Jimmie Parrot, a longtime Miami-Dade educator and football coach who helped ease racial tension at American High School by employing disciplinary actions and encouraging students to get along with their counterparts, died last month.
He was 64.
Parrot retired last year following a 44-year career, 33 years at American, where he taught students and was the defensive line and assistant coach for six different head coaches, including three consecutive district championships under Corey Bell.
The Miami native graduated from Miami Jackson High School and played linebacker at Bethune Cookman College.
Following college graduation, Parrot landed his first teaching job at Orchard Villa Elementary School in Liberty City.
He later taught at Gladeview Elementary before the sour economy forced school officials to shut it down, and he was assigned to Hialeah Middle School.
While working in the ESC Department, the school’s principal discovered Parrot had the niche to keep kids on the right track.
But he wanted to coach high school football and when the opportunity surfaced, the principal at Hialeah Middle School did everything in her power to keep him there because he did a “great” job with the students.
Eventually, Parrot was hired as a teacher and defensive line coach at American High at a time when racial tension among students boiled over and he stepped into the fray and eased the dissension by disciplining all students equally and coaxed them to love each other because they were like a family attending the same school.
He bridged the gap between hostility and understanding so much while, black and Latino students called him Papa Smurf, referring to the 1980's cartoon character raising a hundred smurfs in a tiny village.
“It was right around the time the Smurfs were out and the kids called me Papa Smurf,” Parrot told The Miami Laker last year. “It wasn’t racial or negative, they just loved to call me Papa Smurf and it stuck with me for all these years.”
Parrot said his only regret was not winning a state title for American.
“After American was built, I always wanted to come here,” he said. “I wanted to help kids and coach here.”
Parrot said the most rewarding part of his job was seeing former students and athletes who graduated from college and become successful business people and good citizens.
“They did the right thing,” Parrot said. “When they see me, they walk up and say now I get it. Everything you told me was right and they thanked me for it.”
Following his retirement, Parrot said he had planned to devote a lot of time at his church and mentor his 5-year-old grandson.
“It’s time to switch gears and do other things in my life,” he said. “I am going to miss being around my students, but I hope to still be involved in some capacity because my blood bleeds red, white and blue.
The staff at American High expressed their condolences and called Parrot a legend.
For 34 years, Coach Jimmie Parrot has called American Senior High School home. A legend walking our halls, Coach Parrot’s distinctive voice and pleasant demeanor have made him a one-of-a-kind Patriot. The Patriot family is very proud of Coach Parrot’s devotion and loyalty to the students and faculty of our great school,” said the school’s website which paid tribute to him in a video.