Charles Thomas "C.T." Manley was born on June 25, 1916 in Lawrence County, Alabama. He later attended Hazlewood high school where he played football for the Golden Bears before graduating in 1937. He attended Perkinston Junior College before transferring to Southeastern Louisiana where he was a three year letterman. He graduated from Southeastern in 1941.

He would break into the coaching ranks as an assistant at Southeastern under A.W. Morton before Uncle Sam called during World War II. He served in the Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge before returning home and accepting the head coaching job at Colbert County in 1946 for one season.

The next year he would follow Coach Morton to Virginia Military Institute and Mississippi State as an assistant coach. In 1953 he returned to the high school coaching ranks by accepting the head coaching position at Red Bay.

One year later Colbert County came calling again and after being convinced to take the job he returned as the Indians head coach. For the next 24 seasons his teams would win, and win consistently. His record at Colbert County was 164 wins, 80 losses and 8 ties with two undefeated teams.

His team was runner-up in the first year of the Class 3A state football playoffs in 1967. That team lost to Russellville 13-6 in the championship game. He produced the first undefeated and untied team in Indian history in 1972 with a perfect 13-0 record and the schools first State Championship.

That team defeated Cullman 41-14 for the title. The team was loaded with talent including Ozzie Newsome, Phil Gargis and Thad Flannagan. Following the 1972 season Colbert County honored their coach by naming the stadium C.T. Manley Stadium.

In 1978 Coach Manley would leave Colbert County for the head coaching job at Muscle Shoals. In three seasons his teams managed a combined record of 17-12. He would retire from coaching following the 1980 season. Manleys overall record in 29 seasons at three schools was 182-99-8. He was named coach of the year in 1967, 1971 and 1972.

Manley was inducted into the AHSAA Hall of Fame in 1991. He was also inducted into the Hall of Fame for Southeastern Louisiana, Colbert County High School, Colbert County Sports and Lawrence County High School.

Coach Manley,88, died December 31, 2007 in Leighton.