By: Dwayne Page
DeKalb County has lost one of its most beloved teachers and former basketball stars.
Jerry “Red” Foster passed away Tuesday at his residence after a long battle with cancer. The funeral arrangements for Coach Foster are incomplete at this time and will be announced along with the names of family survivors today (Wednesday) by DeKalb Funeral Chapel.
Coach Foster’s passing comes almost seven months after he was honored in a jersey number retirement ceremony on Friday, January 26 at DCHS between the boys and girls basketball games with Cannon County.
Fellow class and teammates of Foster along with his high school coach Harold Luna returned to their alma mater in a show of support for him and to witness the retirement of his high school jersey number 32. A large crowd including family, friends, and students also turned out for the ceremony that night.
(VIEW VIDEO BELOW OF COACH FOSTER’S JERSERY NUMBER RETIREMENT CEREMONY ON JANUARY 26)
“I am honored. Its something that you never expect to happen but I am glad to see it happen. It was just great to see as many people turn out as they did tonight. A lot of my classmates were here and it was really great to see them show up. A lot of them came from a pretty good distance away,” said Foster who spoke with WJLE after the ceremony.
“I had a wonderful career. I played for three college coaches and two professional coaches, but my high school coach Harold Luna was probably the best coach I ever played for,” Foster added.
Foster excelled in basketball at an early age and went on to become a star athlete on the high school, college, and professional level. After his playing days, Foster was a high school basketball coach for several years. In recent years, he had been a physical education teacher at Northside Elementary School.
Jerry’s basketball career began at College Street Junior High School under the late Coach Elzie McBride and later at DCHS under former Coach Harold Luna. He starred as a member of the Tiger basketball team from 1972-76. During his time at DCHS, Foster was a part of over 80 wins. He was named All-District, All-Region, Upper Cumberland MVP, 1st team All-State, and was named the Class AA Player of the Year in 1976. He was selected to play in the East/ West All Star game that same year.
After leaving DCHS, Jerry went on to star at Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee. As a member of the Bethel University basketball team from 1976-80, he scored 1,879 points and grabbed 1,440 rebounds earning 1st Team All Conference in both his junior and senior years as well as being named an NAIA All American after his senior year.
Jerry was then selected in the 4th round of the 1980 NBA draft by the New York Knicks and later signed a professional contract in the European League. After two professional seasons in South America, he decided to end his basketball career.
After his playing days, Foster stayed in the game of basketball through his love of coaching. He returned to DCHS, as freshman boys’ coach from 1983-89 compiling a 92-22 record. He then moved to Jackson County High School as head boys’ coach from 1989-93 compiling a 101-87 record in four seasons, before returning once again to DCHS to direct the Lady Tiger basketball program, a position he held for seven years, from 1993-2000 with his teams recording a 93-85 record.
After leaving the coaching ranks, he continued to teach physical education at Northside Elementary School and continued to teach the game of basketball to youth of DeKalb County through the after school program. He was making plans to retire at the time of his passing.