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I would like to use this page for comments about Coach Friend. Please email me your comments, to CimarronKansas@yahoo.com, if you would like them posted on this page.  I will consider any comment but I would like to keep them about coach as much as possible.

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January 19, 2026

From:  Larry Jantz  –  CHS Class of 1963

I have two DVDs that I created for the “HOF” banquet held on March 20, 2004, honoring Coach Larry Friend.

One is called Tribute, and the other is titled Reception, which captures the live event.

The Tribute included over three hours of video, interviews with Cimarron and Plainville players, and more than 798 photos—all condensed into a 52-minute presentation.

How did it all happen, you may ask? Well, it was my idea to do it, but I was very much “tech-stupid” at the time. A teacher at Hays High named Dave Windholz helped make it possible. He taught students how to interview people, conduct live TV interviews in front of a green screen, and video events such as musicals and sporting events. His classes filmed these events and sold completed DVDs to parents for $20, which helped fund his tech equipment. The school also owned a DVD-duplicating machine that could make 10 copies at the same time.

Dave told me that if I wanted him to do the project himself, it would cost between $1,000 and $1,500. However, if I showed up at the school at 7:00 a.m., he would teach me how to edit and mix video and audio and produce a final master copy. Bingo—after roughly 95 to 100 hours of work, the 52-minute tribute was completed.

The video was shown at the Hall of Fame banquet on March 20, 2004, at the VFW Hall in Hays, Kansas. More than 250 people attended from Cimarron and Plainville, many traveling long distances to pay their respects to Coach Friend.

The entire reception was incredible, thanks to our own Larry Brown serving as the MC. Live tributes were given by Coach Friend’s high school coach, Jay Frazier; college kicker Jerry Creenshaw; and longtime Garden City sports writer Bob Greer. Greer had covered Cimarron sports in the 1960s and, by 2004, owned The Protection newspaper. You may remember him—he always had one or two wooden pencils tucked behind his ear, with one kept razor sharp. He was a real character.

August 4, 2025

From:  Larry Jantz  –  CHS Class of 1963

During the summer months while in high school, and later while attending DC Juco, here are some true but funny stories.

Both small towns—Bucklin and Burdett—were too small to host their own summer baseball teams. But since Burdett was close to Larned, they had what you might call an American Legion Baseball program. A legendary coach later in life, Gene Keady, was from Larned. He eventually coached high school basketball in Beloit, then at Hutch Juco, and later at a college in either Tennessee or Kentucky—I can Google it to be sure.

Funny thing is, both Larry Friend and Gene Keady were standout players on that Larned team. Now, guess who was from Bucklin, but with no local team? A future Hall of Fame coach: none other than Eddie Sutton. He played for the Dodge City American Legion summer team. All three of these guys became legends in their own right.

The story goes that during a summer game against Pratt, these three were hanging out together, just buddies. Larry Friend’s dad, Kenny Friend Sr., had four cows to milk. On the way back from the game, Gene Keady wanted to stop by the Friend farm to see how the milking process worked. Kenny told them which cow was the tamest, so they gave it a try.

Larry said Gene was sitting on a T-stool ready to milk the cow when she got spooked. The hobbles slipped off, and she didn’t like Gene’s hands on her. She kicked him right off the stool—and Larry couldn’t stop laughing. That story was told for years.

Keady went on to be a quarterback at Garden City (I think the team is called the Broncbusters?) for two years before transferring to K-State, where he also played QB. At the same time, Larry Friend was a three-sport letterman at Dodge City Juco—football, basketball, and track. He was an All-American halfback his sophomore year. That man had a burst of speed like you wouldn’t believe. He never wore hip pads—said they slowed him down.

One of his nicknames in the DC Juco press or the Dodge City Globe was “Scooterbug Friend.” Others called him the “Kansas Comet” or the “Sunflower Bullet.” He ran like a cottontail rabbit—just turned on the jets and left defenders grabbing air.

When I was gathering material for his nomination to the KSHSAA Hall of Fame, I called Coach Gene Keady while he was still the head coach at Purdue. (I think his secretary’s name was Kathy O’Brien.) I told her who I was and mentioned that one of Gene’s old teammates had just been inducted into the 2004 KSHSAA Hall of Fame. She paused when I said it was Coach Larry Friend. She said Gene was still in his office but had a meeting in 15–20 minutes. She put me through.

Coach Keady was thrilled. He asked me to fax him the materials, including contact information. He said he wished he had two weeks to come out to Kansas to reminisce, but being mid-season at Purdue, he couldn’t make it. Still, he promised to call Coach Friend.

I asked him, “What’s one thing you remember about playing against Friend during your Juco football days?”
He said—word for word—“I never could catch that fast son of a bitch.”
(You can clean that up to “fast little rascal” if needed—but that’s exactly what Keady said.)

In one of the four photos I took during the 2004 Mid-Continent League Basketball Tournament at FHSU (where I was helping with SHPTV coverage), you can see Coach Friend with Gary Musselman at center court. There’s also a photo of the Cimarron guys with him, and then my favorite: the one with all three Hall of Fame coaches—Coach Friend, Roger Barta, and Jay Frazier—all in the KSHSAA Hall of Fame. Barta and Frazier are in several other halls of fame too.

Coach Friend has refused every attempt I’ve made to nominate him for the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame (KSHOF). Even if nominated, he said he’d decline. That’s just how humble he is.

One remarkable thing: When Roger Barta was coaching at Smith Center, he and Larry Friend talked regularly—often on Sundays—about games, players, and strategies, even when their teams were rivals in the Mid-Continent League.

I took Coach Friend to Roger Barta’s funeral in Smith Center on June 28, 2025. Roger was 79. His win streak was 79. He would’ve turned 80 on July 11, 2025—nearly matched his age to his record. The only thing stopping an 80-game streak was an OT loss to Centralia on November 28, 2009—20 to 12.

That photo from 2004 means a lot now. You can see Joan Friend (Barbara Joan, though she hated the name Barbara) turned to her right with their oldest son Jay, and to her left, their grandson Hayden Friend, who would’ve been about 5 or 6 at the time.

Coach Friend’s 89th birthday is coming up—August 27, 2025 (born 8-27-1936). I hope people will give him a shout. His landline is 785-688-4049, and it still has an answering machine.

July 5, 2025

From:  Larry Jantz  –  CHS Class of 1963

Glad you got my reply earlier on some things already accomplished to celebrate a couple legends from Cimarron… our beloved Hall of Fame coach: best record in Bluejay history & his stud athlete Roger “Goose” Timken who proudly won state in 1966 all by himself. School got the trophy, but he did it all himself on a bum leg… he had a quad muscle pull that aggravated him greatly.

Not only did Doctor C.H. Gibson (Cimarron chiropractor in those times—now my oldest daughter Dr. Tanya R. Jantz, DC), treat Goose, but up at KSU track is where the state meet was held that year just south of Ahearn Fieldhouse, which many photos reflect. City library has those photos on the 3 x 4 foot metal signs so see them in the basement or check with Sara McFarland to let you see them, take photos off of them, etc.

I believe I let you know that Roger Timken got inducted into the same Hall of Fame that Coach Friend got inducted into… the KSHSAA Hall of Fame. Coach was in 2004, and 20 years later on 5-25-2024 was a celebration in front of some 20,000 fans at the state track championships. Now, I have printed off photos of that day, and the afterglow you might say as his younger brother Phil and family had a nice get-together in Wichita. Around 40–50 folks were there to enjoy snacks and to hash or rehash history.

Some guys there were Benny Beery from Florida, Brent MacQuirk from Wichita now, but Chevy car dealer in DC and Cimarron forever, Sam Wehkamp, Greg Nicolet, Rich Jantz, myself, Roger’s extended family, plus Phil’s, and I hate to miss others, but those are the ones I recall.

Now, in this book I am writing, I have completed well over 170 pages so far, and all are 8½” x 11″ typed up in 12 font… no photos yet, but will be substantial when complete to add spice to the actual written words.

I have a chapter on Coach Friend typed up which states how he got to Cimarron in 1960 as first a junior high track coach. That was when Goose, Sam, Carl Leatherwood, brother Rich, Denis Wallace, Steve Brown were all 8th graders. Guess what. Halfway through the high school football season, the administration of Superintendent Norman Baldwin told Coach Friend that he needed to get ready for next year’s football season, as he was going to be elevated to the new head high school coach for both FB & track, and assistant to head basketball coach Veryln “Andy” Anderson who came to us in Cimarron from WSU staff. You see, Veryln “Andy” Anderson was a native of McPherson and played for legendary WSU coach Ralph Miller. Andy was a tall—6’4″ left-handed great guy & coach. Add in the speedy Coach Friend, and what a great coaching staff we were blessed with.

You see, Larry E. Friend was a Burdett Stallion. He ran the 100-yard dash in the 1954–56 era in a blazing 9.4 seconds (that is equal to a 10.2 100-meter dash today), and his 220-yard dash was 20.4. If you were on our football team, he would spot all the athletes—you, me… all of us—20 yards, so we all would run 80 yards to the endzone, and he ran the whole 100 yards, and his last 5–10 yards turn around and dog-trot into the endzone wondering what took Doug, Sam, Goose, Pete Thomas, Bob Whitsell, Larry Addison, this Larry, Charlie Burns, Chuck Butzine so damn long to get there… funny stuff but true. Ask your folks who were there, like Denis Wallace, Wayne Davis, Larry Addison, Sam Wehkamp… they will not deny it.

You see, Coach Friend was then and has always been extremely humble—never ever bragged on his accomplishments, never ever. He was a Dodge City JUCO 3-sport athlete in FB, BB, & track. He was an All-American halfback his sophomore year, and never wore hip pads. No one could ever get a square hit on the speedy rascal… he was like an elusive cottontail, zigging and zagging to avoid any square hits. If I left my feet to tackle him, he would shift into overdrive, or jet-propel like kicked-in afterburners. He was a rocket ship on turf steroids. Just ask the boys in those 6 years.

Better quit for now, as I just finished a chapter entitled “How I Got Into Officiating Volleyball”, as it all entails to save myself \$1,000 to \$1,500 bucks when I was going to mix and match 798 photos on Coach Larry Friend, along with 3 hours of video to show at his 3-20-2004 HOF banquet here in Hays. I wanted it refined down into a great tribute. The Hays High VB coach and in charge of teaching kids media stuff, managing the school’s website, or Channel #13 was a Dave Windholz, and to save the $$$$, he said come up to school by 7 AM, and I will mentor you in how to do the mix and matching of it all into a finished 52-minute DVD to show at the HOF banquet… that, my friend, is how I got into officiating VB these past 22 years. My last VB gig was 10-17-2024, one day ahead of our 3-year CHS homecoming which I was there a year ago.

Larry Jantz, a CHS grad of 1963

 

From:  Larry Jantz  –  CHS Class of 1963

Your web site has been enhanced greatly–great job

I was used to how the website got started by Pete Thomas when they all were involved with Thomas Implement. He was incredible—getting it all on the internet. I loved seeing all the photos of the golf course, all the data on our beloved Coach Larry Friend, etc.

Thanks for having those sections available to read and view.

One photo that I recall taking back in January 2004 at FHSU’s Gross Coliseum was when he was awarded his Hall of Fame plaque. His high school coach was alive as well—Jay Frazier (the first high school basketball coach in Kansas to win 3 state titles at three different schools).

Burdett, on 3-20-1954, when Larry Friend was named then “MCP.” They won the game (Burdett Tigers over the Plevna Tigers, 55-47, in the Great Bend gymnasium for the Class BB state title). Yes indeed, the Tigers won—Burdett Tigers, not the Plevna Tigers.

The comments or trivia that I had heard for years from previous Cimarron graduates, or even Plainville graduates, were: how and when is Coach Friend going to be nominated and inducted into the KSHSAA Hall of Fame? After many years hearing those comments, I finally came to the realization that, if it is to be, then it is up to me. So I got the blessing of his lovely wife (Joan), that it was OK to proceed. She was pretty secretly doing things behind Coach’s back, getting me 20-30-40 pages at a time from his scrapbook (unknown by Coach), and Joan would say, “I told Coach I was headed to JCPenney’s, Dillons, or Walmart,” or some excuse to bide time for me to photocopy those pages and get them back to Joan.

We did this task some 4-5 times, getting nearly 150 pages from his scrapbook. I used many of those for the forms and attachments to nominate our beloved coach.

He got accepted into the 2004 Hall of Fame, and we all celebrated in Hays—exactly 50 years from the time he led his high school team to that state title. From 3-20-1954 to the banquet in his honor on 3-20-2004—yes, exactly 50 years later.

So, I believe I might have access to more data, facts, and articles about our “Burdett Blur,” or “Kansas Comet of the 1950s,” or the “Sunflower Bullet,” or “The Scooterbug”—nicknames he had at Dodge City JUCO.

The nickname I love best was coined by the sports editor in Alva, Oklahoma, when Coach was a two-sport athlete in football and track. In football in the fall of 1957, his junior year at NWOSU Rangers, the team scored 7 touchdowns, and Coach Larry Friend had 5 of them.

You see, when his Dodge City JUCO coach got the head job down in Alva, he took some 8-9 players with him, including Larry Friend. Jim Miller was the QB, longtime Dodge City coach J.C. Rickenburg was a halfback, along with Larry Friend being the speedy outside threat.

Switch gears to the Plainville years—he was there for 20 years, starting in the fall of 1968. He won two state titles in 1980 (36-28) over Silver Lake, who was undefeated and averaged 52 points per game. That game was played at Topeka Seaman High School’s football field. KAYS radio play-by-play guru Bob Davis was on the call—incredible job. His broadcast was used in the DVD we created for the Hall of Fame banquet in Hays at the VFW Hall, which consolidated well over 3 hours of video and over 798 photos into a final 52-minute tribute to Coach Friend. There were some 250+ folks at the function. (You have many of the photos included on this website—so congratulations!)

I am in the process of writing a book—title not yet decided, but it will have the word “Footprints” in it somewhere. It might be Heartfelt Footprints, as it will describe all the years growing up in Cimarron—on the farm, school, sports, college, teaching/coaching for 5 years, officiating varsity high school basketball for 33 years and well over 55–60 games per year (over 2,000 games), then volleyball since 2004. So a total of 55 years—and believe me, that is a God’s plenty!

The book nuggets so far are over 170 typed pages (no pictures yet), and I still have a few chapters to write and then type up before I consider a person or group to proofread, make tweaks, and think about a title that truly fits. There are chapters for funny interactions by players, coaches, and officials—things heard and remembered on the floor in basketball or volleyball. Funny stuff the coaches and parents had no clue about.

There’s a section on Coach Friend—that section is titled: “The Stick of Dynamite—Our Spark Plug.” I was blessed to even officiate many games alongside him—the only athlete, he said, he has ever worked games with that he also taught in high school. Wow! He made you better than what you really are—or were.

In the book written by Scott Peavey about all football coaches in Plainville history, it was highlighted with a dedication to Coach Larry Friend. In the book, there might be 4–5 pages at most about his years in Plainville, but all his game stats and win-loss records are included.

I might have to get the book out and photocopy the pages about Friend at Cimarron. I bought my copy from the Plainville H.S. Booster Club for about \$25.00. Bet they still have some for the Cimarron Library if Sara does not already have one.

Better rest your eyes for a spell. Keep up the good work. Once a Bluejay… always a Bluejay.

Proud of those years when Cimarron went 46-7-1 and had 29 wins in a row. It got started the last 3 games of the 1962 fall campaign. We were 5-0, and against Plains (they were 5-0), so something had to give.

We lost that game 13-0. There was a strong south wind that night, and we had a 4th down and 8 yards to go on maybe our 15- or 20-yard line. Terry Nolan took the snap and punted it pretty good, but they were offsides, so we took the penalty, making it 4th and 3. This time, they blocked Terry’s punt and recovered it on our 8-yard line. It took them 4 plays, and Coach said the tape showed the ball never crossed the end zone—but we players had no clue.

The last three games were won by Cimarron, and then the next two years had 9-0 records. The last year was 7-1-1, giving Cimarron a great legacy in wins at 29. The next-to-last game was a 12-12 tie to Ashland (fall of 1965), and then the last game at Meade was that loss that snapped a great string of victories. Guys like Roger Timken, Sam Wehkamp, Denis Wallace, Steve Brown, and Rich Jantz were only involved in 2 losses and that one tie in their careers. The 1963 and 1964 teams were loaded, and the 1964 team was a miracle—Coach Friend brought up younger guys due to heavy graduation the year before.

The two powder-coated benches now located at the football field entrance honor two legends at Cimarron: Coach Friend’s legacy, and Roger “Goose” Timken, who won state all by himself in 1966. Luckily, he was inducted into the same KSHSAA Hall of Fame on 5-25-2024—exactly 20 years after Coach Friend.

Roger (Goose) Timken was dynamite as well. He won the state in the 3 legal events he could participate in—by 8–10 yards over whoever was in 2nd place. He had a pulled quad muscle. The week before at DC regionals, he set the best times of his career, when he was 100% healthy. His all-time bests:

14.0 flat in the 120-yard high hurdles

20.9 in the 220-yard dash (only 0.5 seconds behind Coach Friend’s best of 20.4 in the 1954–56 era)

18.4 in the 180-yard low hurdles, just 0.1 behind some kid in California.

All the newspaper articles wondered how these other schools could score 19 points, because Cimarron had this stud who was going to get 3 first-place gold medals—and he did. Quite easily. As I said, by 8–10 yards—I have the photos to prove it.

A chapter in my book is on Goose: “One Man Wins State Track.” Coach said he could’ve won 5 or 6 events—if it had been allowed.

Friend a model for all of us

By Roger Hrabe, The Hays Daily News 1/29/2004

ROGER HRABE. Last Saturday, Larry Friend was inducted into the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame between final games of the Mid Continent League Tournament. It was a very deserving honor for a special individual.

I had the privilege of being coached by friend while a student at Plainville High School from 1972 to 1976. Later, from 1980 to 1987, I was an assistant football coach under his guidance while teaching and coaching in Plainville. Together, the two periods had a tremendous influence on my early days of coaching and growing up.

While it was his accomplishments as a coach, official and athlete that earned him the Hall of Fame honor, it was the method by which he went about his business that sets him apart.

“Coach,” as he always will be known to those who played for him, was much like any good coach in that he expected the best from his players every day. He expected his players to be disciplined in their personal lives as well as in athletics.

So often today, athletics are put in a negative light either because of the emphasis that is put on them or because of negative events by players that bring disgrace to their sport.

But I cannot think of anything I did growing up that taught me the lessons that I learned while an athlete. Learning to be a gracious winner, a humble loser and respecting every opponent all were traits that were learned from athletics. And Coach Friend always emphasized that when we were finished playing games, we should live our personal lives the same way.

Friend never had to use bad language to berate or motivate. I can’t remember anything worse than “dadgummit” coming out of his mouth. I am sure that his players were not that perfect, but you knew that there was heck to pay if you let it slip in front of him.

That is not to say that he didn’t get excited and kick a few things or throw his hat every now and then. In fact, sometimes he was compared to a little bantam rooster on the sidelines. But he was a bantam rooster who exercised self-control in his language and his actions.

While Friend was blessed as an athlete, his coaching success came through plain hard work. It was nothing for him to be up at 3 a.m. watching films or drawing diagrams of defenses. It was exhausting to witness the effort that he would put into the simplest of details. It was as if moving someone a couple of feet on defense was going to be the difference between winning and losing. Well, maybe it was, because he did plenty of winning.

One example of both his unending work and his respect for his players was exemplified in 1980 when he got my brother—a senior leader on the team—out of bed before school on a Friday morning to ask him what he thought about changing the defense against our opponent that night.

I am sure my brother thought what we had planned for the game was just fine, but something was bothering Coach, and he had to run it by somebody, and he respected his players enough to ask them what they thought. It was no coincidence that we won the state championship later that year. Friend’s hard work, and that of his players, had paid off.

After Plainville defeated Silver Lake in the state championship game on a beautiful fall day, Friend, who had just shown his normal high emotion during the game, sat down at the front of the bus as we headed home from Topeka, and it began to hit him what had been accomplished.

About 10 to 15 minutes later, he got out of his seat, and with misty eyes, shook hands and thanked each player and coach’s hand, then thanked and congratulated them on what they had accomplished as a team. It was not his accomplishment, it was the team’s, and he wanted them to know that.

To this day, as I contemplate how to institute a leadership program in our county, I can’t help but think I have been given the most important leadership lessons already. There were lessons learned from a bantam rooster who roamed the sidelines of Cardinal Field.

Pete Thomas, Cimarron.

PETE THOMAS. There is no doubt that Coach Friend deserves to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. There are many reasons that I could mention but there is one that will always stick in my mind that comes from my personal experience. In my web site there is a link to Cimarron’s Lady Jays winning their state championship in 1998. In that article I made a comment about coaching.

“And of course the coaching staff. It takes that special little bit of something extra to put a team over the top. Talent is of course a must but the will to win must be instilled at all times. I have always felt that the coaches’ ability to keep a team believing in themselves is as important as their ability to run the right plays at the right time with the right individuals.”

My case in point is the results Cimarron’s football team achieved in the fall of 1964, my senior year. Cimarron had finished it’s first all victorious and undefeated season a year earlier in the fall of 1963. I was proud to be one of the 44 or so members of that team. In those days, most starters played both defense and offense. Coach however, never left to question that the whole team was “The Team”. That team was touted to be one of the best teams ever at Cimarron. We will never know if that is true and I suppose that is for the best. That team graduated starter after starter, Addison, Butzine, Legg, Whitesell, Dewey, Newsome, and Davis for example. For the most part, that senior class was bigger and faster than any single class that I can ever recall at Cimarron.
In 1964 Coach took what few starters that were left and started building his new team. Our second team had been tough in the past and was undoubtedly much of the reason for the success in 1962 and 1963. We went on that year to complete back-to-back all victorious and undefeated seasons.

A few years later I was involved in a conversation with some of the older members of our community and we were talking about those teams. One of them made a comment that the team of 1964 had sure fooled everyone. I asked him why and he commented that with all of the starters that had graduated no one had expected us to even have a winning season let alone win them all.

I was surprised at that. I don’t recall that any of us players for one moment thought we were going to lose a game. Looking back at it I can see what these “old boys” were talking about though. We really weren’t that impressive on paper. But fortunately we did have that “special little bit of something extra” that propelled us to our perfect record. That something extra was Coach Friend. He never let us think about anything but winning.
Thanks Coach for making my High School years some of the best years of my life. Pete Thomas. Seasons of 1962-63-64.

Larry Brown, Olathe

LARRY BROWN. Heartfelt congratulations to Coach Friend on his induction into the Hall of Fame. I was fortunate to have been on the 8th grade team when Coach Friend arrived in Cimarron.  Coach Friend, perhaps more than anyone I know, had a unique eye to be able to recognize qualities in his students and players that even they didn’t know they had.  I can remember in the spring of that 8th grade year, I was struggling to throw a shot put.  Each attempt was successful if I could get it to land outside the ring.  Coach brought me down to the track and had me running sprints and he entered me into the 220 and 100 yd sprints for the next meet.  With a little bit of coaching and some modest success it was a marked experience for me to achieve and gain some self-confidence.

Playing on the HS team from fall of 61to the fall of 64, I can remember as was shared in a previous note.  My senior year when the really big guns had graduated, I don’t suppose our team athletically was ever superior to any team we played.  But through hard work and preparation, Coach Friend always found a way to exploit opponents weaknesses and capitalize on any of our strengths to put together a second consecutive undefeated season.  (The previous year to that, we had one loss to Plains, which wasn’t bad either)
 
One other thing that I have always thought about over the years, often times, Coach would tell us in the scouting report for the upcoming opponent.  “I think we can block a punt on these guys, and I think they are vulnerable here.”  He would then commence to devise the plan, and come Friday night we blocked a punt.  Often times an offensive play was installed that he thought would work against this team— and it would go for 25 or 30 yards.
 
Coach was able to inspire, nurture and even chasten as needed to develop in us, the kind of character we would need in life. The lessons we learned under Coach Friend’s tutelage have been for life.
 
This one note may say something about the impression on our parents: Some years later, my parents were living in northwest Kansas and my dad saw on a football schedule that Plainville was playing some 40 or 50 miles away. 
He told me he was a little homesick to see one of Larry Friend’s football teams play, so he got in the car and traveled just to see another team play, this one in which he didn’t have any sons playing.  He truly enjoyed that. 
 
Larry Brown Cimarron Sr. class of 65

Rich Jantz, Lawrence

RICH JANTZ. What a special night in January at Gross Memorial in Hays, to see Coach Friend get inducted into the Kansas Hall of Fame. Then again at the banquet in Hays to honor Coach and all of his accomplishments. Coach was special to us in our high school days and many of his teachings have helped me achieve success today in my business.

The athletes who played for Coach were so lucky to have him the seven years he was in Cimarron. All the honors bestowed upon Coach are well deserved and I want to thank him for being special in my life.

THANKS COACH. RICH JANTZ

Larry Brown, Olathe

LARRY BROWN. I just recently attended a dinner in honor of a high school football and track coach of mine, as he had recently been inducted into the KSHSAA Hall of Fame.

My wife of some 32 years, an only child and raised in a suburb of Minneapolis Minnesota, questioned how I and by brothers could speak so highly of a football coach of some 40 years ago when we had come from such a good home and parents who exemplified all the good qualities that would hopefully make us good citizens to this world. I always came up short in trying to explain to her how I felt about this man….

Was he a personal friend to his students? No. Today I would call him a friend but would not have considered him a friend for many years only because of my immense respect for him. Somehow the word “friend” was too informal, more like buddy.

Was it his credentials? Coach Larry Friend came to my Jr. High School as a teacher/coach during my eighth grade year. He had stellar credentials as a High School athlete and collegiate football and track athlete. But he never told us about those things. Often times if we heard something about some of Coach Friends exploits, we kind of spaced that off as maybe urban myth. He didn’t talk about those things unless we asked him, but the problem was we didn’t know to ask.

Was it the winning record he compiled? If you were to ask any of the Cimarron or Plainville players that were coached by Larry Friend they will talk about those records and wins, but that is only because there is no other way to quantify or speak of someone without the numbers.

At this dinner and program we heard stories from Coach Friends Hall Of Fame high school coach (Coach Jay Frazier), some of his teammates and many of his players. Coach Larry Friend went to High School in a little town of Burdett Kansas. We discovered that he had decided at an early age that he wanted to be a coach. He went to Junior College in Dodge City then on to Northwestern College in Alva, OK. He was one of those tremendous athletes who were focused on preparing himself to teach and coach future generations in the important things of life needed to become good citizens.

We heard a newspaper sports writer (Bob Greer) tell of following him as he coached his teams to some 29 straight games without a loss at Cimarron. On the day of his loss, Coach Larry Friend was as gracious in losing as he was in winning. Bob Greer told me prior to the dinner, “that was when I fell in love with the man”.

I vividly remember first meeting Coach Friend. It was on the football field as an eighth grader; he set down the rules. “My name is Coach Friend or Mr. Friend. When you see me on the street or in the hallway at school, that is how you will address me; He commanded respect. To this day, over 43 years later I will not call him Larry Friend. It still is coach. Years later, a teammate and friend of my oldest son’s father had earned his PHD. and my son Brandon had mentioned Erik’s father by his first name. I told him “you’ll always refer to Erik’s dad as Dr. Bell”. It was a lesson about respect that I was trying to teach my son that my father had tried to teach me and was masterfully reinforced by Coach Friend; respect for others.

Upon attending this celebratory dinner, my wife Dawn has grasped a little of what it is that I couldn’t adequately express about Coach. Exactly why it is that we are so fond of Coach Larry Friend. The model that he gave us was compatible with all the important things our parents worked so diligently to teach us. Some of us needed those repetitions to learn.
I say congratulations once again to Coach Larry Friend upon his induction into the KSHSAA Hall of Fame.

Larry Brown.