Interview by Jeff Mayfield

Calling the play-by-play

Reflections on life and tradition at Lincoln Christian College

[MARCH 30, 2000]  Lynn Laughlin coached basketball at Lincoln Christian College for 17 years. He also coached the baseball team. Many of you readers are aware of the storied history of Lincoln Railer basketball, but on the east side of Lincoln rests a school that has shared some of that spotlight mostly from the shadows. Lynn followed the storied career of Marion Henderson and has enough great memories to fill up a large highlight reel. I met him at his current dean of students office to get his thoughts on the way things used to be.

Q: Lynn, I know you grew up in Springfield, but had planned to play ball here in Lincoln. Later that resulted in you becoming an assistant coach and eventually the head coach at LCC. Take us through that progression.

A: My father introduced me to Coach Henderson from Lincoln Bible College. I made the decision to attend the school in Lincoln when I was about a junior in high school. I had met [Coach Henderson] at camp and knew him from other activities as well. But when I actually arrived in Lincoln, Mr. Henderson was gone. He was working on his doctorate degree. So, the fella that I played for starting in 1960, for those first two years, was a guy by the name of Phil Lockhart. Henderson came back, and I did get to play for him my last two years. The assistant coach during that time was Kent Hickerson, who is now the minister over at the Clinton Christian Church. Kent ended up marrying one of the cheerleaders and they left town. So, I was asked if I would be willing to take on that responsibility. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do at that time in my life, but it sounded like a great opportunity. I obviously loved athletics. Sports meant a lot to me at that time in my life. After some time in thought and prayer, I decided to take him up on his offer.

 


    [Coach Laughlin with one of his early teams]

 

So, I went into graduate school here in our seminary and became the assistant coach. Not long after that [Henderson] began to talk about me taking over for him. We needed to get a couple of years out to get past the players that I had played with that were still on the team. As their assistant, it wasn’t always the easiest spot to be in. I mean, I had a lot of insights to what was going on both on and off the court, but they didn’t always want to hear from someone just a year or two older than themselves. So we worked together three years and then two more. After 15-16 years of coaching he hung it up and I took over. He did end up coaching our girls team, and he continued to do a fine job as our athletic director, which was a help to me through those years. I became the head coach in 1969 and coached for 17 years.

Q: Since you’ve been out of coaching for several years, what do you miss about coaching?

A: Basically, I miss the relationship with the ball players. Do I miss practice for two hours every night from October to March? No. Do I miss the actual games? Yes, I miss that aspect. Most of all, I miss the time spent on road trips getting to know the players. People say you probably miss the road trips. Well, not really. You don’t miss always being away or the wear and tear on you. But the trips were where relationships were built. That’s where you got to know the guys.

Q: Do any of those trips stand out in your memory?

A: One of the first ones was down in Kentucky. We annually play Kentucky Christian College. Every time we went there, I was just enamored with the hills and how beautiful it was down there. This will also give you an insight into the rivalry that exists between us and our sister schools. My freshman year I had the opportunity to be a starter. When we got to Kentucky, instead of staying in a hotel, they put us up in their dorm rooms. I met some of their students and we started talking. I asked them what they did for fun. He said that they like to go caving. I told him that that sounded exciting to me, and he asked me if I wanted to go with them. I told him that we have a game tonight, but that we could go after the game. They got all their gear together. They had lanterns and ropes--you name it, they had it. They thought that since I was a freshman that I probably rode the bench and wasn’t going to see much playing time. When we all got back to the dorm, they were a little upset that I hadn’t told them that I was a starter. I then asked them what that had to do with anything. They then asked who we were gonna play the next day and I told them Cincinnati Bible College (which just happens to be Kentucky’s fiercest rival). Their response to me was that you’re not going caving. You’re going to bed right now. We want you guys to kill ’em tomorrow night. Needless to say, I did not get to go caving.

I started to plan a way to see the scenery down there around the college. My first year as an assistant, I asked Coach Henderson about taking the team to Carter’s Caves. He said that there was no way we were going there, and I couldn’t complain too loudly about that decision. For the next six years we drove all the way down there passing Carter’s caves and never getting to visit them. My first year as head coach, we planned it and we went to Carter’s caves. I can remember Craig Zastrow’s team and I had stayed in that cave for hours and we had a blast. That trip will always be one of my coaching highlights.

 


[Laughlin]

 

A few years later we got some new vans and traveled to Joplin, Mo., to play Ozark Bible College. We’d get on Rangeline and we’d have to cross over to Main Street, so we took the Seventh Street viaduct, which had a median. The freshmen were in the back of the vans. I would be in the lead van and start driving down Seventh Street. When I got to the median, I would switch to the wrong side of the median and act like nothing was wrong. Each year’s new freshmen would go berserk. Once while we were driving down Main Street, a player by the name of David Meding pointed out some guy on the sidewalk. I accidentally hopped the curb and got on the sidewalk and closer to that guy than Meding could believe. David turned whiter than a sheet.

Q: I recall that LCC’s team was way ahead of its central Illinois counterparts when you guys actually flew to a game. What was the story behind that?

A: We had a player by the name of Denny Taft whose parents owned the Heritage House Smorgasbord down in Springfield. He was getting his pilot’s license from local pilot trainer Norm Clark. Denny was able to get his dad’s company plane, and he asked me if he could fly the team to Cincinnati. As it worked out, he got the plane and another pilot to fly us to Ohio for our game there. Seven players, the starters and first two off the bench got to fly there. On the way home some of the others got to fly back. The freshmen had to ride in the vans round trip. That also happened at Ozark. In 1967 or ’68 when Ting Welch was here, we flew to Joplin on a converted B-52 bomber. One of our superstars, Galen Winters, did not want to fly back on the plane, so I got his spot on the return flight. You don’t see those types of experiences at very many small colleges.

Q: What kind of changes do you see in college basketball today?

A: I think the game has risen to a much higher level of play--the intensity of the game; the strategy involved in the game. There’s always been strategy. I used to go to the coaches’ clinics and listen to the masters like UCLA coach John Wooden. But the strategies today are so much more complex. Coaches today can break down about any aspect of the game that they want to. Plays are broken down, moves are broken down and they happen in this kind of a sequence. And until you master the first part of the sequence you’re not going anywhere. Today you’ve got to get the first step followed by the second step before you can even get to the third step, and THEN you can talk about putting the thing together. That aspect of the game has changed dramatically.

 

 

 

 

 

Kids today are also better athletes. They have greater opportunity to be better. If you would’ve given the athletes in my day all of the camps, the weight rooms, trainers and such, they would’ve probably been just as outstanding. These kids today have done so much more than we did before we even hit organized ball. They’ve played in leagues, camps and AAU, the weights and machines, they started at a very young age and everybody talks about what you need to do to improve. When we were growing up, everybody met at somebody’s house to hoop it up in someone’s driveway—same thing with baseball. You went down to a corner vacant lot, picked up teams and started playing. And you did all that before you even got to organized sports. Today there’s T leagues, bantams, juniors and everything in between. I can’t remember any instruction that I ever got at that early of an age. There may have been some teaching, but I sure don’t remember it. That aspect of sports has changed dramatically.

Q: What about recruiting at a small college like Lincoln Christian College. You’ve got a small facility here and you offer no scholarships. Has recruiting changed at all?

A: Initially, we began by finding or identifying kids that were interested in Bible college. If they were interested in Bible college, we had a real shot at them. Back in those days, even though our facility was small, at least we had one. Many of our sister schools did not even have a gym. What we were able to do was to start a tradition. When it came to Bible college basketball, we were pretty much the team that people wanted to beat, and they would gauge their season by how they fared against us. We were the team that dominated year after year. Then our sister schools built new facilities and we were left with a more primitive building. Obviously at that point, we lost our competitive edge. We certainly still have a home court advantage, but it is a real detriment when we go on the road. It was hard to recruit during that time and it has become even harder now. We have some college teams that will not play us in our gym.

Q: What about your relationship with Coach Allen Pickering at Lincoln College and other coaches in central Illinois?

A: I can remember when coach "Pick" first came to Lincoln. Back in those days LCC and LC played on a regular basis and it was a strong rivalry, even heated at times. Because of some of the incidences at both schools, that relationship ended and no games were scheduled between the two schools. And there wasn’t much of a relationship between the two schools for a while.

Fortunately when "Pick" came to town, he came over and introduced himself and really wanted to resume the series between the two schools. Allen was not aware of the history of the series, but still he and I wanted to resume a relationship. So we started scrimmaging each other during the pre-season. I’m glad to say that that is still continuing even now. In the beginning it was very healthy for both of us. He was just starting over there and was able to evaluate what he had. We felt that if we could compete against LC that we would really fare well in the Bible college games. Over the years it became less of an advantage for him, but he was still gracious enough to give us some of that valuable scrimmage time. And our relationship continued to grow with LC on other fronts to the point where we champion each other’s causes today. An example: Tom Zurkhammer, an LC administrator, officiated both basketball and baseball for us. He always has done an outstanding job for us and in my estimation is still one of the better officials around.

Q: What about great teams or great players that stick out in your mind?

A: My first team really sticks out in my mind. Former Lincoln resident Craig Zastrow (prepped at Clinton) was on that team. He played with Barry Brewer and Galen Winters (Cisne). Unfortunately the three-point shot was not around yet, or that team might have set even more records. My ’77-’78 and ’78-’79 teams were probably the best ones that I had. Jeff Green came here from Springfield-Southeast and was just a phenomenal player. He played alongside Paul Sims (Columbus, Ohio, and later to become an LCC head coach), Todd Zastrow (Clinton) Gene Adams (Sullivan), and the reporter doing this interview [Jeff Mayfield]. With that team, LCC basketball climbed up a notch. We had a couple of decent teams before them, but in my estimation that was probably the best team that we ever had. We didn’t lose to any NCCAA schools for two years, but we weren’t in the association yet.

Baseball-wise we’ve had some really good teams, but never that one outstanding year that sticks in your mind. One of the best players we ever had was Randy Sanders (Waupan, Wis.)--probably the most brilliant baseball mind you could ask for. [He was] a great defensive player with a rocket arm and an outstanding hitter. Pretty much the complete package. He possessed a great attitude and was a fierce competitor. Darrell Schroyer was both a great basketball and a great baseball player. David Lingle still holds a lot of our baseball records, especially in the area of home runs. By the end of his career, he had become a fabulous hitter. Curt Swan (Clearwater, Fla.) was the best base-stealer we ever had. He was not exceptionally fast, but was able to read the pitcher’s moves and always had the advantage. He was also a pretty decent pitcher. Another one of our better hitters was Brad Bumgardner (Rockville, Ind.) and also Bobby Sheets (Evansville, Ind.), who caught and played third base for us. Mike McElyea (Decatur) was a very good pitcher. David Upchurch (Rochester) was an excellent shortstop and a solid player offensively and defensively. Lance Hurley (San Diego, Calif.) was a good second baseman. Larry Morris was a good shortstop and pitcher. Doug Caldwell was one of the biggest and best first basemen we ever had. Les Cord had one of the strongest arms in small college baseball. One time he threw the ball so hard from center field that the ball kept rising and rising and it went over the backstop on a line. It was amazing. Paul Sims was probably the smartest athlete that we had. He understood the game and may have seen it better than I did at the time as his coach. I never met someone at his young age that understood more about the game than he did. Today, he is one of the brightest high school coaching minds that I know of.

Q: I’ll close by asking you the current state of LCC athletics. What does her future hold?

A: If we could ever get a facility, I think we are poised to make some huge advancements. We’ve got an excellent basketball coach (and athletic director) in Randy Kirk, who has a thorough understanding of the game. All of our other sports are on the rise now as well. At LCC, you’re a student first and an athlete second. That will never change.

We have a history of great coaches and I think players with an outstanding work ethic that overcome the deficiencies of the facilities and the limited budget, stuff like that. We’re still gonna get the great athletes like Josh Rutledge (Mattoon) and Gabe Rutledge (Lincoln), and we will always compete hard when we hit the court or take the field. So we will continue to have good teams and with a new facility we will only get better.

 

 

[Jeff Mayfield]

 

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