James 'Friday' Richards, Marietta Football Icon, Dies

MARIETTA, GA — James "Friday" Richards, a former football coach and superstar player at Marietta High School, has died. He was 64.

Richards was an all-state football player at MHS in 1971, when he rushed for 2,090 yards. He went on to play at the University of Florida and was drafted in the seventh round of the NFL Draft by the New York Jets in 1976, spending two seasons in the NFL.

Richards would return to his alma mater to coach in 1978. He became Marietta High's head football coach in 1995 and led the Blue Devils to a 108-57 record and four region titles during his tenure.

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He worked at the school until his retirement in 2010, also coaching basketball and track. In 2016, the home team locker room at Northcutt Stadium was named in Richards' honor.

"I made a lot of speeches in that locker room," Richards said at the time, according to the Marietta Daily Journal. "It was an opportunity to motivate kids and where they could pour their hearts out. Those kids would come out of that room and throw themselves all over the field for me, so I’m blessed to have had those kids in my life. My wife and I raised a lot of the kids that came out of that locker room, so it’s a very special place for me."

Funeral arrangements for Richards, being handled by Hanley-Shelton Funeral Directors of Marietta, had not been announced Monday morning.

Richards was beloved in the Marietta sports community and tributes to him began pouring forth over the weekend.

"A true builder of young men, Friday leaves a legacy of love & respect," Mark Woolard, who has worked keeping statistics for the Blue Devil football team for more than two decades, wrote on Twitter. "He touched so many lives. Blessed to have known him."

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