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Courtney, in voice that booms, out to build army of good

By , Daily Memphian Updated: November 25, 2024 8:55 AM CT | Published: November 25, 2024 4:00 AM CT

If Bill Courtney is tired of making a difference, of lending his can-do spirit to move people to act on the things they think someone else ought to fix, nothing in his booming voice or body language shows it.

He plowed 30 hours a week into coaching the lackluster Manassas High School football team into the stuff of legend — a feat relived in the 2011 Academy Award-winning movie “Undefeated.”


Hill: They said she’d never touch her toes again. Now she’s a yoga teacher.


For 18 months now, he’s been giving heroes — many of unknown — a national platform to tell how they saw a need in their communities and plugged themselves in.

His weekly podcast, “An Army of Normal Folks,” produced in Memphis and distributed by iHeart, rocketed to the Top 10 on Apple in its first month. It now has 19,000 subscribers and 70,000 downloads a month.

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Bill Courtney An Army of Normal Folks Alex Cortes Subscriber Only

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Jane Roberts

Jane Roberts

Longtime journalist Jane Roberts is a Minnesotan by birth and a Memphian by choice. She's lived and reported in the city more than two decades. She covers business news and features for The Daily Memphian.


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