Inductees

He could have had a career as an accountant, handling the important work every year of doing other people’s taxes.

Yet, deep down, Benny Lawson missed the game of football. In the mid-1950s, he had played on two conference championship teams at Seneca High School and so, after already having earned a bachelor’s degree, he detoured.

Actually, the superintendent of Seneca’s school district detoured him, dropping him off at a teacher’s college across the state line in hopes he’d return home to become part the football staff.

Call it the most important drive ever for Lawson, who went on to become a successful high school football coach – the reason why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted him with the Class of 2025.

Lawson coached football for 53 years, serving as a head coach at Monett (1975-1978) and Parkview (1979 to 1996), and was an assistant at Seneca and Kickapoo. He also was the head coach at Cherokee Middle School in Springfield. Overall, he was a part of teams that combined for more than 200 wins, with Lawson earning 115 as a varsity head coach.

Lawson’s 1977 Monett team won the Class 2 state championship and finished 12-0. That matched the same record from the Cubs’ 1971 team that won it all under coach Burl Fowler – with Lawson one of the top assistants.

He previously had spent four seasons at Seneca, with the 1964 team finishing undefeated at 10-0. Unfortunately, MSHSAA’s state playoff system was still four years away.

Lawson’s Parkview teams had moderate success, although several players went on to play for the University of Missouri, Missouri State University and other regional colleges in the NCAA Division II or NAIA levels.

He then went on to coach Cherokee Middle School at a time when his wife, Sue, was battling an illness. Lawson later returned to assist Kickapoo under Kurt Thompson (MSHOF 2018), with the 2015 team reaching the state semifinals. In all, Lawson coached his sons, Mike and Mark, at Parkview, and his grandsons Alex and Chris at Kickapoo.

And it all started back in the early 1960s when Lawson had second thoughts about becoming an accountant.

Lawson had earned a degree from Oklahoma City University, but coaching football was tugging on his coattails.

After all, he had been a tight end at Seneca – and played baseball and basketball there – years after his dad had been a standout tight end. Plus, his two younger brothers were quarterbacks.

“The superintendent at Seneca drove me to Pitt State for my master’s so that I’d be qualified to teach,” said Lawson, a 1957 graduate of Seneca High School.

When he returned, Fowler – a distance cousin – was the football coach. They were 28-10 in Lawson’s time on staff.

Monett recruited them away ahead of the 1967 season, and Lawson was there for a dozen years.

“I learned a lot from (Fowler) because we grew up together,” Lawson said. “His dad ran a fish hatchery in Seneca. We had good times together.”

Sadly, Fowler passed away in 1975. Monett then promoted Lawson, who guided the Cubs to the 1977 state championship.

It was during those Monett years when the staff included J.L. Phillips and Chuck Ramsey. All three became great friends, with Ramsey eventually joining Lawson at Parkview.

“Monett was a very nice community,” Lawson said. “We had tremendous backing from the booster club that met every Tuesday. They did a lot of things and built a new stadium, with a new dressing room. It was a great place to work.”

Parkview was a challenge, but Lawson soldiered through for 18 seasons at a time when other Springfield Public Schools were competitive in the Ozark Conference.

Two of his players – tight end Joe Close (2021) and center Matt Burgess (2020) – were three-year lettermen at the University of Missouri in the early and late 1980s, respectively. Both were honored by the MSHOF as Elite 11s in 2021 and 2020.

“I’ve always believed the game is for the kids. It’s not for the coaches,” Lawson said. “It’s the coaches’ job that (players) have the confidence and ability to play the game. Chuck and I worked well together like that.”

Lawson was inducted into the Missouri Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1996.

Fortunately, he always had the support of his wife, Sue, and their sons, Mike and Mark.

For Lawson, the focus was on players.

“That’s what it was all about,” Lawson said. “That’s what I based my life on.”