The newly renovated press box dons the name of the former MSU coach who navigated the sidelines in the late 1940s and early 1950s on the field that has been christened with his name since 1983.

Parker coached the Beavers from 1947-1949 and for another year in 1951, compiling a 21-6-1 record and winning the North Dakota Intercollegiate Conference in 1948. He has the ninth-most wins in program history and his .768 winning percentage is the highest among MSU football coaches who have coached at least 20 games. He and Ken Becker (.765) are the only two coaches to have a .700 or higher winning percentage under those parameters.

The Jamestown native was much more than just a football coach. He wore many different hats during the span of his 86 years of life. He was also an athlete, basketball and track and field coach, referee, teacher, musician, Dean of Men, hall of famer, board member and athletic director. But most importantly, he was a husband, father and family man. And a great one at that.

“What I’m most proud of my dad is that he was a great dad and a great family man,” said Herb Parker Jr, Herb Parker’s son. “That would come before anything, but he was a great coach and I really enjoyed going to the ball games when I was a kid and hanging out with him when we would go to the gym when we were practicing ball. He was a great guy, not just the coaching, but the person that he was.”

Herb Parker

Herb Parker was born on Jan. 18, 1921, in Jamestown and was an all-conference athlete and captain of the Jamestown College basketball team. He moved to Dickinson in 1942 after college and went on to teach at Dickinson High School, where he also coached for five years.

In 1947, Herb Parker experienced two major life events. The first – in terms of chronological order – was accepting his first college head coaching job at Minot State, and the second was becoming a father for the second time. Herb Parker and his wife had welcomed their first child, a daughter, in 1945 while still in Dickinson. In the fall of 1947, they had their only son, Herb Parker Jr.

Herb Parker Jr. was only four years old by the time his father had stepped away from coaching football, but his tenure coaching basketball was still in its infancy stages and therefore Herb Parker Jr. spent plenty of time over at the basketball arena.

“When I was a kid I used to be able to jump on the trampoline or go over and shoot baskets,” Herb Parker Jr. said. “That was always nice. I went to a lot of basketball games as a kid knowing that my dad was coaching.”

Herb Parker Jr. said he never helped out at practice or traveled with his dad on road trips to games, but they would spend plenty of time together on the court shooting hoops and working to improve his game. Herb Parker Jr. played football and basketball in high school, following in his father’s footsteps, although he said his father never pressured him into sports or any other interest of his growing up. Whatever he chose to do with his life, his father was supportive.

Herb Parker was every bit as good of a basketball coach as he was a football coach. He coached the Beavers from 1948-1959, winning the second-most games in program history with 175, trailing only Mike Hultz (194). His .673 winning percentage is best among Beaver coaches on the hardwood amongst those who have coached at least 10 games.

“He was great with his players,” Herb Parker Jr. said. “He was fair with his players and he knew a lot about coaching. He was a standout basketball player in college and in high school, too. He knew his stuff. Let’s just put it that way.”

In today’s world of coaching, many coaches are absent from family life during the majority of the year, spending 18-20 hours in their office looking over game film or at practice or taking a road trip to scout future talent. But Herb Parker always made sure to be home for his family each and every night his team wasn’t on the road. He wasn’t going to miss any major family moment.

Herb Parker also served as the university’s athletic director throughout his coaching tenure, holding the position from 1947-59 and again from 1974-76. After leaving the ranks of coaching in 1959, he became the Dean of Men at MSU, tasked with watching over the male population at the school and ensuring that they stayed out of trouble while also aiding them with their studies and activities.

That was just one of the many different interests he explored when he was done with coaching. He was also a member of Vincent United Methodist Church, the Minot Country Club, where he served as president, the Eagles Aerie and was a former member of the Elks Lodge, the Minot Y’s Men’s Club and Rotary Club. He served on the Board of Directors of Norsk Hostfest and MSU’s Board of Regents and was also a charter member and long-time secretary of the Beaver Boosters Club. He served as the faculty representative for the North Dakota Collegiate Athletic Conference and the eligibility chairman for the NAIA District 12. And he was a long-time football and basketball official. He officiated football games for 27 years and refereed basketball contests for 24 years, while managing three state Class B boys basketball tournaments as well as numerous regional and state track meets.

His life’s accomplishments have enshrined him in the Jamestown Athletic Hall of Fame, MSU Athletics Hall of Fame, ND Officials Hall of Fame and the NAIA Hall of Fame, honors his son says his father was extremely proud of. He was also the recipient of the MSU Alumni Golden Award, the highest award bestowed by the MSU Alumni Association. It highlights outstanding service to the university, alumni association of their community, and distinguished leadership in the recipient’s career or community.

In 1983, Minot State honored Herb Parker with another grand gesture: honoring the football stadium in his name.

“We learned about it before and then they had the ceremony in the fall of 1983 at the stadium,” Herb Parker Jr. said. “We were there. It was just a really neat honor. It’s great. I’m very proud of that.”

It wasn’t a secret by any means, but one aspect of Herb Parker’s life that not many people knew outside of his family and friends circle was his love for music. The Parker household contained musical instruments like the piano, guitar, ukulele and banjo, as the music bug ran in the family.

“He was a good musician,” Herb Parker Jr. said. “We used to get together and I would play the piano and he would play the guitar or play the ukulele and the whole family would get together and do singalongs. That was one thing he really enjoyed. His mom was a really good musician, so that was one of the influences for sure. He just had a good ear for music and he really enjoyed country music.”

Herb Parker Jr. was a music teacher in Minot for a bit before spending the majority of his educational career at Williston High School and Williston State College before retiring and moving to Fargo. He will be at the stadium named for his father for the homecoming festivities, where he will sing the national anthem before MSU’s 2 p.m. kickoff against Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday, Sept. 13.

Herb Parker Jr. learned a lot from his dad during their time together, whether it was shooting hoops on campus or hanging out at home. But his biggest takeaway from being the son of a legendary coach was how to be a better man.

“Honesty, integrity and all that stuff,” Herb Parker Jr. said. “The important things of being a good person. That’s what I got from my dad, and my mom, too.”