The high school gym coach who inspired the name of the best Southern rock band ever has died at the age of 77:
Leonard Skinner, the no-nonsense, flattopped basketball coach and gym teacher whose name is forever linked with Jacksonville’s legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd, died in his sleep early Monday morning. He was 77.
His son, also named Leonard Skinner, said his father had a bowl of ice cream just past midnight — he loved ice cream — and then was found dead around 2:30 a.m. He had been a resident of St. Catherine Laboure Manor, a nursing home in Riverside, for a year, his son said. He had Alzheimer’s disease.
