My husband came home this evening and after our greetings and pleasantries he alerted me to a some news that Leonard Skinner had died?  My reply, “didn’t two of them die in a plane decades ago?” Yeah, it was a blond moment for me, I’m not proud. He did not mean Steve Gaines and Ronnie Van Zant of the lengendary rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd. He meant Leonard Skinner, the high school coach who inspired the bands name. So who was the real Leonard Skinner?

After his death the New York Times made the claim that he was “arguably the most influential high school gym teacher in American popular culture”

He was the Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville for many many years.

He was a family man and, “was just a regular Westside guy, a coach and businessman with a strong code of honor, a disciplinarian at home and at school.”

The reason why Lynyrd Skynyrd named their band after him? Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington and Bob Burns of the band went to the school back in the 1960s. Skinner had a lot of rules and one was a “strict policy” against long hair. He sent Rossington to the principal’s office for having too long tresses, and it became a running joke among the students.

The boys of band opted to do a “tongue-in-cheek homage” and named themselves Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The members of the band changed the letters of the name so as not to be sued.

The tale of the band naming themselves after him, bothered him. He once said, “It was against the school rules. I don’t particularly like long hair on men, but again, it wasn’t my rule.”

He retired from coaching back in 1970 and went into real estate.

In 1975, the band used a photograph of  his “Leonard Skinner Realty,” with his permission inside their third album. But after the record came out their ex-gym teacher was getting phone calls at all hours of the day and night. Especially late at night, Lynyrd Skynyrd fans apparently had no regard for when they’d call him.

Later Skinner totally embraced his accidental fame. He became pals with some of the band members and they even played at a bar he opened in called The Still. He opened a couple more and named them after himself.

On a totally unrelated note, Leonard also had the claim of fame for being mentioned in the son “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” by Allan Sherman. Skinner had been a bunkmate back at Camp Granada.

He died at the age of 77, he had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for years.

May he rest in peace, he is now, as Lynyrd Skynyrd would say, a Free Bird.

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