By Buddy "Friday Night" Cobb, Williamson County Bureau
HERRIN — Grief has come twice this fall for Herrin's tight-knit sports community. Just a month after the passing of longtime Herrin High School Hall of Fame basketball coach Jeff Ferguson, another iconic figure from the Herrin sports world has died, according to the Southern Illinoisan.
The losses land hard in a town where high school sports are woven into the fabric of daily life — where Friday nights and winter gymnasiums are where generations of families have gathered. Herrin has buried its coal miners and its coaches with the same solemn respect for decades, and this fall it is doing both kinds of mourning at once.
The American Times Press will follow up with a fuller accounting of this coach's record and legacy as more detail becomes available.
— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan.
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