The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame joins the family of Bob Fairchild in mourning the passing of the longtime Chillicothe High School football, who passed away on Tuesday, October 29.
Fairchild was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 following a tremendous career.
He was a three-sport athlete at Chillicothe High School and, after college, his first job, as a history teacher and basketball coach, began in 1959 at Skidmore, Missouri.
His success in coaching was immediate as his team won 30 games the first year. He moved to Mound City, where his football and basketball teams were very successful. The fall of 1962 saw him take over a struggling athletic program at Penney High School in Hamilton, Missouri. His football, basketball and track teams won conference championships.
Fairchild’s fourth move proved to his last. In 1963, he became the 21st head football coach at Chillicothe. Football fortunes changed dramatically upon his arrival. In the next 34 years, Chillicothe won 287 games, 117 more than were won in the previous 50 year history of the school. Highlighting those years were 19 conference championships, 15 playoff appearances, two second place state finishes, three final four appearances and five state championships in Class 3 and Class 4.
The Chillicothe newspaper recently had a story about his career. Click here.