Splitting Ranks

Kansas' Lawrence High Forges Forward.
by: Rod Smith
AFM Staff Writer
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Don't mess with tradition. That's what Lawrence High School head football coach Dick Purdy might have told voters prior to the November 1994 bond issue vote that would eventually split Kansas' largest high school and most dominant football power into two separate schools.

However, this was a battle that even tradition couldn't withstand. Voters approved the $36.9 million bond issue and in the fall of 1997 the city's second high school-Free State High School-opened its doors to the public.

You see, football has been a part of the athletic curriculum at Lawrence HS since 1891. Want proof of the school's dominance? Since 1945, the Lions have won 27 state championships, and they rank No. 1 nationally with 31 undefeated seasons.

An opponent of the decision, Purdy himself learned an invaluable lesson about messing with LHS tradition shortly after he assumed the reins.

Having coached against Lawrence for several years, Purdy had developed an acute aversion for the traditional black Lion helmet with a single, white center stripe.

"I said 'guys one thing we're going to do is change that helmet,'" Purdy said with a laugh. "You'd thought I had started world war four. Sort of like somebody had set off a bomb right there in the coaches office. Those guys had played in that black helmet with the white stripe and they weren't going to let anybody fool with that helmet."

And according to Purdy, that was fine with him. But what was not was that Lawrence High School, the state's largest with an estimated enrollment of between 1,800 and 2,000 students, seemed to be bursting at its seams. The school no longer had the space necessary to house all of its students. Overcrowding and what proponents referred to as enhanced opportunities for students-both in the athletic arena and in the classroom-became the overwhelming impetus behind the rising popularity of the bond issue.

Support for the bond issue came from many different arenas. For example, former Lawrence HS coach Al Woolard, who coached the Lions for 19 seasons from 1950 to 1968. During his tenure, Woolard posted a record of 145-12-5 and won 13 state championships. His Lion teams posted 12 undefeated seasons and a 47-game winning streak. Perhaps you would assume Woolard, who died in 1998, would have been adamant against the split. Not at all.

"I don't think the football thing should even be discussed," Woolard told the Lawrence Journal-World. "This is about numbers and opportunity for students. Athletics shouldn't even be discussed."

Citing his team's no-cut policy, current coach Purdy contends that under the one school system, as far as football is concerned, students weren't denied any opportunities.

"Any kid who wanted to play football had the opportunity to be out there playing," he said. "I think anybody who had been in our situation would have said the same thing: 'Wow, this is great. . . why would we want to break this up?' Everybody wants to see a winner and we had that situation."

"It's one thing to have the great tradition and it's one thing to be the biggest guy on the block. But at the same time it's a pretty good deal to make that pay off. And I think the students were really into that."

In the end, however, overcrowdedness and the potential for opportunity won out.

Bird of a Different Color

Opportunity arguments aside, Free State has already provided one former Lawrence High School alum with an immense opportunity.

Free State head football coach Bob Lisher served as an assistant coach at LHS for nine years before leaving the school for a head coaching job elsewhere. When he returned to head up the Firebird program in the fall of 1997, Lisher became the keystone in Free State's plan for football success.

Five of Lisher's assistants are Lawrence HS alumni. With a coaching staff chock full of Lawrence High School alumni, Lisher expends little effort to instill the importance of tradition.

"The coaches that we have have all been through a very successful program at Lawrence High School, and they know what it takes to prepare to be successful," he said. "Free State High School is still located in Lawrence, Kansas and our coaches want it to be as successful as any other program, not only in Lawrence, but anywhere in the state."

According to assistant David Petry, Lisher has implemented only minor changes, choosing to fine tune the program he brought with him to Free State. Lisher's personal philosophy includes no hitting in practice. As a result his Firebirds wear just helmets and shorts at Thursday practices while across town Lion players sport full pads and tend to practice as much as an hour longer. This "save the hitting for Friday" philosophy comes from former LHS coach Bill Freeman, who in 16 years as Lion head coach posted a 134-38-0 record and won five state championships. Not a bad track record.

Petry, who headed the sophomore team for six years at Lawrence HS, believes the biggest challenge he and the other Free State coaches faced after the split was helping the younger players adjust.

The seniors had a pretty good understanding of what practices were like and what it took to be successful," he said. "But the younger kids, who had never gone to Lawrence HS, they didn't know what sort of effort was expected of them. That was the biggest struggle, getting them to understand the expectations of football in Lawrence."

At Lawrence HS, 55 Lions have earned All-State honors since 1940. One of those, assistant coach Dirk Wedd, who played center on the 1967-69 Lions squads, returned to LHS in 1990, when Purdy took over as the head Lion. The offensive line coach says that while his players may not always have been the biggest, what continues to set them apart is their determination and high expectations.

"Practices are still as long and intense as they used to be," he said. "We can't hit quite as much as we used to though. We simply don't have the depth that we had in the past."

Away from the practice field, Wedd thinks the coaching staff now spends more time focusing on ways to make the Lions successful come game time-even if that means more players playing both ways.

"We've always let our best players do that," he said. "We might have a couple more athletes playing both ways now. But even in our heyday, we always had four or five, even six, playing both ways."

Overachieving seems to be a popular theme at LHS, where Lion teams have won 98 state championships, including 21 in boys gymnastics, seven in girls swimming, and 15 in volleyball in addition to football's 27. Wedd, who also teaches at Lawrence HS, has witnessed Lion successes in both arenas.

"The kids walk into LHS with high expectations," he said. The bar is set very high, not only in athletics but also academically and in the fine arts. We expect to be the best in the state."

Success In Numbers

Now Purdy and his Free State counterpart Lisher find themselves in another battle. A battle for numbers.

Prior to the split, Lawrence would suit up anywhere from 70 to 100 athletes on Friday nights. Purdy says he now gets approximately 50 players on the sidelines. Moreover, the Lions usually play three football schedules-varsity, junior varsity and sophomore. Last year the sophomore schedule was canceled because there simply weren't enough players.

"Football, in the first place, is a numbers game," Purdy said. "And so with that split we've just divided our talent right down the middle. Before the split we were predominantly a senior team every year," he said, "and there were a lot of seniors who played."

Not the case at Free State. When the split was announced, juniors at LHS were given the choice of which high school they would like to graduate from. As a result, Lisher's inaugural Free State squad included just three seniors, all transfers from outside the district. That number increased to 22 this past season. Meanwhile, Lisher knows that his young team will continue to fight a numbers battle, at least for the immediate future.

"Naturally when you split schools sometimes you lose numbers," Lisher said. "With two high schools, it takes a little more effort and a little more time being in contact with the junior high football players and so forth."

Rivalry Building

What happens when you take the state's largest high school, which also happens to possess the most dominant football program in the state, and split it into two of the state's largest schools? Instant rivalry.

According to Lawrence High School athletic director Ron Commons, who himself served as an assistant football coach at LHS for 19 years, the rivalry between the two schools has increased community support regardless of sport.

"From soccer, volleyball, basketball or football, there is a large amount of community support of both schools and attendance at that particular game (between them) is quite high," he said.

But unfortunately when the two schools aren't playing each other, the school that plays out of town often draws a much smaller crowd than in years past.

"In most cases when we would play out of town on a Friday night, our crowd would be just as large as the home team or the team that we were competing against," Commons said, "and now that we've split there's always one school playing a home game and the other one is playing out of town. The community people often stay in town so that they don't have to drive."

Community support seems to have played a sizable role in both schools' football traditions, especially the young Free State.

After an inaugural 1997 season that saw the Firebirds win only one game, Free State improved last year to 6-3 and nearly beat their new cross-town rival. Although Free State lost that game to Lawrence 28-24, Lisher, who expects around 80 players next fall, seems to have the Firebirds headed in a positive direction.

The effects of the split can be seen in Lawrence's win-loss record as well. In seven seasons prior to the split, Purdy's Lions compiled a 75-7 record and played in six consecutive championship games, winning five. "In the two seasons since the creation of Free State, Lawrence has experienced a considerable drop off in its performance level going 4-5 in 1997 and 5-5 a year ago. But not, as coach Purdy says, from a lack of effort.

"Our kids really gave us great effort," Purdy said. "We might not be as big or as fast as in the past, but we still have that great Lawrence Lion effort. That makes you feel pretty good as a coaching staff when your kids will go all out like that. Our tradition has carried through there. When those kids put on that black and red it means something to them, it means a lot to them."

Like tradition, some things never change.

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