Remembering Larry Stewart
By Mark Jurgena, Advocate Sports Staff
Former Greenville High School athletic director and assistant principal Larry Stewart passed away late last week after a brief illness.
He served as the AD at GHS for 23 years before retiring in the spring of 2007.
The Jacksonville native attended Eastern Illinois University in two different stints, eventually graduating from the Charleston-based school after originally playing football at EIU.
After a teaching stop at Centralia where he coached football for the Orphans, he landed the head football coaching job at McLeansboro in Southeastern Illinois.
He came to Greenville after working at Manito (Forman) High School in Central Illinois.
“Larry came in when (Don) Stout became principal (1985-86) and he was such a great guy to work for,” said former Greenville High School head football and track coach Mike O’Boyle. “Anything we needed to make Greenville better, he was always for the kids, he always was. He worked so well with everybody. It didn’t matter what sport.
“He was invaluable to us in track, he really was. In football, he was never against anything we needed or what we tried to do. I can’t say enough about him, he was just great to work for.”
That commitment to making his school better led Stewart to induction into the Illinois Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame in 2012.
He was named the IADA Class A state-wide Outstanding Athletic Director of the Year in 1999.
The Illinois Principals Association also recognized himm as the assistant principal of the Year–Kaskaskia Region in 1997 and the Kaskaskia Region Athletic Diretor of the Year in 2003.
“The first thing people are going to remember is assistant principal and athletic director but I don’t know that you’re going to find a nicer man than Larry was all of the time,” said GHS longtime head boys basketball and assistant football coach Todd Cantrill. “He was the same guy to everybody. It didn’t matter if you were coaching, a fellow teacher or just somebody in the building. He was just as nice of a man as I’ve ever met.”
Cantrill went to school at GHS and when an opening occurred in the social studies department and on the basketball staff, Stewart recommended him for the job.
“Larry was the guy that really hired me when I came in as a first-year guy,” said Cantrill. “He really gave me a chance after George (Grubbs) ended up leaving and the head basketball job came open. He not only gave me a chance but he stuck by me.”
Longtime Comet football and baseball coach Todd Hutchinson agreed with the sentiments of his colleague.
“Larry was a great Comet and a great guy,” he began. “He always looked out for the best in Comet Athletics during his tenure. He was also a huge supporter of all of our Comet programs throughout his retirement.
“He will be greatly missed by so many of us.”
That commitment to people themselves was evident when talking to others outside the Greenville community as well.
Current Collinsville boys basketball coach Darin Lee was on Stewart’s first team at McLeansboro.
“I was the quarterback and he was the head coach and offensive coordinator,” Lee said. “He did a really good job and was a great person to play for.”
The Foxes went 5-4 during that 1982 season, but two of those losses were due to a teacher’s strike.
Not only did Lee play for Stewart in football and run for him in track, but Lee was able to keep in touch with his old coach for 40-plus years through various events.
“Coach Stewart, he’s just a great person and they’re a great family,” Lee said. “They actually lived two doors down from us in McLeansboro. A wonderful family and a wonderful person.
“As time went along he was AD at Greenville and I was coaching basketball at Nashville so I would see him all the time. Then he was starting track meets and I would see him all the time with Nashville and with Collinsville at the Middle School. We’ve stayed in contact for 40 years. He even started some of my son’s track meets in college.”
Darin Lee was not the only connection to McLeansboro, his father David Lee was the athletic director at the school and hired Stewart to coach there. The duo coached track together during the time period of some of the greatest athletic success the school has ever seen.
“I’ll tell you what kind of guy he was, he was a hard-working guy that was easy to get along with and he made everybody feel good about themselves,” said the elder Lee. “Larry always had a good thing to say about everybody. Everybody he’d ever met he seemed to remember.
“This hit me like a ton because so many times he would take care of us at games, I’m going to miss him. If he saw you across the gym he would come and say hello to you and thank you for coming. He was that type of person.”
While he served many school districts, it was ultimately Greenville where Stewart left his biggest imprint.
“You look at some of the names that we’ve had at Greenville that to me are just legendary names,” began Cantrill. “You talk about Don Stout, Paul Ranson, Mike O’Boyle and Larry Stewart. Those are all guys that I held in the highest regard all of the time.
“He was one of those guys that really built the foundation for all of the success that we’ve had. Not just the success on the scoreboard but the overall good vibes of the high school and what it means to be a Comet.”
Larry Stewart, left, accepting a plaque for his last track meet as a starter at Greenville Highschool in April. GHS track Coach Lee Coakley, right, presented it.