Lynyrd Skynyrd Night! (VERY special guests!) Tonight's show is an archived show

We are running this show in honor of Coach Skinner tonight , who passed away last week. "That old high-school coach died Monday in a nursing home in Jacksonville, Fla., at 77, but his rules and his name will live forever in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. For those unfamiliar with the story, Leonard Skinner was the former basketball coach, assistant football coach and gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville. When he was coaching and teaching in the late 1960s, the school's dress code didn't permit boys to wear long hair. "My father was a very strict disciplinarian," said Skinner's daughter Susie Moore. "Rules were black and white. There was no gray area. He did things by the book. That's what he stood for." One day in his gym class, Skinner noticed that Gary Rossington, a guitarist in a rock 'n' roll band, had hair that flowed well below his collar. Skinner sent Rossington to the principal's office, and he was suspended from school. Rossington, lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and the rest of the band members changed their name to "Lynyrd Skynyrd" as a mocking tribute to the stern gym teacher. Skynyrd's guitar army would go on to international success, cranking out such anthems as "Freebird" and "Sweet Home Alabama." The old coach eventually embraced the fame that came with the rock 'n' roll version of his name, but never quite understood why he was being ridiculed for doing his job and trying to make rebellious kids respect the rules" from Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel Ed King and Tammy Van Zant are on this show. Please join us next week with us for a live episode with Zeke Loftin and Michael Buffalo Smith.