(Basketball 1953-56, Football 1953-55, Baseball 1953-56)
John
Bostick was a three-sport standout during his playing days with the
Lions from 1952-56. He earned 11 varsity letters at Florence State,
with four each in basketball and baseball and three in football. He
scored 343 points for a 14.3 average in 1956 and he scored 32 points
in a game against Jacksonville State in 1955 for the Lion basketball
team. In three seasons as quarterback for the Lions football
squad, he helped take the team to a 21-6-1 record.
A native of
Winfield, Ala., Bostick earned his bachelor's degree in 1957 and
then served as an officer in the U.S. Army and was head football
coach of the Seventh Corps Jayhawks in Germany. Upon his return he
entered the high school coaching ranks and compiled a 178-102 record
in 10 years of prep coaching, with three years at Sheffield
High School and seven years at Gadsden High School. His Gadsden
teams earned several trips to the state tournament and finished as
the runner-up once.
He then joined
C.M. Newton's staff at the University of Alabama as a graduate
assistant coach and later coached the Tide freshman team. He served
as an assistant at Alabama for 13 seasons and played a key role in
the Tide posting five straight seasons with 22 or more wins and
winning three Southeastern Conference championships.
Bostick then
moved on with Newton to Vanderbilt University, where he served as
assistant head coach for eight seasons. In all he spent 32 years as
a coach on either the high school or collegiate level. He then moved
on to the University of Kentucky in 1989 and served as the Assistant
Director of Athletics/Compliance at the time of his induction.
