Freddie James is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach. He played under

Billy Nicks William James Nicks (August 2, 1905 – November 2, 1999) was an American college football player and coach. He coached at historically black colleges in the Southern United States from 1930 to 1965. Nicks served as the head football coach at Mor ...

at Prairie View A&M in the late 1950s, before working in a steel plant for a couple of years, then as a physical therapist in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. His former coach Nicks later recommended him for high school football coaching. In 1982 James became head coach at David W. Carter High School in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

. In his first year, Carter reached the 5A state semifinals. In 1988, Carter won the title after one of the most dominant seasons in Texas high school football, but the title was later forfeited because of eligibility infringements. After a ban from the state playoffs in 1989, because James had played an ineligible player, Carter reached the state semis again in 1990. He retired after the 1995 season, having guided the Carter Cowboys to a 123-22-3 record in his 14 seasons, and having turned the program into a nationally recognized power. His overall coaching record stands 147-28-4. James was inducted to the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 (inaugural class). He was portrayed in the 2004 movie '' Friday Night Lights'' by actor

Julius Tennon The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the c ...

. He was also portrayed in the 2015 film

Carter High ''Carter High'' is a 2015 American sports film directed and written by Arthur Muhammad. The film is centered on the 1988 Cowboys of David W. Carter High School in Dallas, a team that fought through racial prejudice and a grades controversy to c ...

Charles S. Dutton Charles Stanley Dutton (born January 30, 1951) is an American actor and director. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''Roc (TV series), Roc'' (1991–1994) and the television film ''The Piano Lesson (film), The Piano Lesson'' ...

, which portrayed Carter's 1988 Season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Freddie 1937 births Living people Prairie View A&M Panthers football players High school football coaches in Texas Sportspeople from Texas African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople