It's a common habit nowadays to overuse words to the point that their past impact becomes obscured, perhaps even lost altogether. "Dynasty," "genius," "________ of the century" and "superstar" (among other terms) have become so hackneyed that their past impact is forever diminished.

"Legend" is another such word.

In truth, there are not many living legends in our midst. The word just gets thrown around too much. If everyone were legendary, even if millions of people on earth met the criteria, the word would be hopelessly redundant.

But Friday night, April 20, at Middle Baptist Church in the heart of Whitehaven, a true legend, Sylvester Ford, was feted in style in front of an adoring crowd of friends, fans, colleagues and people whose lives he changed forever. A large contingent of student-athletes from the Fairley High School Class of 2012 were there to show their respect to the guy known to most who know him well as "Big Time."

"I miss him already," said Fairley senior guard Rodney Lee.

Ford came about his nickname "Big Time" honestly. He is a true mountain of a man, a full 6'6" tall with broad shoulders, huge hands, a larger than life personality, and fittingly enough, more wins than anyone else in MIAA coaching history (687). And he doesn't shy from calling himself what he really is: a legend.

As he prepared for what was destined to be his final season as Fairley's sideline general, the legend pulled me aside at a Jamboree and regaled me with a series of stories from his past. He concluded the session by saying how much he looked forward to beating some of his longtime nemeses just one more time, despite having a rag tag band of Bulldogs who, on paper at least, didn't look too imposing.

Ford promised me his guys were good enough to make the Regionals. When I asked him how he could be so sure--reminding him that this same group hadn't won very much the past season--Ford hit me with his trademark crooked grin and said gruffly:

"They don't call me a legend for nothing!"

The legend began at Manassas High School, when Ford actually wrested the nickname "Big Time" away from an older student at the school and made it his own. Meanwhile, Ford and his ball playing friends at Manassas began honing their craft at only the second indoor gymnasium in the inner city (BTW had the first).

His coaching career began at Oakhaven High School, and continued as an assistant at one of his former rival schools, iconic Northside, under the equally legendary Marion Brewer. It wasn't until Ford got to his third coaching stop, though, the now-defunct Tech High School, that the legend of Sylvester "Big Time" Ford coalesced.

It was at Tech High, with its open enrollment, that Ford perfected a controversial art, according to one of his roasters.

"It was at Tech High that Sylvester Ford invented recruiting!" declared friend and longtime foil Robert Newman, the current Melrose High athletic director who locked horns with Ford on sidelines for years during their glory days. "Ford had the only swimming pool in the 'hood and all of a sudden, guys from all over the city seemed to want to learn how to swim.

"It's funny, though, the only kids who came to learn how to swim seemed to be able to play basketball."

At this point in the roast, Ford felt the need to set matters straight.

"Those guys were beating my brains in!" Ford exclaimed. "But Tech had open enrollment. By rule, I could have anybody in the city. Anybody who wanted to come to the school could register, no matter where they lived."

"Big Time" won scores of games, but for years couldn't take home the big prize, the Gold Ball awarded to state champions at Murfreesboro. And to this day, one can hear the pain in Ford's voice when he recounts his many losses on the state tournament level. But the old ball coach took the losses to heart in his own inimitable way.

"The Good Lord was telling me, 'Big Time, it's not your time just yet,'" Ford said wistfully. "There were so many nights I thought I should just get out of coaching, that I wasn't good enough. I really thought I would never win the 'big one.'"

It was his own son, though, who fully catapulted Ford into the stratosphere of true legends. When Sylvester Ford, Jr.--you no doubt know him better as "Deuce"--hit the campus of Fairley High School, Ford Sr.'s final coaching stop, in 1989, destiny seemed to finally be on Big Time's side.

Except that it almost didn't happen.

"I secretly went and enrolled at Whitehaven," Deuce admitted at the roast, almost 23 years after the fact. "But it wasn't long before he (Ford Sr.) found out. And when he confronted me about it the night he found out, I was literally in fear for my life.

"His eyes got really red and he screamed at me, 'Boy, you know you ain't goin' nowhere else! You're gonna play for me! I'm your coach!' And since I didn't want to die that night, I decided I'd better go to Fairley."

No matter how Deuce chooses to explain the emotions of the always difficult father-son coaching dynamic, the passing decades will never diminish what this duo were able to accomplish. Sylvester "Big Time" Ford finally won the big one, going 37-1 en route to taking home the 1993 TSSAA State Championship, while his son Deuce became Tennessee AAA Mr. Basketball and took home both Parade and McDonald's All-America honors.

Big Time soldiered on for years after that, winning hundreds more games and touching countless lives. He ran basketball camps for youths in Whitehaven for years. And he roamed the sidelines of Fairley High School with the authority that only a true legend can wield.

Occasionally, though, he had to make changes.

"I used to be crazy," he admits unabashedly. "I was a wild man. I had to learn that I couldn't do all that crazy stuff anymore."

So now, he's come to the end of the road. He's been on the sidelines for 36 years and 687 wins. But it was time to move on. Big Time will be missed.