Coach Darry Wade was a versatile championship football, basketball, and baseball coach who led programs at Coldwater, Benoit, Dublin, Moorhead, and Ruleville. A native of Humphreys County, Coach Wade lettered in football, baseball, basketball and boxing at Belzoni High. He helped lead the Belzoni boxing team to a state championship in 1941 and he was a state Golden Glove Champion in his weight division. Darry enlisted at age 17 in 1944 in the U. S. Navy where he served as a signalman during World War II. Upon his discharge in 1946, Coach Wade lettered in football and baseball at Sunflower Junior College while continuing to box in the Golden Glove organization. He achieved his college degree at Delta State where he lettered in football and baseball and earned a master’s degree at Mississippi State. Darry started his 17-year coaching career in 1950 at Coldwater where he coached football, basketball, and baseball and taught five classes. He moved on to perform the same duties at Benoit and then Dublin High. Coach Wade arrived at Moorhead in 1955 where he would coach football, boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball and track. At Moorhead, his boys’ basketball squad won 4 consecutive Central Delta Conference titles and his girls hoops team was a conference runner-up and claimed the conference championship. On the gridiron, his Moorhead football teams won three Central Delta Conference championships. Darry moved to Ruleville in 1961 where he coached football and baseball. Coach Wade guided his Ruleville baseball team to a state championship in 1962 while his football squads won two Little Eight titles and played in three bowl games with two undefeated seasons in 1963 and 1966. Darry was named principal of Ruleville in 1967 and he was named superintendent of the attendance center in 1968. In 1970, he was selected principal of Oxford High where he retired in 1979. He then worked for Martin School Equipment as sales representative for 11 years. Coach Wade is one of a handful of coaches that coached in two all-star contests in different sports. Darry coached in the 1959 Mississippi High School Boys All-Star game and in the Bernard Blackwell All-Star football classic in 1967. Overall, his football teams complied a record of 85 wins, 47 losses, and 4 ties. He was a certified baseball umpire and spent countless hours officiating Little League, high school playoffs, junior college, college, American Legion and semi-pro games. Along with MAC Hall of Fame honors, Coach Wade was inducted into the Mississippi Delta Community College Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Delta State Alumni Coaches Hall of Fame in 2005. Darry passed away on April 11, 2010.