John Lyles thought back on his six seasons as an assistant men's basketball coach at Marshall University and why it was such a special time. He had these reflections after seeing the movie "We Are Marshall."

Lyles grew up on a farm in Lecompte, the second of five children of John and Billie Lyles. He was part of a Rapides High basketball team that went to the Class 2A state championship game three times in four years. The Mustangs won the state title in 1973 with an irrepressible lineup of hustlers and sharpshooters, none taller than 6-foot-1.

The man who coached that legendary '73 Rapides team, one of the more popular teams to ever play in the Louisiana boys' state tournament, was Rick Huckabay, who died last year.

Lyles, who coached the first women's basketball team at Louisiana College while he was a senior there on a baseball scholarship (1976-77), served six years as the boys basketball coach at Rapides before becoming Huckabay's assistant coach at Marshall from 1983-89.

The movie "We Are Marshall" is about the inspiring, true story of the university's efforts to rebuild a football team after nearly all the members of the football team, along with coaches, the athletics director, civic officials and business leaders were killed in a plane crash on the way back to Huntington, W.Va., from a game in North Carolina in 1970.

"You know, I didn't put it all together 'til I saw the movie," said Lyles, who lives in Ponchatoula with his second wife and works for Champion Graphic Communications in Baton Rouge.

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By Bob Tompkins
btompkins@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6349