The Coach, Lynn Conway, Played Many Roles in His Admirable Career
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Sterling character shows through in Lynn Conway's 1946 graduation picture from Central High.
1928 - 2011
We called him different names at different times in our life.
First it was just "coach."
Then, when we knew him a little better, it was "Mr. Conway."
Later, when we were out of school and played tennis and refereed football together, it was just "Lynn."
As the years went on and we lived near each other, it was the fonder term of "buddy."
Our fondest memory is of Lynn walking by the house with a pal, trying to stay in shape as health problems crept up on him. There was always a friendly smile, and time to stop and chat, and joke, and recall old times.
There was no Delta College when we first met Mr. Conway. He was the coach of the Bay City Junior College junior varsity basketball team on which I played.
He was a teacher at MacGregor Elementary School at the same time, working as a coach to put a little more bread on the table.
His players got together when there was an opening and sent me to the office of Dean Palmer Kern to lobby for Mr. Conway to get the head coaching job. He did.
We lost track of him while attending Michigan State but in 1959, returning to Bay City to work for The Times, we found Mr. Conway still holding forth at J.C., located on the third floor of Central High School.
When the Committee of 400 came up with the idea of a tri-county community college, Mr. Conway graduated to that campus in Frankenlust Township.
In 1962, we became a football referee in the northeast Michigan area and Lynn was a regular on our trips to Tawas, Alcona, Whittemore-Prescott, Mio, Caro, Akron-Fairgrove, Ubly, Bad Axe, Sebewaing and other hinterland points.
You get to know somebody pretty well in several hours in a car and on the field, making decisions the locals didn't always appreciate. But through it all, Lynn kept his cool and helped his whistle-tooting crew along.
His tennis pals, Andy Wendland, Freddie Fitzhugh, Cliff Van Dyke, Doc T.K. Jones, Bud Hahn, Bob Przybylski, Bob Rogers and myself who played regularly with him will tell Lynn Conway stories as long as we are able to take the court and gather for a beer or two afterward.
Lynn Conway came to Delta College in 1961 as its first basketball coach, and served as athletic director from 1965 until his retirement in 1999.
No historical documentation will be able to do justice to the influence he had in more than four decades of coaching. How many young people became successful because of his encouragement will never be known. But we can imagine the numbers would run into thousands.
Under his leadership, Delta became the first college in the country to host a women's national tournament (before women's programs were sanctioned by the National College Athletic Association).
In 1983 Mr. Conway helped promote the Midwest Clay Court Tennis Championships with Judy Jaffe as chairman, pro Ralph Potter at the Bay Valley Tennis Club, Don Carlyon and John Krafft of Delta College, Cliff Van Dyke, Mark Jaffe and Don Sherman. Anne Hachtel helped us raise a $25,000 purse to bring national pro tennis players here (including 15-year-old Andre Agassiz) and crowds up to several thousand. As head referee, Mr. Conway was in the chair for most of the tournament or behind the microphone with Don Sherman on Delta television.
His Delta Pioneers team won a national championship in men's basketball in 1989. The national tournament he established is a tribute to his vision and promotional ability.
Family, friends and colleagues established an endowment in the Delta Foundation as a fitting tribute to Mr. Conway and his accomplishments.
Amidst all the superlatives that have been said about Lynn, all we can add is: "Goodbye, Coach. We'll all miss you!"
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