Tom Rinaldi’s podcast “Sacred Acre” investigates the murder of a legendary football coach

Edward Arthur Thomas was not often addressed as “Mr. Thomas,” even though he grew up in a family full of teachers. He was not often addressed as “Deacon Thomas,” even though that was exactly what he was in his church—a man who taught adult Sunday school and even preached a sermon when his church's pastor had to miss services. And when younger people were in his presence, he rarely, if ever, responded as “Ed.” Ed Thomas was “Coach,” and that was enough.

How this honorary title was earned and what significance it had in the small town of Parkersburg, Iowa, the national honors the community received because of Thomas, and the national tragedy his death represented are the subjects of “Sacred Acre,” a narrative podcast produced and narrated by Tom Rinaldi of FOX Sports.

Tom Rinaldi presents: Sacred Acre

There are two big parts of Thomas' story that draw people into this narrative even if they didn't grow up in Iowa, let alone Parkersburg, where Thomas coached the Parkersburg Falcons high school football team, or What Cheer, Iowa, where he grew up.

First, that Thomas was one of the best high school coaches the world has ever seen.

Thomas never played college or professional football. He was never a college or professional football coach. He was a coach who valued the Wing T, ran the ball and relied on classics like the 52 trap, 38 sweep and 25 reverse.

In a town of just over 2,000 residents, seven churches and one high school football team, Thomas won 292 games and two state titles while helping five players – Aaron Kampan, Brad Meester, Jared DeVries, Casey Weigmann and Landon Schrage – to the NFL.

More than a million kids play high school football each year, and 0.5% of them reach the NFL. Yet Thomas produced five NFL players, four of them within 10 years. In 2005, Thomas was named NFL High School Coach of the Year.

But Thomas never thought that was part of his job.

“I think we value sportsmanship. I think we encourage our kids to be the best they can be with their God-given talent,” Thomas said. “And our job is not to develop college or professional athletes. Our job is to help our young people be the best they can be. And that will allow them, if they have the God-given ability, to play at the next level.”

The second main part of Thomas' story is his tragic murder.

A former player, Mark Becker, who had recently been released from Covenant Medical Center at Waterloo Hospital, entered the Parkersburg High School gym on June 24, 2009, and shot Thomas five times.

Becker was sentenced to life imprisonment for premeditated murder in 2010.

It was in conflict that 24-year-old Becker came to the decision to shoot Thomas. It was in conflict that a small, faith-based, football-fueled community responded to the loss of one of its beloved patriarchs in a gruesome murder committed by one of their own. It was in conflict that Becker's family learned that one of his brothers or sons had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

What comfort can be sought by those who still mourn the loss of a man who embodied Parkersburg, Iowa, a man who represented the values ​​that matter most to Americans while coaching the national sport – football – to boys who need it most?

The solution is that the Thomas family, the Becker family and Parkersburg decided to continue the program that Thomas has been running for nearly 40 years: they accepted this tragedy. They decided to rely on their faith values, to continue to work with discipline and diligence, and to make the most of what God had given them.

This is the story of Ed Thomas in “Sacred Acre”.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The number one college football show.“Follow him at @RJ_Young And Subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.

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