While I listened to the Anne Arundel Community College Sports Hall of Fame Inductions of Johnny Laycock and Jeff Herrick last Sunday at the Arnold school, thoughts raced through my mind about the impact Laycock had on county sports and physical fitness, not just at the community college.
Skip Brown, the school's former baseball coach, told the story of how he played baseball for Laycock at Annapolis High and how John "gave out uniform numbers according to where guys hit in the batting order . . . and I batted third but had a fondness for No. 7.
"When I traded my No. 3 for No. 7, John wouldn't let me keep it. I learned then that he was in charge. Needless to say, I didn't wear No. 7, but that started a friendship that hasn't ceased."
Laycock is the man who about 30 years ago started the community college's athletic program literally on the ground floor and built it into a model program. His enthusiasm, big ideas and the ability to get around to meeting all the important politicians and county officials who could help his school resulted in a program that did Anne Arundel County proud.
He wasn't a loudmouth, flamboyant kind of guy but rather a gregarious kind who dealt in simplicity and sincerity. That was evident in the anecdote that Brown shared with the crowd Sunday.
"I was out there shaking hands and meeting people," said Laycock, the consummate promoter.
I remember meeting Laycock at probably the county's No. 1 meeting place for VIPs back in those days, the Wagon Wheel Restaurant of "Fitz" Fitzgerald. More deals were cut in that great place than anywhere else in the county, and John got his share for the community college.
When he needed political help for a community college project, his personable, almost lovable, style usually got it for him. He truly loved, and still does today, Anne Arundel Community College, so it was only fitting that Athletic Director Buddy Beardmore, Dr. Tony Pappas Jr. and the rest of the Hall of Fame committee made John the charter member.
What a lot of people outside the inner workings of the community college don't know are the contributions this smiling guy made to the overall good of the county.
Herrick, the school's first All-American football player and also a standout baseball player, is a product of one of the many wonderful concepts developed by Laycock. Physical education department chairman Brown brought that to light in his personal introduction of Laycock on Sunday.
