Admirers Celebrate James Ex-Mead Coach Heads Hall Of Fame Inductees

Perhaps the greatest measure of a man is when those who admire and respect him have such deep feelings about him they can’t really put those feeling into words.

Landy James is one of those men.

The former Mead football coach was inducted into the Washington State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Monday. He was joined by area legends Don Anderson and Gene Smith and Dick Clark of Seattle.

The 17th ceremony, held in conjunction with Friday’s East-West Football Classic at Albi Stadium, was at a noon luncheon at Cavanaugh’s River Inn and swelled the honor roll to 87 coaches.

Like so many ex-players who showed up to honor - and hug - all the inductees, Gary Smith was almost at a loss of words to describe his former coach James.

“That’s a tough question,” said Smith, a farmer north of Spokane. “He’s just a guy you respected.”

“I don’t know if it was unique or not,” said Bob Spears, now a Spokane real estate broker, “but he was like a friend, not a coach.”

But James’ influence didn’t stop at the players as the presence of several LaConnor youngsters would attest.

“He wanted what was best for kids,” said George Chalich, the Mead boys basketball coach when James was at Mead from 1956-68. “He was innovative. I couldn’t believe some of the things he tried to teach. He was a good motivator.”

Jim Mertens can attest to that. Mertens was an assistant coach at East Valley and Gonzaga Prep when James was at Mead.

Mertens recalls that “I damn near beat him,” Mertens said, “but he was too smart.”James put Spears, a 200-pounder who normally would have been a lineman, at fullback and Spears was all but impossible to stop.

“Remember when the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl a few years ago and the Fridge (350-plus pound lineman William Perry) scored a touchdown?” Mertens asked. “Landy did that 34 years ago.”

Mertens has remained close to James and, when Mertens went through some tough personal times, he went to James who, despite having both legs amputated because of diabetes, made him feel better.

“I love him, respect him, honor him as a Christian,” Mertens said, choked with feeling.

After compiling a 76-34-3 record, including a 22-game winning streak and nine Northeast A titles, at Mead, James returned home to LaConner. There, he went 105-48 from 1969-85 with five league titles and two appearances in the state semifinals. The gym at LaConner is named after him.

A standout athlete at LaConner, James turned down an appointment to West Point and went to Washington State College in the early 1950s on a basketball scholarship, but he played football and baseball.

After serving in the Signal Corps, he coached in Wilbur in 1955 before beginning his 12-year run at Mead.”He treated first-stringers and fifth-stringers exactly alike,” Smith said. “Other coaches just cared about athletes, he liked you as a person.”

James remains active in the Swinomish Tribal Community, serving as tribal chairman and now as a tribal elder and speaker.

“It’s quite an honor,” James said. “My life has been a happy life.”

He told the gathering, “What I want to say to you people with kids, from ages 0 to 1 to 25, treat them like they can do no wrong and you love them. America isn’t doing that today. They have to be loved. You made them. Love them, enjoy them, make them the best.”

Long-time assistant coach and former player H.T. Higgins presented Anderson, who has a 252-52-4 record in 33 years of coaching, including 181-35 record at Gonzaga Prep beginning in 1973.

Higgins said Anderson stood for “the quest of excellence, not the wins. That’s the measure of success.”

Anderson said, “I still get up in the morning and look forward to going to work with the kids. My biggest motivator is the fear of not doing a good job. You better be flexible, you better adjust to the modern world, but you better have a foundation of what you believe in.”

Minister Phil Faulk, the advocate for Gene Smith, said, “He doesn’t know the number of wins, but he can remember something about every game and every kid that played in them.”

Smith, also an extremely successful basketball coach, coached football for 31 years, moving from Sandpoint to Reardan in 1964. He became head coach in 1969 and had a 137-77-5 record, reaching the state semis four times and winning in 1991.

Clark, a Metro League legend at Queen Anne in Seattle, was unable to attend because he recently suffered a stroke. He had a 74-49-19 record for 19 seasons when he retired in 1965.

The East and West teams will practice at Gonzaga University at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. for Friday’s game at Albi Stadium.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo