Elvis Was ‘Shamed’ so Much by His Football Coach That He Quit the Team
Elvis Presley grew up to become one of the world’s biggest stars, but he did not have an easy time on his high school football team. According to Elvis’ high school classmate turned bodyguard, Red West, few of the football players liked Elvis. The team’s coach was not kind to him either. According to West, the football coach shamed Elvis so much that he barely lasted a few weeks on the team.
Elvis’ football coach had it out for him
When Elvis was in high school, most of his classmates had closely cropped hair. He stood out among them with the long hair he spent hours styling. According to West, this brought him a great deal of negative attention.
“It was that hair, man — it got him into all kinds of trouble,” West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “If he had a regular haircut like the rest of us, he probably wouldn’t have been bothered. But I guess the other kids thought he was trying to show off or something.”
As a result, Elvis was an outcast at his school. His attempts to fit in were often fruitless as well, as the faculty also targeted him. West recalled Elvis’ brief entry into the football team.
“I think that Elvis lasted on the squad about three weeks,” he said. “The coach, a good old guy called Coach Boyce, just couldn’t stand Elvis and his long hair. Coach Boyce could be a real tough sonofagun and he was always onto Elvis to cut his hair. He just shamed ‘E’ so much, he finally left the squad.”
Members of the football team often bullied Elvis
Elvis’ former teammates were some of his biggest adversaries at school. Several members of the team even tried to forcibly cut Elvis’ hair. West walked into the bathroom to find them cornering him.
“I knew the guys who were hassling Elvis,” West recalled. “They were on the football squad. I suppose they got this haircutting business from old Coach Boyce. The guys who were giving Elvis a hard time were not really bad guys, just a bit noisy and stuff. But when I saw Elvis’s face, it just triggered something inside of me. I mean we were just kids and they weren’t gonna kill him or anything, but there was that look of real fear on his face.”
West interfered and Elvis walked away with his hair untouched.
Red West said Elvis seemed lonely
West said that he and Elvis were not necessarily friends in high school — Elvis was a grade above him — but he stood up for him whenever he could.
“I really felt sorry for him,” West said. “He seemed very lonely and had no real friends. He just didn’t seem to be able to fit in. But I gotta admire him. All that razzing that the kids and some of the teachers gave him about his hair. Elvis would never cut it. That was his trademark.”
Eventually, West became Elvis’ confidante and bodyguard. He worked with him into the 1970s.
