Inductees

He grew up in the far southwest corner of Missouri, in a football town called Seneca. Years before the local high school would play in seven state championship games, before numerous playoff games, the mid-1950s teams planted the seeds.

The quarterback? That was Larry Garman, who led the Seneca High School Indians to conference championships as a junior and senior in 1955 and 1956.

“Seneca was a real nice town. They wanted to win games,” Garman said. “Football, basketball, baseball … everybody played all sports. There were 50 kids in my graduating class. And we had great coaches.”

Those coaches planted a seed, with Garman going on to become a highly successful football coach and representing his home state well. That’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct him with the Class of 2025.

Garman led Pittsburg High School just across the stateline in Kansas for 34 years, compiling a 255-84-5 record (.749) that featured three Class 5 state championships (1983, 1988, 1990). His teams had 31 winning seasons and a then state-record 21 playoff appearances, with his final team in 1998 falling in four overtimes in the state semifinals. His 1987 team was a state runner-up.

He then spent 24 years as an assistant coach at Pittsburg State, working with tight ends for 12 years before serving as the staff’s in-season, off-campus recruiter, extensively recruiting regional high schools and junior colleges for nine years. He retired in 2023 after serving three seasons as a local high school/junior college recruiter while also focusing on campus and community outreach as well as alumni relations.

And it all started in Seneca, where coaches Jack Wallace and Max Buzzard influenced him greatly.

“They were good,” Garman said. “For a small school, we had athletes. And I received a good high school education.”

The 1950s teams fueled the fire of high school football in Seneca, which later earned state runner-up finishes in 1968, 1975, 1983, 1986 and 2013. The Indians won state in 1987 and 1995, part of a 13-year stretch full of state semifinal and quarterfinal berths.

Garman left town for Northeastern Oklahoma State A&M in Miami, playing baseball on its 1958 national championship team. He soon decided to go into coaching and finished his degree at Pittsburg State.

He spent three years as an assistant at Pittsburg High School before being promoted to head coach.

“I thought I knew everything. I was 25 years old,” Garman said, laughing. “I took the job and I thought I’d just stay a couple of years.”

What a run it became.

The kid who had grown up on a cattle farm outside Seneca transformed the Pittsburg Purple Dragons into a contender and, considering its location, scheduled against southwest Missouri schools – some of them with much larger enrollments such as Joplin and Springfield’s Parkview High School.

In 1969, his team was 8-1 but missed the playoffs.

“I was really disappointed we didn’t make the playoffs,” Garman said. “The next year, we got in.”

Not only did Pittsburg get in, but the Dragons made a statement, beating Topeka West 37-0 in the state semifinals in what Garman still considers the most important win in school history.

The Dragons played for the 1970 state championship that season in Class 4, the second-largest classification in the state.

In the early 1970s, he sent three players on to NCAA Division I teams – Jim Goble (University of Missouri), Rex Garner (Southern Methodist) and Jim Baker (Kansas) – and that was a sign of things to come. Overall, 81 players signed college scholarships.

He soon was hired as athletic director, and Garman saw to it to create a weight room at a time when few high school coaches required players to get on a muscle-building program.

In his first three seasons, Garman was 10-15-2. He had only one losing season after. The 1983 state championship team (12-0) outscored opponents 341-101. The 1988 team (11-1) outscored opponents by 131 points. The 1990 team (12-0) outscored opponents 364-49, although its closest win was 11-6 against Arkansas City in the state quarterfinals.

Between 1983 and 1992, Garman’s teams were 90-21.

Overall, he thanks all assistant coaches such, including Mike Wilbert, Mike Darlington, Joe Martin, Dan Nance, Ben Bernhardt, Dennis Watson, Tim Burns and Merle Clark.

Fortunately, he always had the support of his wife, Karen.

“I never felt like I was working. I always enjoyed it, Garman said. “Game nights in high school were fun. We had some big wins.”