SPORTS THE DEARBORN COUNTY REGISTER
PAGE 10
THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2018
© REGISTER PUBLICATIONS, 2018
Last roundup for the Meadormen Lawrenceburg Hall of Fame coach’s legacy will endure
Surely every one of the hundreds of kids who strapped on an old-school, plain orange Riddell football helmet for Lawrenceburg High School between 1970-81 has a favorite Dick Meador story, or image. The two-time state championship Indiana Hall of Fame coach’s passing Sunday night, at age 83, brings back a flood of memories. Mine doesn’t involve those Friday nights under the lights, which were the fun part. Rather, it goes back to those long, hot, double sessions of summer PE in the old LHS gym (pre-air conditioning). In those ancient days, when every door and window in the gym was left wide-open to encourage what little ventilation was available, football-specific drills were strictly prohibited in the off-season. Summer PE consisted mainly of stretching and conditioning; running, from time sprints to the dreaded mile on the cinder track; and weightlifting on that shiny new-fangled Universal gym machine, which was crammed into the old laundry room downstairs. Coach Meador had this unmistakable deep, somewhat gravelly, baritone voice. Combined with his down-home Southern Indiana (Cannelton) drawl, it fit perfectly with the persona of the football coach.
In those sweltering summer days in the gym, or the weight room, he’d sometimes break into song. But his repertoire seemed limited only to his favorite JIM line from his BUCHBERGER favorite song - “Ol’ Man River,” from the popular Broadway musical “Showboat,” and later films, famously sung by the legendary Paul Robeson. “Body all achin’ and racked with pain,” Meador would sing, in his best basso profundo. And we’d all groan, while sweating, straining - and smiling. There’s another summer PE image I’ll never get out of my head, either. Usually, some kind of games ended the morning sessions, especially Gatorball, the soccer/flag football hybrid that Coach brought from his U.S. Army service. Arguably, it allowed the coaches to judge a player’s athleticism and competitiveness, long before we were allowed to don football gear. On rainy days, cooped up in the gym, sometimes we divided the class in half for dodgeball free-for-alls. One memorable day on a jam-packed gym floor, with
JIM BUCHBERGER/The Register
Indiana Football Hall of Fame coach Dick Meador, with wife Zoe by his side, waves to the crowd during the re-dedication of Dick Meador Stadium/Neary Memorial Field at the start of the 2014 season. dodgeballs flying in every direction, someone rared back and launched a floor-length heave. The long-distance throw just happened to connect squarely with the back of the head of senior Mike Franze who had been walking away from the chaos, with his back turned.
JIM BUCHBERGER/The Register
Meador is front and center for a team photo as the undefeated (13-0) Tigers celebrate their second Class A state championship, a 13-0 victory over Fountain Central in 1978.
Mike wasn’t hurt, so much as embarassed. But even he had to grin. Meador witnessed the whole thing. Somewhere, from way down deep in those robust Ohio River Valley lungs, came that rumbling bass laugh, which seemed to reverberate throughout the entire gym. It echoed for half an hour - or felt like it did. I can still hear it. Sure, Meador and his coaching staff were tough and demanding. I can remember hearing horror stories about the Tigers’ practices already in junior high. Upperclassmen, like Chris Bartley, claimed to have just enough energy left to crawl into bed after making it home from a Meador practice. When we got to high school, we learned exactly what they meant. “Our two-a-day practices won’t be any tougher than boot camp, if you go into the military service,” Meador would warn us heading to those hot August days in the shadow of the levee, on the
that includes current LHS head coach Ryan Knigga. In recent months, it was tough to see the decline in the strapping, active leader, whose fitness level always was second to none. Nobody ever questioned or challenged Coach Meador, because we knew he had, and could, outwork and out-hustle us all. I was shocked when, visiting my mother-in-law at Ridgewood Health Campus last year, to find Coach Meador in a wheelchair, wearing a neck brace after injuring himself in a fall at home. Clearly in some discomfort, he still managed to grin and make light of his condition. He bounced back from that one, one more time. But the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease are one of the cruelest fates. Coach handled it as well as he could, for as long as he was able, with devoted wife Zoe by his side. He will remain way more than just a name on a stadium sign to many of us, who were lucky to be called Meadormen. Rest easy, Coach.
back practice fields. Everyone knows Coach Meador by the numbers 112-18-2, 59-game regular season win streak, 11 conference titles in 12 seasons. The man himself was much more complex, yet somehow he managed to keep it all basic and simple. He wasn’t so much an Xs and Os specialist as a motivator. Lawrenceburg ran an option-type offense that was in vogue in that era, out of a thing called the Inverted Wishbone wishbone formation. When asked about some brilliant strategem or trick play that turned a game in the Tigers’ favor, more often than not, Meador would shrug it off. “Ah, that was just (assistant coach Steve) Blackwell,” he’d explain. Lawrenceburg coaching staffs of that era produced plenty of spinoffs who went on to prosper. Rod Ballart. Glenn Crocker, Brad Hanner, Jim Pugh, Bob Brookbank, Dave Selmeyer, Scott Schwarz, George Gardner, etc. And a second generation,
Fellow coaches respect Meador to present day By Jim Buchberger Sports Editor sports@registerpublications.com LAWRENCEBURG - Sunday’s passing of Lawrenceburg Hall of Fame football coach Dick Meador evoked many tributes from his peers - friend and foe alike. Here are a few, from two former Tiger head coaches who followed in his footsteps, along with one friend and rival: GLENN CROCKER (LHS defensive coordinator, head coach 1982-1998) “I don’t know how best to describe Coach, other than that he was just a super person. He looked like a mean guy, with all the muscles. But, pretty soon, you realized what a great guy he was. I think I only saw him mad once. He treated everybody the same. He respected the kids, and they respected him more than you can imagine. He loved what he did and he enjoyed every day. Even in the classroom, teaching history or PE, he was there for the kids. “It was fun coaching with him. He definitely let his assistant coaches do their thing. He’d make suggestions, but he’d never say no if you wanted to try something new. He trusted his coaches. Have gave his assistants free rein. It was a great run with him. “I can remember, after games in the ‘70s. We had a little 16-millimeter film camera, and we’d take off for this place way out on Reading Road in Cincinnati to get the game films developed. We’d take that little MG (sportscar) of his and wait until 3-4 a.m. to pick up the films. Then we’d get back and start breaking down film. “The record books say he was 112-18-2 at Lawrenceburg, but he won 119 on the field. The IHSAA took seven wins away from us in
1977 (3-7 officially, for playing an ineligible player), but he really was 119-11. We won the state (Class A championship) in 1975 and were runner-up in 1976. We won it again in 1978. But that ’77 team may have been the best we ever had.” FOSTER HARRIS (Aurora head coach 1971-77, South Dearborn coach 1978-85) “I guess my biggest memory of Dick Meador was the first year they won the state (1975). We beat them 6-0 in the first game of the season. When it came to the second time to play them that season, it was raining a downpour and he didn’t want to play us. They had all that speed and we were happy to play them on a muddy field. They beat us 6-0 in overtime the second time, but it was a great game. “Dick brought the best out of everybody, including his opponents. His personality was infectious. He was always a gentleman, he really was. I always enjoyed the competition. He was dedicated to his job and his kids. Once the games were over, you just wanted to be around him. “God, what a competitor he was. We always used to tease him when he was coaching track in the spring. We’d have the conference reserve meet, for the freshmen and sophomores, at our place the Saturday after the varsity meet. He’d show up with 35-40 kids. He was a character. “He certainly left a legacy. He was just a good man.” BOB BROOKBANK (LHS varsity QB/ DB 1973-75, Milan head coach 1993-1998, LHS head coach 1999-2010) “Obviously, we’ve kept in touch with Coach and Zoe. We’ve been fully aware of his condition for years. My Mom has Alzheimer’s, too. “I don’t remember who told me anymore,
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Coach Meador was a happy man after his first Tiger football team finished 6-2-1 with the EIAC championship in the fall of 1970. but I remember this story about how he handled the students, and athletes, in his first year teaching at Lawrenceburg. “The first day of school the freshman boys reported for his phys ed class in the gym. Waiting for him to take the roll, they were all sitting apart in the bleachers, in their little cliques - the St. Lawrence boys in one group, the Greendale kids and the Central School Bulldogs, all separate. “The first thing he said was ‘Gentlemen, I want everybody to get up and sit together in one section. Everybody is going to sit next to each other. You’re Lawrenceburg Tigers now.’ “And that was it. Talk about a unifier. He could get groups of people together, adult men and women, students. Whether it was on the football field or on the track. His strength was to get people working together, toward a common goal, and to motivate them to achieve it. “His ex-players will say this: They put his
feelings ahead of their own. You never wanted to let him down. He was able to get us to put ourselves second. He probably did more good for his players after they were done with high school and playing football. He gave us the skills to handle the battles we would face later in life. “I brought him out to Milan several times when I was head coach there. We based our weight training on the same things he did at Lawrenceburg, and (former LHS and Xavier University strength coach) Dave Armstrong helped us a lot, too. “For all he accomplished, he was extremely humble. He respected his opponents. You never saw Lawrenceburg running up the score against their opponents or padding up its statistics. With a big lead, the starters would come out and the young kids went in. That’s why everyone he coached against respected him, too. “A lot of what he was went way beyond football. He was charismatic, but it was all genuine. It was just the man’s personality.”
LAWRENCEBURG Tigers Football Coaching History Coach
Years
David Batthauer (1944) Buford “Chick” Webb (1945) Pat O’Neill (1946-69) Dick Meador (1970-81) Glenn Crocker (1982-98) Bob Brookbank (1999-2010) Ryan Knigga (2011-17)
OVERALL (73 yrs.)
Record 0-5 3-4-1 117-75-10 112-18-2 124-66 57-76 61-23 474-267-13