One word describes a coach’s legacy

May 30, 2018

Unbelievable.

For those who knew Donnie Lockard, it was a word they heard quite a bit during his nearly 30-years of service at Clinton High School as a teacher and coach.

It’s a word many game officials heard shouted from the Clinton bench to express displeasure at a call or no call. And it was occasionally accompanied by his trademark smile.

His passing last Wednesday left an indescribable void not just in the Dragon basketball program but also in the greater Clinton community and beyond.

Lockard’s journey began in Jellico, where he starred on the basketball court and football field at Jellico High School. He was captain of both squads his senior year. He was so good that his 50 points in a single game stood as the school record until 1979 — an accomplishment even more impressive when one remembers he did so nearly a quarter of a century prior to the 3-point shot being adopted by high school basketball in Tennessee.

“People don’t know Dad was a tremendous athlete in high school. He was also very competitive. Dad and I played golf together and he finally stopped playing golf when his back got bad, at least that’s what he said but I think it’s because I started beating him. He stopped playing ping pong when he started getting a little older because he said it bothered his shoulder but again, I started beating him,” Chris said with a laugh.

“The only thing I never beat him at was pool. The last time we played I was just about to graduate college and I almost beat him at a game of nine-ball. Being the competitor he was, he picked up a wooden broom, chalked the end of it, and ran the table in a game of eight-ball,” Chris said.

“He was an athlete. I remember when I as in school we would walk out onto the gym floor and he would be standing at or near mid-court shooting hook shots — and making them,” said John “Sleepy” Williams, who now serves as the public address announcer for Clinton basketball and baseball.

From tiny Jellico, Lockard attended Southern Illinois University. At SIU, he was a contemporary of Walt “Cyde” Frazier, who went on to a stellar career in the NBA.

Following college, he took a job as an assistant basketball and baseball coach at Cahokia High School in St. Louis. He returned to East Tennessee when he accepted the job of head basketball coach at Oneida High School where he went 14-12 in his only season there.

In 1971, Lockard left Oneida to become an assistant basketball and football coach at Clinton Senior High School.

After one year as an assistant coach, he was named head basketball coach when Cleve Nichols took a job in administration.

For the next 28 years Lockard led the Dragons on and off the court, piling up wins, lasting friendships, and wonderful memories while creating a legacy a coach can only hope to attain.

Through tears, laughter, and pure respect, former players, colleagues, and his son recounted the impact Lockard had on them and the community.

When Lockard was named head coach of the Dragons one of his first moves was to hire a CHS and recent college graduate as his assistant coach — Alvin Taylor.

“I will forevermore be appreciative and indebted to him because he allowed me to get my career started,” said Taylor, who came aboard as assistant basketball coach and head baseball coach at the start of the 1972-1973 school year.

“He was an outstanding bench coach. He could see things and make moves ahead of time. He had a sixth sense for game management,” said Taylor, who spent most of the 1970s and early 1980s on the Clinton bench alongside Lockard.

“He was a master of making adjustments during a game but he was also a master of changing with the game. He had the ability to adapt as basketball changed over the years,” said Chris.

“He built his program based on family and being competitive. His father told him, ‘You can count your friends on one hand.’ And my papaw was missing three fingers, meaning outside of family there weren’t many people you could count on. Dad believed if you made it [the team] family, those were people you could count on. It’s the same thing he taught me and I’ve tried to continue. It was about having that kind of loyalty to your teammates - or your brothers or coaches — as you would to your family,” Chris said.

“You apply competitiveness to that family philosophy of doing something for your teammate, your brother, taking the selfishness out of the equation, the lesson carried over off the court,” he said.

“He had some great teams over the years but he always had hard-fighting teams,” Taylor said.

According to several of his former players, he was a tremendous motivator.

“You always remember your coach. The things we did and the things he helped me with and helped the team with. Coach Lockard was a great coach. He was demanding — which is good for a high school student-athlete. He was a caring person. He cared about all of his players and all of his teams. It wasn’t always about winning and losing. If you had an ounce of talent in you, he could get it out. It was an honor to play for him. He wasn’t just a great coach, he was an overall kind person,” said Steve Queener, CHS Class of 1978 and a former Dragon point guard.

“I supervise high school basketball officials in this area. He would always say I went to the ‘dark side.’ He loved to excite referees. That was our little joke with each other. I have a lot of respect for him and he will truly be missed in this community,” Queener said.

“He was a true teacher and motivator of young people. I first got to know him in 1975 and we were friends up until he passed away. After you graduated, he would stay with you. Many people don’t realize it but he also coached softball and volleyball. He coached my wife and encouraged both of us for the rest of his life. He became more of a friend than anything. I have so many good memories. We’ll all miss him,” said David Seivers, CHS Class of 1979.

“He was a great coach and great guy to play for. I liked playing for Don Lockard. He was a great motivator and we played hard for him. We all would have run through a wall if he told us. He treated everyone fairly. He knew how to communicate with us,” said Eddie Golden, CHS Class of 1980.

“He was as much our friend as he was our coach. That big smile he had on his face all of the time was contagious and that’s what I remember most about him. After I left school, our friendship never left us,” said Steve Pyatt, who is also a game official.

“As a referee, I saw what he could do with lesser talent. At tournament time, he always had his players playing their best. He changed with the times. He always tailored his teams to their talent. He was hard to referee during a game because he kept you on their toes but he never carried a grudge. He was your friend before and after a game but during the game you might have had to pay a price,” Pyatt said.

“Any day with Donnie Lockard was a good day,” he said.

“It was a different time but he had the ability to see the good in somebody. He gave a lot of guys a second chance when a lot of other people wouldn’t,” said Taylor.

“Coach Lockard gave me a chance, not a second chance. I shouldn’t have been on the team.I wasn’t a good player. I had been cut from the junior high team twice. I don’t know what he saw in me. I was kind of a lost soul. He saw I was going through some things but he knew I wanted to be on the team. He gave me a chance and it’s something I’ll never forget. He taught me to believe in myself. If he told me to run through a wall, I would run through a wall,” said Tracy Wandell, CHS Class of 1984.

“He never took credit. He always gave it to someone else. When you have a coach like that, they’re ‘Coach’ the rest of your life,” Wandell said.

He recounted the 1983-1984 season when 25-0 Karns, then ranked number one in the state, came to Clinton for a late regular season game.

“All week long, Coach made us work on holding the ball for a minute and 45 seconds — with no clock — before we shot the ball. If didn’t hold it a minute and 45 seconds we ran suicides. We did that all week in practice and then at game time, he walked into the locker room and said, ‘Boys, you know what we worked on all week.’ And we said ‘Yes sir.’ He said, ‘Alright.’ And he turned to go out the door and he turned around and walked back in. He said, ‘Boys? You know what? All of that stuff we practiced this week? Just forget about it. I want you to go out there and play basketball.’ He had slowed us down so much we were like released greyhounds that had been in a kennel for a month. We beat Karns that night,” Wandell said.

Susan Zellner, now the head volleyball coach at Clinton, remembered her high school days at CHS and the effort to start a girls basketball program. A petition to start a team was circulated.

“He refused to sign it. He told us he needed the gym for his team and would not sign the petition. I used tell him he was a male chauvinist pig,” she said with a laugh. “It was funny after we were able to get a team and after we did, he supported it every way he could,” she said.

“When I came back to teach and coach, he was my mentor. He took me under his wing and taught me everything that was going on around here. It was funny when I came back. I said, ‘You’re not going to be that male chauvinist pig you used to be are you?’ He started laughing and said, ‘No, I wouldn’t do that anymore,’” Zellner said.

“He was a good friend, that’s for sure,” he said.

Among the many accolades and honors was several Coach of the Year Awards, both at the district and East Tennessee level.

He picked up his 200th win in December 1981 with a win over Sevier County. His 300th win came in January 1988 when Clinton defeated Powell. His 400th came in February 1995 when the Dragons edged Powell 57-55.

Lockard compiled 679 career wins between Clinton and his lone year at Oneida, winning at a 69 percent clip.

When health problems forced him to take a medical leave and eventually lead him into retirement, his son Chris took over the reigns of the Clinton program.

“As a young boy, he was my hero. Then he became my coach and later on he was a colleague. And then he became a mentor but through all of it, he was my best friend. That’s special,” Chris said.

“A lot of people knew Dad as a coach, a teacher, or an athlete. What they didn’t know was how much he bought into this town. He was a Jellico boy who called Clinton his home and tried to change it for the better. He tried to make a difference and touched a lot of people,” Chris said.

It was fitting Saturday when the funeral procession left Jone Mortuary for Sunset Cemetery that it made a slight detour. The procession went to Clinton High School and made one last pass by the gymnasium that bears his name before carrying him to his resting place just a stone’s throw - or perhaps more appropriately, a good bounce pass - from the campus of the school he loved.

“He’s still with us. Dad will always be part of this basketball program,” Chris said in a voice cracked with emotion.

Don Lockard left a legacy that is, to borrow a word from the legendary coach, unbelievable.