Gymnastics has been
around for thousands of years, and has come a long way since being banned in
393 AD by Theodosius, a Roman Emperor, because it was believed to cause
corruption. It is synonymous in the U.S. with names like Mary-Lou Retton, Nadia
Comaneci, and Bart Conner.
In Johnson County,
gymnastics got its start in 1969 at Shawnee Mission East High School as an
intramural sport, led by a coach who was a gymnast when he was in high school.
His name – Larry Colburn. Larry has been referred to as the ‘Father of
Gymnasts’ in Johnson County. He led
gymnastic demonstrations at places like Metcalf South Shopping Center to draw
attention to the sport. Larry also started age group gymnastic classes through
Johnson County Parks and Recreation, including the well-known Kansas Kips. “A
kip is a quick movement in gymnastics,” Larry said. “Hank Stram’s wife came up
with the name.”
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| Larry Colburn spotting a gymnast |
Larry credits his own
gymnastics teacher, L.R. “Dad” Perry with setting him on a path that has
brought him multiple awards. Under Perry's tutelage, Larry was a gymnast and pole vaulter at Lawrence (KS)
High School. At KU, Larry was a gymnast and Yell leader, and one year was the
Jayhawk mascot during football season.
He had already met
his future wife, who lived a couple of blocks away from him growing up. “She
was two years younger than me,” Larry said of the girl named Gini. “I knew who
she was. She knew who I was.” They began dating the summer after Larry had
graduated, when Larry needed a date for a movie. “She was the first one I
thought of,” Larry said, “and I called her. On our second date, we played tennis.
She wore a pink outfit she had made.”
They dated throughout
college, while Larry earned degrees in physical education and biology and a
master’s degree in secondary school administration, and Gini earned a teaching
degree in English. Larry had started out wanting to be an architect, but said he
discovered that “I have some artistic talent but not any creativity.” His dad
had been a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, so teaching was something Larry
understood and he switched majors. Larry and Gini married in 1967 and moved to
Elkhart, Indiana, where Larry was hired to teach physical education and coach
gymnasts and pole vault.
A couple of years
later, they returned to Johnson County. Larry got a job teaching physical
education and coaching track at Shawnee Mission East. Gini taught English at
the newly opened Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, making her one of the
teachers hired for the first year the school was open.
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| Larry Colburn, back row, far right, 2nd year of coaching in Elkhart, Indiana |
When Larry started an
intramural gymnastics class, he said that 40 kids were coming regularly. That’s
what caught the attention of the athletic director, a man Larry knew well, and
is why gymnastics was added to the curriculum as a regular sport.
During this time,
Larry coached boys’ gymnastics. His teams placed five times in the top five, and
were Kansas State Champions in 1978. Twelve of those males were chosen as high
school gymnastics All-Americans, and three were state champions.
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| '72-'73 Third in State |
While he was in high
school, Larry twisted his knee, tearing cartilage. He started running cross
country to build up his knee, but it continued to bother him. As a gymnastics
coach, he eventually tore muscles in his shoulders from spotting and lifting so
many kids. He decided it was time to take a break, in part so he could heal, in
part so he could make a better living, but mostly because he had two children
of his own. “I realized I was spending more time with everyone else’s kids than
I did with my own,” Larry said. So in 1979 he took a desk job at Hallmark, in
the scheduling department.
To go from a career
where you’re physically active most of the time to a desk job is quite a shock
to the system, as Larry discovered. But it allowed him time to coach his kids’
sports, to join the family for dinners, and for his body to begin healing. Eventually Larry changed jobs again, taking a
position in 1985 in sales for Uarco Business Forms, where he won the company’s
Quinnquillian Award for five consecutive years of quota sales.
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| Kyle Englekren |
But coaching was
calling Larry back. It was 1995, and Larry took stock of his life. His kids
were grown, college was paid for. “And I thought, why am I doing this?” Larry
said. “I want to go back and do what I have a passion for.”
In the fall of 1995,
Larry returned to coaching, first at Shawnee Mission North, next at Shawnee
Mission Northwest. He transferred back to Shawnee Mission East in 1998. He
coached both boys and girls pole vaulting, and his athletes placed 10 times in
the top five at the State meet, including two state champions. Erin Wesley
vaulted 12 feet, setting the State 6A mark, and Kyle Englekren cleared 15 feet.
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| Larry Colburn, second row, far left with girls team 6th in State |
Since boys gymnastics
had been dropped as a sport in Kansas, Larry became the coach for girls
gymnastics. His teams placed fifth, fourth, and third two times, then placed second
in the 2006-2007 season. Eight girls were chosen high school gymnastics All
Americans, and two were state champions.
Larry himself was
twice selected for the L.R. “Dad” Perry Award for contribution to the sport of
gymnastics by the Kansas Gymnastics Association. “To receive such an award was
really meaningful for me,” Larry said. “He was my mentor.” Larry was selected
KGA Gymnastics Coach of the Year in 1972, 1979, 2001 and 2006. The Kansas
Coaches Association named Larry Coach of the Year in Kansas in 2001 and 2006.
The 2006 award was also recognized by the National Coaches Association.
Larry is quick to
credit his wife’s support in helping him excel, as well as the athletes he
coached. “I feel a little funny about this,” Larry said about sharing his
story, “as any success I have achieved is because I was blessed to have a
number of talented athletes to work with. And, I need to add, a ‘coaches’
wife’ that was very understanding.”
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| Colburn family photo Larry & Gini Colburn, back row, left |
But all the physical
exertion involved in coaching was taking its toll. “My body was just giving
out,” Larry said. “I was no longer effective as a spotter.” In addition, Larry
had broken his ankle in 1995 when he jumped off a wall while painting a
neighbor’s house and landed wrong.
His ankle hadn’t
healed correctly, and the added pressure of coaching continued to weaken it over
the next years. “I was in constant pain,” Larry said, “and it was changing my
personality. I was becoming curt.”
Larry finally retired
in the spring of 2007, but continued coaching pole vaulting. His ankle still gave him trouble, so he eventually
went to another doctor. “He said you shouldn’t be walking on this, let alone coaching
on it,” Larry said. Part of the bone had died, and all the doctor could offer
was to freeze his ankle in place. Then in 2009, a new procedure became
available. It was designed by a Swedish Lutheran doctor and was called STAR,
Scandinavian Total Ankle Replacement. It’s the only three-piece mobile bearing
total ankle available in the United States. In 2011, there were only four
doctors in this country that could perform the surgery, and one of them was an
orthopedic surgeon in Kansas City. Larry had the surgery in 2011, and it was
successful in restoring movement without pain.
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| Coach Colburn and Alex Erpelding |
All the awards that
Larry and his athletes have received are testament to his coaching ability. So
too are the Christmas cards and letters Larry receives from former athletes. Looking
back, Larry said, “I wish I would have been a better athlete myself. I always
told my students that if they aspired to my level of accomplishment, we weren’t
going to be very good.”
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