest Mississippi Community College and led his Rangers teams to a mark of 26-13-2, a conference runner-up finish in 1975 and the North Division title in 1976. He would serve in the same capacity at Holmes Community College from 1980 to 1981. Coach Kilpatrick led the Bulldogs to the MACJC Championship with a berth in the Garland-Texas Bowl where they fell 24-10 to Tyler (TX) Junior College. He arrived at East Central Community College in 1982 where he would serve another decade until 1992. His best season at East Central was in 1987 when the Warriors were MACJC South Division runners-up and fell in first round playoff action to the eventual state champion Northwest Rangers. Overall, his football teams had a record of 238 wins, 138 losses and 12 ties. His lifetime NJCAA coaching record was 92 wins, 87 losses, and 4 ties. A. J. was a four-time coach of the year award winner honored by the MACJC in 1968 and 1981, the Jackson Mississippi Jaycees in 1968, and the Jackson Daily News in 1983. He was a five-time MAC high school coach of the year. Along with the MAC Coaches Hall of Fame membership, Coach Kilpatrick was inducted into the MACJC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986. the East Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, and the NJCAA Football Hall of Fame in 2011. Coach Kilpatrick passed away on May 20, 2011, at the age of 79.