Alma officials fondly recall longtime volunteer McCourt
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
The soft cold rain fell from the sky on the mostly brown and yellowish grass in the front yard of Perry and Mary Beth McCourt’s house late Thursday afternoon.
The dreary, cool rain was a far cry from the lush green grass that sways in the warm summer breezes.
After a 15-month battle with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) Perry Ray McCourt passed away peacefully in the home he shared with wife Mary Beth McCourt last week. The couple has called Alma home for the past 30 years.
A native of Plainview, Texas, Perry McCourt was 65.
McCourt played college football at Mississippi State and later Arkansas Tech, where he met his wife, Mary Beth, an Atkins native.
But for the last 30 years of his life, he was an Alma Airedale.
McCourt was a long-time member of Alma’s football chain gang. He came with many stories, Alma Athletic Director Doug Loughridge said.
“The first time I ever called him, he said, ‘You don’t worry about that; you go coach football.’ Just to see his love for the game, that means a lot,” Loughridge said. “He had war stories about the visiting sideline like nobody else.”
“It’s a tough passing for the Alma community, but also the chain gang,” Alma Assistant Superintendent of schools Travis Biggs said. “It’s (volunteering for the chain gang) a profession for people who want to give back to their community.”
McCourt spent more than 40 years working for the Farm Credit of Western Arkansas, where he retired as the Chief of Operations Officer and Executive Vice President.
Both of their boys, Kyle and Austin, graduated from Alma High School.
For 18 seasons (2003-21), McCourt was a fixture as one of the football program’s volunteer chain gang workers.
“I think Perry was invested in the Alma community and he was invested in the kids at Alma,” Loughridge said. “You could just tell he loved being a part of the football program. He was the ring leader of the chain gang and never missed a beat. If he had somebody that wasn’t going to be there, he would fill the crew.”
“When you have men like that who donate their time and truly believe in helping the community by being a part of the chain gain for so many years and being such a staple to the Alma football team, that means something,” Biggs said. “He saw more games and more visiting coaches than anybody around. He could tell many stories on what they hear on the sidelines and how different coaches act.”