Class of 2024
Dorsey Sims, Jr.
Coach
Basketball, Football
Slater High School
1960-1965
Coach Dorsey Sims, Jr. 1960-1965 (Slater High School)
From 1960 to 1965, Coach Dorsey Sims, Jr. coached some of Bristol’s finest athletes in basketball and football at Slater High School.
Sims led the Wolves to multiple city, conference, district, and regional titles in both sports. These included the lauded 1962 Tri-State Conference football team, which was undefeated. That team outscored opponents 223-30 and had four shutout victories.
Behind the play of fellow BTCS Athletic Hall of Fame inductees Wayne Daggs and Marvin Beidleman, Sims led the Wolves to an impressive record of 106-21 during his six seasons at the school.
Sims left Bristol to join Chattanooga Riverside, where he fashioned a 153-30 record from 1965-1971 and won two state championships. He later coached at City High School in Chattanooga and Melrose High School in Memphis, where he won two more state titles.
Considered one of the South’s finest basketball coaches and inducted into the TSSAA Hall of Fame in 1992, Sims finished his 28-year prep career with an incredible 654-200 record. After leaving Melrose in 1986, Sims was an assistant coach at Memphis State University for 10 years.
Other honors for Sims, who played football and basketball at Tennessee State University, included the National Basketball Coaches Association Award, the 1981 Outstanding Service Award, the University of Tennessee Chattanooga Hall of Fame, the Vanguard Club Hall of Fame, and Humanitarian of the Year in 1997.
To this day, the “Dorsey Sims Award” is given to an outstanding boy and girl at the Lorenzen Wright City of Memphis Basketball Camp. The five-time Hall of Famer passed away in June of 2000.