Today, many people across the country will be giving their father’s gifts and cards, taking him out to dinner or just telling him that they love him.

Father’s Day was first celebrated in the United States in 1908 and became a federal holiday in 1966 as a way for children to pay tribute to the men who helped raise and support them.

My father was always involved in the lives of his three children when we were growing up.

He coached my sister, brother and I in Little League Baseball each year. After we had finished playing, I calculated that he had coached at least one of us for 17 consecutive summers. Now that’s dedication.

One of my favorite childhood sporting memories is my Little League coach pitch team, the Cardinals, winning the league championship with Blake Edwards as the skipper.

We ran through the regular season with just one loss and finished in first place. I still have the No.1 trophy in my old bedroom.

That was the last year my dad coached me in baseball, as I moved to a different age group.

He stayed in coach pitch to coach my sister’s team. After my sister quit playing, he moved back down to T-ball and started coaching my brother Will, who had just turned 5 and was playing for the first time.

He would then proceed to coach Will until he stopped playing at age 15.

I sometimes give my dad grief for only coaching me for a few years while continuing to coach Will’s team all the way through when he was a teenager.

He always gets me back by telling me I needed more help at baseball than he could give me, so he thought he’d give someone else a try to coach me.

Touché.

But while my dad couldn’t ever get me to become a successful baseball player (don’t worry, nobody could), he did instill in me one thing, and that was how to yell at a television screen when there is a football game in progress.

Growing up in Florence, Ala., I cheered for the Crimson Tide, just like my dad while my mom, who attended Auburn for a year, pulled for the Tigers.

When Auburn was on TV, me and daddy would sit quietly and try not to say or do anything that would upset my mom, such as cheer for the other team.

If Auburn lost, we would go in another room and celebrate quietly, hoping mama wouldn’t walk in and see us.

Some fond memories include me and my dad watching the Alabama, Auburn game in the basement, yelling at the TV while my mom watched it upstairs.

Daddy always gets pretty emotional during games, especially if his two most hated teams, Auburn and Tennessee, are playing.

“Nothing sucks like a Big Orange” is his favorite saying about Tennessee, and he only referred to former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville by “needlenose.”

I am happy to say I have carried that part of my father on, much to the chagrin of my wife.

So thanks dad for coaching my baseball team, coming to all my band concerts and instilling my disain of the University of Tennessee and the pumpkin orange color.

And to all the fathers out there who have coached their children, taken them fishing or hunting, or just spent quality time with them every day, thanks.

Young people need a strong father’s influence in their lives and I was fortunate to have one.

So happy Father’s Day dads everywhere. You deserve it.

Jeff Edwards is the sports editor for The Democrat. He can be reached at sports@natchezdemocrat.com.