It took almost 60 years, but love found a way for Dennard Scoggins and Wanda Parrish.

Scoggins, a former football coach at John Milledge Academy, and Parrish were married last October after meeting as students at Georgia Southern in 1960. 

So how did they get back together after so long?

The short version:

“Well, he begged and begged and begged,” Wanda said with a big laugh.

“Wait, she asked me to marry her,” Dennard said as both laughed.

Then, there’s a longer version from each of them.

DENNARD SCOGGINS

“I was going to my first class, English 101, at Georgia Southern when I saw Wanda. She was ahead of me and [us] guys always want to sit behind a pretty, smart woman. And I needed some help in English. I knew I wasn’t the brightest student there, and then I found Miss Wanda. She helped me, and we kind of hit it off, and we went together at Georgia Southern for two years. 

“Then, I think we both kind of felt we had too much left to do so we kind of — I don’t want to say broke up — but we went our separate ways, as a lot of people do. For me, when I got to caring for a girl too much, I sort of split.

“She had a wonderful life with her husband (Dan Parrish) and I had a wonderful life with my wife (Pat). Wanda and her husband were big Georgia Southern football supporters. Pat and I were too. Wanda was the secretary of Southern Boosters when the football program first started. Wanda and I both served on the Georgia Southern Alumni Association together. So we would see each other at football games and other functions.

“Then my wife died in March 2016, and Wanda’s husband died a month and a half later. I went to his funeral and Wanda and I talked and visited a little bit. We both continued to support Georgia Southern. I had season tickets and she had a pocketful of tickets to the games because of all her connections. We started going to all the Southern games together, and we did that for almost three years.

“We had talked a couple of years about getting married and I said I wanted to propose at a Georgia Southern football game. So at the first home game this past September, we went on the field at halftime. I had gotten it approved by the athletics director. I got down on one knee on the football field and proposed. 

“We were in front of the student section and they really got into it. So, not only did I ask Wanda to marry me, but I asked the entire Georgia Southern nation if they approved of me because most everybody knows Miss Wanda. The students roared and clapped a whole bunch, and one of the Savannah TV stations was there to film the whole thing. 

“We got married on Oct. 18 on the steps of the Georgia Southern administration building (next to an area called Sweetheart Circle.) The Savannah TV news came back for the wedding. The next day the preacher at the First Baptist Church in Statesboro preached a sermon about what he saw at the game, and how older people can connect with young people.”

WANDA SCOGGINS

“I know I should like a politician. You get between me and a microphone, you’re in trouble. Dennard’s the same way, so we’re learning to share the spotlight. Ironically, Dennard and Pat did not have any children and Dan and I did not have any children. Pat was an only child and my husband was an only child. So now we’re sort of like two drifters off to see the world. 

“It was a natural thing to get back together. The year after Pat died, they asked Dennard to come back to TiftArea Academy to be athletics director for a year and he decided to do it although we had sort of made a connection by then. But during Thanksgiving weekend he was in a really bad wreck, and he’d didn’t go back to work at the school until the following March. I stayed with him while he was in the hospital and in rehab (in Jacksonville, Fla.). I helped stick him back together. So we sort of had a baptism by fire that first year. And, as Dennard said, we had talked about getting married.

“People had asked where does he live? And I said, ‘Out of his car.’ You know coaches move around so he had property in several places, and I had sort of settled down in Metter.”

THE AFTERMATH

Dennard and Wanda were in Milledgeville this past week, checking on some of his property down toward Sparta. Scoggins started the football programs at John Hancock Academy and Brentwood School before becoming the first full-time head football coach at the then-fledgling program at John Milledge. He also coached and served as an administrator at other schools in Georgia before retiring. 

Dennard, 78, and Wanda, 76, now call Metter home, but they like to spend time at their house at Fernandina Beach. That’s where they plan to be this Valentine’s Day weekend. 

“It’s just been a wonderful story and we’re as happy as we can be, and if I’m lucky I’ll get a bag of M&M’s with peanuts (for Valentine’s),” Wanda said, laughing. 

“But you talk about being on a honeymoon. We feel like we’ve been on a honeymoon the past several years. It’s a joy being back together.”