Joe Loudermilk grew up in Brownwood, Texas, graduating from Brownwood High School in 1959-60, playing football since Junior High School. He got his coaching degree from North Texas State University, where he played football. He played professional football for four years in the Canadian Football League before coaching high school football, mostly in west Texas. He coached the Lubbock High School Westerners for fifteen seasons, retiring in 2003-04, after a total of 48 years of football. Upon retirement, Joe Loudermilk returned to his home town of Brownwood, Texas. In 1970, he wrote this unpublished coaching manual. In a speech given to the Rotary Club of Brownwood, he stated the reason he began writing his coaching manual was in order to instill in his students the values with which he had been raised: “honesty, integrity, and character”. He wanted it to be a working manual that could be used every day, involving the athletes in the process.