Carlton Flatt, the former Brentwood Academy football legendary coach, dies at 82

Carlton Flatt, the man who started the Brentwood Academy football program and led the Eagles to 10 TSSAA state championships with 10 runner-up finishes during 34 seasons as coach, died at 2:19 a.m.

on March 23 his family announced.

Flatt started the program after turning down a job for NASA and considered working for Boeing.

He was 82 years old.

Flatt was born on April 22, 1943 to Roscoe and Ruthelia Flatt and was a star athlete at Cumberland High School before playing football for Austin Peay, where he was a team captain, first-team All-OVC, OVC Offensive Player of the Year and a Little All-American honorable mention.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017.

The sometimes-controversial coach, who also was a teacher and athletic director at the school, twice took the TSSAA to the Supreme Court.

His teams won 355 games, third-most in state history, lost just 68 times and tied three times during his coaching career.

His 10 championships were won in four different classifications.

He also led the Eagles to 10 state runner-up finishes, had six undefeated, untied seasons and coached teams to 35-, 34- and 31-game winning streaks.

"He simplified the game for his kids in a way that was really beautiful," legendary coach and Flatt protege Ricky Bowers said.

"Not to discredit his intellect because he's a smart guy.

But the key ingredient that coaches that are great have is they instill confidence in their players so that they can play fast and free and in his case physical and enthusiastically.

He was plenty smart about the way he did things.

He did that intentionally.

Not because it was the only way he knew but because he knew it was the best way."
Flatt was named Nashville's greatest high school football coach since 1960 by The Tennessean in 2023.

The field at Brentwood Academy field is named in his honor and he's a member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Austin Peay Athletics Hall of Fame.

Carlton Flatt was first hire at Brentwood Academy

He also coached baseball, track and basketball at the school.

He was the first hire made by Bill Brown, who founded the school and served as headmaster from 1969-2000.

"Every night he would call me, 'Hey, have you made your mind up yet?

I can do this better than anybody,' " Brown told The Tennessean in 2024.

"Finally, I gave in.

I got tired of it and ended up not even fooling with that other guy."
"I thought we might go six years without winning a game," Flatt wrote in the book "From a Cow Pasture to a Tradition," which was written by Bill Traughber, a member Flatt's first team.

"That's what drove me."

Why did Carlton Flatt take TSSAA to Supreme Court?

In a 9-0 ruling in 2007, the Supreme Court upheld its ruling that prohibits high schools from recruiting athletes, noting that free speech may not apply to those who don't adhere to the rules of fair competition."I don't look at it like I was pursuing something," Flatt said.

"I never saw myself as the person carrying the ball with the Supreme Court.

But it was one of the neatest experiences I've ever been a part of."
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean.

Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Carlton Flatt, the legendary Brentwood Academy football coach, dies at 82