JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Leonard Skinner, the basketball coach and gym teacher who inspired the name of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died in Florida. He was 77.
Skinner's daughter, Susie Moore, says Skinner died in his sleep early Monday at the St. Catherine Laboure Manor in Jacksonville, where he had been living for about a year. He had Alzheimer's disease.
Skinner was working at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville in the late 1960s when he sent a group of students to the principal's office because their hair was too long. Those students later formed a band, using a variation of Skinner's name for their own.
Skinner later allowed the band to use a photo of his Leonard Skinner Realty sign for the inside of their third album.
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Information from: The Florida Times-Union, http://www.jacksonville.com
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