Coach Lawson eager to return to Grant for ’81 championship team reunion

Former Grant basketball coach Tom Lawson, who coached the 1981 state champion team can’t wait for this weekend. He will be joining players and friends gathering this weekend for a team reunion in conjunction with this year’s alumni banquet. 

Grant standout Bill Jackman, who has lived in Dallas the past 27 years, is among those organizing the reunion to bring the team back together. 

Jackman said many of the players and coaches will return for the weekend, which will kick off with a gathering Friday night at the Pheasant Run Golf Course. 

Jackman said the evening gathering is open to the public and begins at 6 p.m.

Lawson said Monday he’s looking forward to seeing his team and other players during his tenure here, along with reacquainting with old friends.

Eight-year tenure here

Lawson first came to Perkins County in 1973, succeeding Coach Larry Pritchett, who took an assistant job in Cozad with his mentor, Bill Ramsey. 

Lawson recalled the ’73-’74 team got off to a rough start. 

“We started out 2-4 before Christmas. I remember Al Gaston came and told me—you know there’s a lot of talk at the coffee shop,” he said.

“We went 16-2 the rest of the way and that’s how I kept my job,” he added. 

As part of that run, the Plainsmen made the state tournament, the first of what would become many for Lawson and the Plainsmen. 

The next season, Lawson took an undefeated team to Lincoln, only to fall to Louisville in the state finals. The 1975 state tournament was the last year the state finals would be played at the Colisuem. 

Lawson said his biggest surprise as a coach here came in 1977. 

He had a team of good athletes, who worked hard and played well together, all the way to the state finals in the Devaney Center, before finishing runner-up. 

In 1978, after beating St. Pat’s three times in the regular season, St. Pat’s beat the Plainsman in the district final. 

The 1978-79 season would be the debut of a young freshman by the name of Bill Jackman who would eventually leave his mark on Plainsmen basketball lore forever.

After making it to the state tournament once again, Lawson’s team won their first game in overtime, setting up a face-off with top-ranked Lyons in the semifinals. 

The Plainsmen went toe-to-toe pulling within three in the final seconds before falling by five. Lyons was ranked fourth that year all class. 

Lawson told the Tribune that if Lyons was No. 4, then the Plainsmen should be No. 5.

The Plainsmen earned another trip to Lincoln in 1980, short a stellar senior athlete, Joel Long, whose athletic career was cut short due to health concerns. 

Lawson said they won their first game but lost to Hartington by more than 20 points in the semis. 

“That was a hard pill to swallow. We were a better team than that,” he recalled this week.  

It must have left a sour taste with his players as they began a quest to return to Lincoln with a purpose. 

In Jackman’s junior year, the Plainsmen dominated. Going into the state tournament undefeated, they swept the next three to keep their record and bring home Lawson’s first state championship in his eight year tenure. 

Lawson praised his assistant coaches Jon Forney and Steve Hamit. Their efforts at the jayvee level were why the Plainsmen were so successful he said. 

That state championship belonged as much to them and  himself, Lawson said. 

He credited junior high coaches Ted Shiers and Gene Weedin for building the program in grade school. 

Lawson said they sought him out so they could run the same offense and defense he ran in high school to bring continuity to the program.  

After that 1981 championship year, Lawson made a decision for his family that he said was one of the toughest he’d ever made—to leave Grant. 

People couldn’t understand how he could walk away from what proved to be another undefeated season and back-to-back state championships for the Plainsmen. 

From there, Lawson joined Bellevue Public Schools, where, over the next 20 years, he coached tennis, swimming, assisted with boys’ basketball, was head girls coach for three years, along with a year as athletic director. 

He retired in 2000 and has enjoyed watching his grand kids compete in a variety of sports. 

Lawson lost his wife, Betty, earlier this year. She was a member of the Grant Tribune Sentinel staff and wrote the basketball stories for the Tribune. He continues to live in Norfolk.

His youngest son, Kent, known to most in Grant as “Toad” coached football at Norfolk High and just retired this year. 

Kent married his high school sweetheart, Michelle Yerger, whose dad, George, served as high school principal and athletic director at Perkins County High School for 25 years. 

In fact, Yerger plans to be in attendance at this weekend’s events. 

During Yerger’s tenure as athletic director, he oversaw more than 15 state championships by Plainsmen athletic teams. 

Lawson’s other son, Roger, is an accountant and lives in Missouri Valley, Iowa.