"It was Coach Ford who gave me the desire to succeed in not only football but in every aspect of life." --Dick Cochran, '82

Your memorial for Coach Ford is beautiful. You always make us so proud and bring so much CLASS to LHS with your web site. Your name is very famous around these parts; I heard it mentioned many times at Coach Ford's funeral. Lucio, I know you have lost someone that you respected so much and you put his history out there for all of us to enjoy over and over again through the years, and now you have done such a wonderful job with his memorial. Steve King told me how much Coach Ford enjoyed your web site. You are a wonderful, thoughtful person, Lucio, and I just wanted you to know how much you are appreciated. Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,
Your Friend
Carol LHS '67

Friday, June 2, 2006

I was never a great athlete, but I had Coach Ford as my P.E. teacher during my senior year (1969-70). He never paid me much attention until I performed an original country and western song in a school assembly. From then on, Coach Ford would affectionately call me "Cowboy". I loved it!

Joel Glick

Thursday, June 1, 2006

Last Saturday, we were all Lancers. John was the bench mark. God loved John because he never got his priorities messed up. He was God's man, he was Fern's husband, his kid's father, and his player's coach. All of these things he did at such a high level and still had time to be a great friend to thousands. There used to be a saying, "If you see a young man with short hair, he is either in the Marines or plays football at Lakewood". As a first year head coach at Jordan, we lost to Lakewood 35-0. When the game was over, he put his arm around my shoulder and said, "Dave, when the center blocks down, the middle linebacker needs to step up". I was ticked. It is no fun losing and it's no fun to have to walk across the field when you get your butt kicked...that night John made me a better coach. As the years and decades moved on, John and Fern became good friends. He taught my boy how to throw a football, we played a lot of ping pong, and I have enjoyed his place in Mexico. Like all of us, I am most happy that God put John in our lives so that we can have a clue about excellence.

Dave Radford
Poly 1964-70
Jordan 1971-76
Millikan 1977-90
Saint Anthony 1991-96

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Lucio, I played for Lakewood from 1980-1982. It was my sophomore year that Coach Ford coached his last season at Lakewood.

Growing up as a kid from the age of 7 until my high school years, I dreamt of playing Football for Coach Ford. One of my best friends growing up was Mike Tereschuk (little brother of Pete Tereschuk) we spent many summers following and participating in the varsity practices in any way we could. I will never forget the night that Coach Ford asked us if we wanted to come on the field and shag punts for the team before the game. It was Coach Ford who gave me the "desire" to succeed in not only football but in every aspect of life. "If you think you are beaten-you are, if you think you dare not-you won't", has been a life long poem I have taken to heart.

During 2-a-days my sophomore year, I made a trip to see my mom who lived in Dallas at that time and when I got back Coach Ford told me there was no excuse to let my team down by missing such an important part of the season. When I told him I went to Texas to visit my mom, he said that I just found the only 2 reasons that would ever be acceptable. One was to visit my mother and the second was to visit the state of Texas!!

As a kid I kept my hair cut like the high school team and even in my senior year as a reminder to the dedication and pride that I had learned from Coach. I again cut my hair down to a shaved head. You actually have a picture in the gallery of our 1982 team where I am walking in front of the team and my hair is just starting to grow back.

Coach Ford, Coach Gilles (Mr. OTR as we liked to call him), and Coach Herbold are 3 men that have given me as a man what it takes not only to exist but what it takes to succeed in this world. We not only lost a great coach in Coach Ford we lost one of the very special people that Lakewood High School has ever seen. Thank you for your efforts with all that you are doing and keep up the good work!!

Dick Cochran

"Son, you're going to come play football for me." --Coach Ford

Saturday, May 27, 2006

I realize that over the past forty three years Coach Ford had a very close relationship with our boys who had the privilege of his guidance and his strength. I also know that the three years I attended Lakewood High School in the mid sixties there were very few male students who didn't talk about Coach Ford. With the exception of seeing him on campus very little, and seeing him on the field at our games, there was always a great mystery as a teenaged girl about what went on "behind the scenes" on that field. After sitting through his beautiful memorial service this morning it finally came to light for the first time in forty years. Listening to the alumni, the friends and his two sons tell their stories, I learned the secret of why our guys cut their hair off in a time it was not fashionable. I learned why they spent so much time at practice and worked so hard for him on that field. This is what I learned in two hours today that I could never really understand.

Our John T. Ford was not only a great coach who gave our school a team we could be proud of for so many years, he was a father, a brother and a friend to our guys during a very troubled time. We were living in an Ozzie and Harriet world in the brand new city of Lakewood and as the years went on and we grew into young adults we learned from each other that not all of our homes were what was portrayed on television all over America. Coach Ford knew it though, because he was the one who stepped up to the plate and helped many of our young boys going through these troubled times in their personal lives. He made them strong and taught them coping skills because we were in the middle of a war during his tenure as well as a time young teens were experimenting with drugs and starting to smoke cigarettes. There was a respect that he earned and it wasn't because they just wanted to be play football. They wanted to play football under his leadership and guidance and they wanted to make him proud and pay back what he had done for so many of them.

Dale and Tee also opened my eyes to something this morning as they were talking about their father. They spoke of the love he had for his wife, Fern. A marriage that lasted fifty five years. I believe that the strong love and respect he had for his wife over all these years taught many of our boys how to love and respect the girls, young women, and later wives in their lives. As a wife of an alumni for thirty years, I can genuinely thank him for what he instilled in many of our boys.

Coach Ford was our hero, our mentor, and the greatest Lancer of all and he will be truly missed by so many who knew him.

Sally Mason Brayton

"John Ford's teams were the sole reason for the Moore League to become one of the best in CIF. How he did this was by becoming so good; we opponents had to coach well just to survive." --Coach Kirk King, Millikan H.S. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |