Funeral services will be Saturday, November 28, 2020 at 11:00 a.m., Westhaven Funeral Home Chapel, 3580 Robinson Street, Jackson, MS 39209 with burial in Garden Memorial Park, 8001 Highway 49 N., Jackson, MS 39209.
Paul E. Covington, 86, born July 26, 1934, passed into eternal life on Sunday, November 22, 2020. He was the son of the late C.J Covington and Nancy Gentry.
He was a member of College Hill Baptist Church and accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior when he was a young man.
An exceptional student and athlete, Paul Covington selected JSU which one of twenty-three - athletic and academic offers he received after completing high school. During his playing tenure at JSU, he was named to Midwestern Athletic Conference twice. He lettered four years in basketball, one in tennis and one year in baseball and was team captain from 1954 -1956. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Jackson State and his master’s degree from the University of Kentucky. After graduating from JSU in 1956, Paul Covington spent two in the army where he served as the first African American in the Presidential Honor Guard at Arlington National Cemetery.
He took his first coaching job at Higgins High School in Clarksdale, MS winning three conference titles in four years. His next stop was Coahoma Junior College in Clarksdale, MS where he guided Coahoma to the State Junior College Championship. He serviced as assistant basketball coach from 1964-1967, under his former college coach Harrison Wilson.
He served as the head basketball coach at Jackson State from 1967 – 1986. He earned six SWAC Championships, was named five times SWAC Coach of the Year, and six post season tournament appearances. His team had two NAIA National tournament appearances and was ranked number one nationally in NCAA Division II poll in 1975. He won seventy percent of all the games he coached over three decades.
Sixty-five percent of his net-swishers earned undergraduate degrees, three earned Doctor of Philosophy degrees, two earned juris doctorate degrees, four entered the ministry, six joined basketball coaching ranks and seventy were drafted into the National Basketball Association.
Paul Covington was inducted into the Jackson State University Hall of Fame (1988), Southwestern Conference Hall of Fame (2003) and the Mississippi Hall of Fame (2008).
As an avid golfer, he was a proud member of the 9 Iron Golf Club and loved playing in tournaments around the city and the state.
He leaves to cherish his memories, his wife of sixty-three years, Marian Gilmore Covington, two daughters Sheryl C Matthews, and Vivian C McDaniel (David) and one son, Paul E Covington, Jr.
Four grandchildren, Patrise M. Matthews, Paul E Covington, III, David J. McDaniel, Dana McDaniel and one great grandson, Jordan P. Lanier. He is survived by one sister, Sheila Payne of North Carolina and one sister in Law, Patricia Covington of Lexington, KY.
Friends, former students and members of the Jackson community
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