Very few people in their lifetime will have as big an impact on a city and university like Dick Price. His passing Monday night left a huge void on the Norfolk State sports scene.

Dick Price made a name for himself as a great coach. But he was much more than a coach. He was a teacher and leader and a role model. The best coach is someone who inspires and takes young athletes to higher levels. The best coach is someone who shows young athletes the secret to success. The best coach is someone who elevates athletes, teams and programs to great heights. Dick Price did all of that.

A child of Norfolk’s Lamberts Point, Dick Price began his coaching career at NSU in 1964 as head track coach and an assistant under former football coach Bill Archie. Price was elevated to head football coach in 1974 and promptly coached the Spartans to 3 straight CIAA Championships between 1974 and 1976. His track teams won two division 2 national championships despite not having a track.

Price retired from coaching in 1983 and remains NSU’S winningest football coach with a career record of 62-41-4. Fifty-three of Price’s former football players entered the ranks of professional football.  Price became the school’s athletics director in 1989, a post he held until 1999. The school’s current football stadium, which opened in 1997, is named in Price’s honor.

Price won numerous awards for his storied career as a coach and administrator. In 1979, he was named the Virginian Pilot’s “Sports Figure of the Decade.” Price is a member of the NSU Athletics Foundation Hall of Fame, The CIAA Hall of Fame, The Hampton Roads African American Sports Hall of fame, and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

1n 2003, Price became the first ever black president of the Norfolk Sports Club.

Current Norfolk State Athletic Director Marty Miller first met Price back in 1964. Miller told me yesterday that there was nothing Price would not do for the University and that he was a true Spartan. A true Spartan that made a huge impact on thousands of lives. Dick Price was priceless for the University and will be greatly missed

Who has the better football team? Is it Phoebus or Oscar Smith? You can debate this all you want, but the sad reality is, we’ll never know. The only way to get a true answer to that age old question is for those two teams to play each other, and that’s not gonna happen.

Thanks to breaking up schools in divisions, the two best teams in Hampton Roads rarely play each other. So as it stands, Phoebus is the best Division 5 team in Hampton Roads. Oscar Smith is king of Division 6.

But wouldn’t be great if after the season these two teams squared off and decided who was the real king of high school football in Hampton Roads? You could rent Dick Price Stadium at Norfolk State, hype the game and sell it out as the High School Super Bowl. Pundits would say that adding one more game to the grueling schedule would be too much for these kids to handle. Hogwash! These seniors would love to play one last football game in front of thousands of local fans.

There is so much debate over college football and how they crown a champion. The BCS has it’s flaws. Some say adding one more game to the college schedule is the answer. How about doing the same here in Hampton Roads for high school football?

Sure I know having one extra game to decide the true Eastern Region Champion will never happen and that means we will never know who the better team is between Phoebus and Oscar Smith. But I guess we don’t need to have an extra game, because everybody knows that the Phantoms would crush the Tigers!