For high school football coaches, players and fans from Memphis to Bristol and Dyersburg to Soddy Daisy, Murphy Fair’s annual high school football yearbook is ready for purchase.

Known as “The Bible” of prep football publications, this year’s 25th silver anniversary edition is 240 pages full of top 10 predictions in the eight classifications, pre-season all-state teams, coaching records and of course, the always valuable and informative team-by-team breakdowns and more.

2012 Yearbook: “We printed 5,000 copies this year and I am near the end of my two weeks plus, 2,500 mile trip across the state delivering them to high school booster club members and various retail stores,” said Fair Tuesday night in a phone conversation.

 In the Chattanooga area, the football yearbooks can be purchased for $12 at:

Chattanooga: Big Ridge Cleaners - 5936 Hixson Pike - Publix Shopping Center
Mountain City Cleaners - 3554 Broad Street (foot of Lookout Mountain)
Carriage Cleaners - 715 Signal Mountain Road
Carriage Cleaners - 3835 Dayton Blvd

MurphyFair.com Web Site: other locations across the state are listed at murphyfair.com …  click on “2012 yearbook” for the complete listing.

Cover Boys: This is the fifth year that Fair has put head shots of some of the state’s top players on the front cover. Senior quarterback Reese Phillips of Signal Mountain is one of 12 players on this year’s cover.

The pigskin yearbook began as a mid-state publication and expanded to statewide coverage in 1994. The front covers have included helmet drawings of the state championship teams, followed by a few years of having a group shot of the coaches of the state championship teams on the front and now head shots of top players.

“In high school in Arizona (on a Navajo Reservation), I wrote stories about our athletics teams for three local papers and later I was a sports writer for a couple of newspapers in Tennessee. So I have been covering high school football in Tennessee since 1969,” stated Fair who was his high school’s valedictorian, graduating at the age of 16.

Tribute to Coaches’ Wives: New to this year’s book are quotes from more than a dozen head coaches wives stating “What’s So Special About Being a Head Coach’s Wife.”

Quote from Brooke Wyant, wife of Siegel head coach Greg Wyant

“What it means to be a football coach’s wife can be expressed quite simply.

“It means extra laundry on Saturday mornings, making sure the lawn gets mowed from spring practice through the fall, many evenings having dinner without him, making sure the oil in both cars gets changed and tags get renewed – all because football so often consumes him throughout pre-season to post-season.

“But more importantly, it means that I can be a person that makes sure all those things get done while I watch a godly man on a mission growing our young men to become future leaders and making an impact on a growing army of males who are trudging through life often times without a father-figure.

“It means giving him the time, freedom and support to do the one job he feels he was meant to do.

“Being a coach’s wife has merit, meaning, purpose and being proud of the husband that God has given me. As difficult as it is during those football months, I wouldn’t trade being Greg Wyant’s wife for anything on this earth.”

contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net