Pat Courington Sr

Pat Murphy Courington Sr (born February 3, 1917 in Saragossa; died September 16, 2010 in Albertville) was the founder of WQSB-AM and one of the founders of the Sand Mountain Reporter. He expanded his media holdings with newspaper ad printing presses in Florida and South Carolina.

Courington grew up in Walker County and graduated from Walker High School in Jasper, where he excelled in football. He attended Howard College on a football scholarship and, after graduating he reported to the Philadelphia Eagles farm team, playing for one season. He married Tommie Dorris Williams, niece of Senator John Sparkman's wife, on August 1, 1940.

After leaving football, the Couringtons moved to Birmingham and Pat worked for Gulf Oil Company, and later for the Southern Railroad. His job shoveling coal for the railroad exempted him from service in World War II.

In 1946 Albertville High School hired him to coach football, basketball and baseball. He found a job in radio two years later, joining the staff of WAVU-AM. In 1949 he launched his own WQSB station. Then in 1955 he helped launch Sand Mountain Reporter, which was the first newspaper in the state and the third in the United States to be printed on offset presses.

In 1960 Courington opened a bowling center in Scottsboro, which he renovated into a skating rink in the 1970s. In the early 1960s he puchased three weekly newspapers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He founded Florida Sun Printing in Callahan, Florida in 1962 and the Carolina Printing Center in Cayce, South Carolina in 1965. That same year he was one of the founders of WCRI-AM in Scottsboro. He retired from business in 1989.

Courington died after a stay at the Albertville Nursing Home. He was survived by his second wife, Emily; his son, Pat Jr; and daughter Chella.

References

• Green, Lionel (September 18, 2010) "Media ‘giant’ Pat Courington Sr. dead at 93." Sand Mountain Reporter