Following in a father's footsteps

Larry Leckonby

Larry Leckonby was named athletic director of The Citadel last week, something that would make his father very proud, even though he wasn't much for moving around.

"The first time I called my father and told him I was moving from Boston University to Old Dominion, the phone was silent for a second," Leckonby recalled. "Then he said, 'Why would you want to do that?'

"That was the first time it really dawned on me that he'd spent his entire career at Lehigh, from the time he got out of the Navy in World War II until he retired in 1984, some 38 years at the same school."

It was during those times in Bethlehem, Pa., that Larry Leckonby grew up, playing in the locker rooms, training rooms and rooting for Lehigh teams at his daddy's school.

"He would literally take me to school and leave me," Leckonby said. "I had free run of the place. I was the ball boy and the bat boy. I didn't know it at the time, but everybody didn't grow up like that."

Not everybody did, but it sure had an impact on Leckonby, who has followed in his father's footsteps of athletic administration.

College lifestyle

Leckonby, 51, will succeed Les Robinson, who retires from The Citadel at the end of this month. His appointment to head the Bulldogs' athletic programs caps a career that spread from UMass to Amherst to Boston University to Old Dominion and the University of Maryland, where he most recently served as chief financial officer for the Terrapins' athletic department, managing a $51 million budget, capital projects and long-range financial planning.

It's a much different path than his father's, working for four decades as football coach and athletic director at Lehigh University before his death last year at age 90.

The younger Leckonby, in fact, didn't start out trying to emulate his father. After graduating from Duke, where he played lacrosse, he used his degree in management to find his way in the business world.

"When it came time to decide what to do with my life, I went to work for IBM," he said. "After growing up in the lifestyle of college sports, I just couldn't believe how the real world worked. After two years, I went back to grad school to get into athletic administration. I've been in it ever since."

In the mirror

Leckonby, like many men his age, didn't realize how much his dad influenced him until later in life. How many times, for instance, have you looked in the mirror and seen your father looking back at you?

"Dad was probably a 1950s coach," Leckonby said. "It's interesting, I learned more about him as a coach these last few years when he was sick and after he passed from the players who came back to see him.

"We always thought he was such a quiet, big bear of a man. He never said much to anybody. In fact, his players from the '40s and '50s said he coached exactly like he lived. He never yelled at a player, never embarrassed them. He just taught them and expected them to be men, and they loved him as a person and a coach."

Not a bad role model for someone who aspires to run an athletic program. Especially one at a military school like The Citadel.

"I think my friends would consider me a quiet person who is just as happy to be with my wife and kids or off somewhere reading a book as in a room full of people," Leckonby said. "I think there are a lot of similarities to my father."

Counting jockstraps

The game, however, has changed a lot since his father's day.

Back in the old days, being athletic director was often described as "counting jockstraps." But it's a much different job today.

"It's so much more complex today," Leckonby said. "Even up into the 1970s, at this level, they had their schedules and they got on the busses and went to play their games.

"There wasn't any kind of arms race for facilities. My father wasn't allowed to raise money on his own at Lehigh. They had to work with development. Development got all the money and you just had to wait your turn behind the chemistry building and the library before the stadium got renovated.

"But the big differences now is that athletic departments are set up in a business model. You have marketing people, ticket people, business people and compliance people. My dad would be amazed at the staffs that we have today."

But he'd also be pretty proud of his son, eventhough he moves around a lot.

Reach Ken Burger at kburger@postandcourier.com.