Page 54 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2022 - Online Magazine

Exceptional

ON THE SENIORS
LORD'S

TEAM

David Haladay

by Chanda Allen

t has been said that great leaders the time was a
walk with a limp. When you ask hefty one dollar
IDavid Haladay about his limp, an hour, this job
he’ll say it was stupidity. He knows was so terrible,
he has come a long way. he only got half.
Sports was also
Born in the early 40s in rural an escape for
Pennsylvania, David did not have young David;
an easy upbringing. He would he especially
argue it was no upbringing at all - loved football. In
no discipline, no training. He lived high school, the
with his Hungarian grandparents coach asked the
after his parents divorced; there he freshman players a scholarship offer for a center, but
learned to fend for himself. But by who would be willing to play center. they desperately needed linebackers.
the age of 12, David was befriended At a whopping 202 pounds (near David Haladay ended up playing
by an unusual character named Ed, giant in those days), David Haladay both positions, and he got an
four years his senior. Although Ed was the only one to raise his hand. education.
was a bully and habitual teller of Little did he know, this willingness
falsehoods, he took David under to volunteer would be his ticket to After a successful college career at
his wing and taught him to fish college. Clemson, he transferred to Lamar
and hunt. Ed University in Beaumont, Texas, and
encouraged him “ Toward the played an additional year. It was
to live a clean life, David has endured many end of his high there that he met his wife, Barbara;
free of cigarettes difficulties over his life, and school football they were married for 53 years
and alcohol, a career, David before she passed.
pledge that he has the challenges that he has wrote over
kept to this day. faced, coupled with his deep 100 letters Upon arriving at Lamar, David
love of God have made him asking for had never been to Texas. His only
His first job the special person that he is scholarships knowledge of life in the southwest
was pruning to various was what he’d seen on television
Christmas trees in to so many people. colleges; it or in magazines. He was rather
Indiana County, ~ Ernie Garcia was the only disappointed to learn that not
Pennsylvania. He way he would everyone rode horses.
recalls making ” be able to
$.50 an hour, attend. Only Following college in 1965, David
and it was the worst job he’s ever one college answered with a yes started his career in education at
had - the most boring time of his - Clemson University in South Round Rock High School. He was a
life. Although minimum wage at Carolina. They were unable to make football coach and a history teacher.

54 Lubbock Senior Link