Bio

Albert Isaac “Rex” Rexinger

Harrison-Stone-Jackson Agricultural High School & Junior College (1926-1929) / Football
Harrison-Stone-Jackson Agricultural High School & Junior College (1937-1942) / Coach (Football)
Eudora, Arkansas

When Rex Rexinger passed away, his daughter Lynn says she told a newspaper reporter, "My dad was like the International House of Pancakes ... he was there for me and everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

The Eudora, Arkansas, native (October 5, 1907-May 30, 1990) was also a mainstay for his teammates when he played football, and for his students when he coached. Rexinger played football for Harrison-Stone-Jackson Agricultural High School & Junior College for two seasons — 1926 and 1927. During that time, he was an All-State halfback and on the 1927 Mississippi state football championship team, which was the first state football championship win for the college.

Several passages from the book "Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College: A History 1911-2000" by Gulf Coast archivist and Professor Emeritus Charles L. Sullivan describe that championship season: "The biggest sports story of fall 1927 was the state championship won by the Bulldog footballers. On November 12, the Bulldogs engaged in a brutal 6-6 conference standoff with Clarke Junior College of Newton. One week later the Bulldogs clinched the 1927 Mississippi State Football Championship in a 25-0 victory over Raymond."

After his playing days, Rexinger served as head football coach and history teacher at the institution from 1937-1942. "Those days at Perk were the fondest memories for my parents," Lynn says. "They spent the early part of their marriage there, and my brother was born there. They always talked about Perk."

Rexinger also coached football at Seminary, Purvis, and Biloxi high schools, and after serving as coach at Harrison-Stone-Jackson Agricultural High School & Junior College for five years, was a coach for 10 years at Natchez High School in football and basketball. His Natchez basketball teams won four Big Eight Conference basketball championships in a five-year period. He was inducted into the Mississippi Coaches Hall of Fame in 1976.

Rexinger retired from coaching in 1953 and opened Rex's Sporting Goods store in Natchez that same year. "He loved working at the store and selling sporting goods to schools," Lynn says. "He could keep up with what was going on and keep in touch with all the coaches. We always went to ball games, and anytime we went on a trip, it usually revolved around some type of sporting event.”

And as Lynn said, Rex Rexinger was always there for his family, students, and his players. "He was always a well-respected member of whatever community he lived in and always active in those towns," she says. "He was somewhat of a father figure for many of his players, and he was very strict with them. But he also took care of them and helped many of them receive college scholarships. When those former players see me now, they tell me how much they loved my father, and that if it weren't for him, they wouldn't be where they are today."