1. Forby Leonard Skinner was an American high school gym teacher, basketball coach, and businessman from Jacksonville, Florida.
11 Facts About Leonard Skinner
1. 2.
Leonard Skinner is known in popular culture as the eponym of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd; Skinner was the band members' teacher.
3.
Leonard Skinner attended Jacksonville Junior College on a basketball scholarship before being drafted into the US Army.
4.
For many years, Skinner was a gym teacher at his alma mater, Robert E Lee High School.
5.
Leonard Skinner maintained that he was merely enforcing the school policy.
6.
The group reportedly changed their name after Leonard Skinner sent Rossington and others to the principal's office for wearing their hair too long.
7.
Leonard Skinner later taught at Jacksonville Technical High School and retired from coaching in 1970.
8.
Leonard Skinner worked in the real estate business during the 1970s, and in 1975, he allowed the band to use a photo of his "Leonard Skinner Realty" sign for the inside of their third album, Nuthin' Fancy.
9.
Leonard Skinner became friends with some members of the band, and they played at a bar that Leonard Skinner opened in Jacksonville called "The Still".
10.
Leonard Skinner named a couple of bars after himself, capitalizing on the fame of the name.
11.
On September 20,2010, Leonard Skinner died at age 77 in a nursing home in Jacksonville, having suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years.