John LaGrone story - cusa-fans.com

[ontheedgeofmyseat]

those were some pretty lean times....

[rich59]

I thoroughly enjoyed the LaGrone story. One thing that was left out was that he had a severe knee injury during his time at SMU and overcame it in record time to come back and play at a high level. I was amazed(although I should not have been ) at how perceptive he was about Fry in saying that his strengths were recruiting and picking good assistants. Fry, ecpecially when he first arrived at SMU had the gift of blarney and could charm anyone. He and his assistants recruited well. He also persuaded a lot of talented assistants to coach at SMU. Charley Driver, Glen Gosset, Pug Gabrel, Dave Smith, Dudley Parker stayed at SMU, Bob McQueen, Jerry Moore, Herb Zimmerman, Bum Phillips, just to name a few. Later at Iowa, Bill Snyder and Bob Stoops are two I can think of off hand. Fry's problem at SMU was that he had good assistants but often would not let them coach. Perhaps he over came that later.

[Mexmustang]

a little like Mac Brown...

[PoconoPony]

I had the pleasure of being a friend and rooming across the hall way from John LaGrone on the 3d floor of McElvaney Hall for 3 years. One of my fond memories of John was during his sophomore year. At that time ahletes were excused from PE classes during their sport's season; however, were required to attend immediately thereafter. In the fall of 1964 John was signed up for a PE class taught by Coach George McMillion and reluctantly showed up for class after football season as required. In his best West Texas drawl and with his best pleading tried to convince Coach Mac to excuse him from class for the rest of the semester to no avail. At the time the class was involved some rudimentary gymnastics and the semester was several weeks from the end. During his second class back and much jawing John made a proposition/bet, which Coach Mac readily accepted, which involved John recieving an A grade and being excused for the rest of the semester. The deal was that John would do a hand stand then walk on his hands entirely around the full gym floor in Moody with the bleachers folded back. The class gathered around to watch as the banter between LaGrone and Mac continued. Mac gave the command to start at which time LaGrone quickly flipped into a hand stand and proceeded to walk on his hands around Moody as everyone looked on in amazement. As LaGrone neared completion of the full circle of the floor he took a quick turn and commenced into a hall way and up the stairwell into the main lobby right by the then AD's office. Naturally, we were all laughing and Mac was a bit flabbergasted as we followed John up the stairwell and into the lobby. John uttered something about opening the outside lobby door and continued to walk on his hands right through the front lobby out a front door down the side walk until he got to the curb at Airline at which time he literally flipped up onto his feet. Naturally, we were all cheering at this point and could not believe what we had just witnessed. John turned and waved back to Coach Mac yelling something to the effect, " I get my A and I will not see you until next semester." He then turned and headed back to McElvaney. A memory I will never forget and have told often.

[ontheedgeofmyseat]

PoconoPony and rich59, two of the absolute best posts I have seen on this wacked out website in 5 yrs....thanks, good stuff, wish we had more like you two around here...GO MUSTANGS!!

[PoconoPony]

PoconoPony and rich59, two of the absolute best posts I have seen on this wacked out website in 5 yrs....thanks, good stuff, wish we had more like you two around here...GO MUSTANGS!!

Thanks. LaGrone was a real character, a bit mischievous, an outstanding athlete ( killer hand ball player) and an outstanding student. It was also amazing how quiet the 3d floor of McElvaney Hall could be during football season and when John was studying which was frequently.

[mr. pony]

Great story, Pocono

[Mickey]

Ive always thought it was strange that his banner is not in the concourse of Ford during the season? Most of the other greats have banners there. The banners should actually come down after the season-last a lot longer.

[rich59]

What a good story about LaGrone. I knew George McMillion well as I was his assistant coaching the Town North Y swim team and we were in school together. I can imagine the look on his face. Actually Fry had a pretty good nose guard when he came to SMU. Martin Cude was there, I believe, and he was plenty quick and very aggresive. Not up to LaGrone's standards though.