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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.
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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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