It isn’t easy to become recognized nationally as a college football coach at a school with some 300 students. Furthermore, it doesn’t become any easier when you have no assistant coaches, and you happen to also be the only coach available for basketball and baseball. But Lombe Honaker did just that at little Maryville College in East Tennessee. He coached three sports from 1921 through 1949, when he “retired” to the post of athletic director. During his coaching years, Honaker compiled an impressive record of 924-604-31 while not confining his schedules, particularly in football, to small schools. Among Maryville’s opponents during his tenure were such titans as Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Georgia Tech, and Mississippi. To the everlasting advantage of the young men who played under Honaker, there was something in which the coach was even more interested than he was in winning – clean play. It was as much for his philosophy as for his record that Honaker received many area and national honors during his later years at Maryville, including a 1956 “Citation of Honor” from the Football Writers’ Association of America. The recognition that pleased Lombe Honaker most, and which said most about the man as well as the coach, came in 1951 when former players honored him with a dinner and lionized him for a statement they all remembered clearly: “You play to win, but you play the game fair.” Lombe Honaker has gone, but his spirit and influence will always remain.
