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Skyline High plans to honor legendary football coach Roger DuPaix Friday night in its final home game of the season against arch-rival Olympus by naming its stadium after him.
DuPaix began a 35-year head coaching career at Highland in 1977 and moved to Skyline where he had his greatest success, coaching the Eagles to eight state titles before retiring at the age of 70 in 2011.
The soft-spoken coach was known for producing highly disciplined teams that relied on a wishbone offense to succeed. His record of 301 wins, 211 losses and 67 playoff victories puts him at an elite level nationally.
He is tied with Beaver's Al Marshall as the Utah coach who won the most state titles in a career. He owns the record for most victories at the same school.
Local writer Bruce Smith, who researched DuPaix' career for Friday's celebration, wrote that he is one of only 96 head high school coaches nationally to win over 300 games in a career.
More than 100 of players DuPaix coached went on to play Division One football.
"You can coach with adrenaline, but you won't last long," said Steve Marlowe, who served as an assistant for years under DuPaix and worked as a head coach and athletic director at Skyline. "He seldom raised his voice, but he commands respect. It says a lot that he never got burned out of coaching."
Skyline won five straight titles from 1995 to 1999. The 1999 team was undefeated and finished ranked No. 24 nationally. No Utah football team has won five straight titles.
A number of his former players have gone on to be high school and college coaches.
One of those is Aaron Whitehead, the Olympus coach who will try to bring the rock that symbolizes the rivalry between Skyline and Olympus back to the Titans Friday night. He played on DuPaix' first state title team in 1990.
"I knew and every player knew that he cared for them," Whitehead told Smith. "He hadn't won a state title until our senior year, but everyone thought the world of him."
— Tom Wharton Skyline to name football field after Roger DuPaix