Malcolm Phillips talks about coaching Elvis at Humes High School in Memphis. Phillips' recollections about the superstar are included in a book titled "Early Elvis: the Humes Years" by Bill E. Burk.  

    NEWTON — Malcolm Phillips, 88, from Newton has long been associated with football and coaching around East Mississippi ever since he played football at East Central Community College in Decatur in the early 1940s.

    Upon graduation from ECCC, Phillips went on to play for the University of Memphis in Tennessee. After deciding to make Memphis his home, Phillips took a job as assistant football coach at Humes High School. Phillips has a connection with another Mississippi native who attended Humes by the name of Elvis Aaron Presley, who graduated from the school on June 3, 1953.

    Phillips said his first impression of Elvis was that he was a very shy kid.

    “The first time I met Elvis he was walking down the hall at school and when I saw him he was so shy he hid behind a door,” Phillips said. “Elvis lived in the projects like a lot of the students did and most of them were very poor and shy.”

    Phillips said he began coaching Elvis when he signed up for spring football practice.    

    “I was already coaching Bobby (Red) West and Elvis had been hanging around him so I think that is where he got the idea he wanted to be like the rest,” Phillips said. “At Humes, if you were male you were expected to play football. He was pretty quick and had some speed but didn’t want to hit and didn’t plan to get hit.”

    Phillips said Elvis didn’t like to wear his helmet either because he didn’t want it to mess up his hair.

    “I would tell the boys to keep their helmets on and every time I glanced back at them there would be one without his on and that would be Elvis,” Phillips said.  “All the other boys had a buzz cut but Elvis had a lot of hair. It was his performing hair and that didn’t go well with a helmet.”

    Phillips said it wasn’t long before Elvis quit the team to get a job after school.    “He came in my office one day and told me he was getting a job packing groceries so he would have to quit football,” Phillips said. “He needed money to pay for his school lunch. Football wasn’t his forte’ anyway. It was always his music.”

    Phillips said people would often say Elvis was a mama’s boy but his buddies denied that.

    “A mama’s boy meant you were a sissy and he never was a sissy,” Phillips said. “He was on the boxing team at Humes and liked to wrestle. He did love his mama, but he wasn’t a mama’s boy.”

    Phillips said the first time he heard Elvis sing was at a school carnival.

    “Each year we had a carnival and talent show to raise money for school supplies,” Phillips said. “Coach Boyce and I were working one of the concession stands in the cafeteria when we heard loud music coming from upstairs in the auditorium. I went to see what was happening and that’s when I saw Elvis and his band playing.”

    Phillips said Elvis was singing and dancing all over the stage.

    “His knees were a-knockin’, he was singing and bopping’ all over the place,” Phillips said. “Those kids were screaming and hollering, ‘Encore, encore!’ When Elvis got that guitar in his hands he was not shy anymore. He was the bravest guy I’ve ever seen.”

    Phillips said shortly after that Elvis recorded his first 45 rpm records with Sun Records.

    “After his songs starting playing on the radio he became very popular with all the kids,” Phillips said. “Instead of eating in the cafeteria the kids started going across the street from the school to a little restaurant to hear Elvis’ records on the jukebox and dance. There would be about 500 kids out in that parking lot dancing. The music was so loud the guys on the football field could hear it and they would be dancing around everywhere too.”

    Phillips said he didn’t see Elvis much after that and never went to visit him at Graceland.

    “We lived ten minutes from Graceland but never visited,” Phillips said. “I knew him and that wasn’t Elvis to me. The other was the boy I knew, where he came from and how he got there.”

    After living in Memphis for 40 years, Phillips moved to Newton in the late 1970s with his wife Maxine. He was inducted into the ECCC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996 and coached at Newton County Academy, taking the football team to the state playoffs for the first time. Phillips is also a veteran, having served in the Marine Corp in the Pacific during WWII.

    Phillips said it has been a good ride and he wouldn’t take anything for all the experiences he has had.