Blue Devil Boys’ Lax Founder Establishes Annual Award
The founder and first coach of the Huntington High School boys’ lacrosse team, who resigned as an assistant principal 40 years ago and moved upstate, may have disappeared from local memory, but he hasn’t forgotten about his association with the Blue Devils.
Donald Loughlin, who left Huntington in 1968 to become a high school principal in suburban Rochester and is now in his 82 year and living in Fairport, New York, has established a special scholarship award that will be presented annually to the top Blue Devil boys’ lacrosse player.
Mr. Loughlin donated $4,100 to the district to establish the Donald A. Loughlin Founders Award for the Most Valuable Player. “This includes the start-up costs for a plaque to be retained by the school, which will display the names of the recipients, the year awarded and certificates suitable for framing to be presented with the award,” the former coach wrote in a letter to the district.
“I am very grateful to have had the opportunities as a teacher, administrator and lacrosse coach in the Huntington School District,” Mr. Loughlin wrote in his letter, which outlined his financial contribution and the parameters of the new award.
Initial costs for the plaque and certificates amounted to $163.21. “That leaves $3,936.79 (check enclosed) which includes $125 for this year’s award, leaving $3,811.79 as the original principal to support the proposal’s annual award,” according to Mr. Loughlin.
“The district will invest the principal and its annual interest will cover the annual award,” Mr. Loughlin wrote. “Interest earned over the amount of the award should be added to the principal. It is possible that the amount of annual interest could change substantially, therefore, the amount of the award should be increased in $25 increments. When the annual interest reaches $150, $175, etc. the award is increased accordingly. Conversely, but less likely, the amount may have to be decreased. In any event, annual interest earned over the amount of the annual award should be added to the principal.”
Mr. Loughlin requested that the Huntington lacrosse coach be “responsible for the selection of the MVP who must meet state, district and school academic and other eligibility requirements. The cash award is intended to be used by the recipient, at his discretion, to help achieve his college and/or career goals,” according to the donation letter.
Mr. Loughlin acknowledged that “times change and changes or adjustments may also be needed to maintain this award.” He suggested that the assistant superintendent, athletic director and lacrosse coach be the ones to “make necessary changes which will benefit the program and the longevity of the award.”
Mr. Loughlin added his thanks to Mr. Grackin, Director of Athletics Georgia D. McCarthy and Blue Devil head coach Paul McDermott, “for supporting my proposal which has allowed me to sponsor this award.”
Born in Brooklyn in 1926, Donald A. Loughlin began his Huntington teaching career on September 3, 1952. His path to the district was a winding one, to say the least. A 1941 junior high “graduate” of Belmont Boulevard School in Elmont and a 1944 graduate of Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, Mr. Loughlin worked his first “free” summer for Bell Labs in New York City as a messenger before finding himself embroiled in World War II in September of that year, serving in the U.S. Navy and rising to the rank of 3rd class fire controlman in the South Pacific theater.
The future Blue Devil lax founder served two years in the Navy, participating in the liberation of the Philippines along with the bloody invasion of Okinawa. Once discharged, Mr. Loughlin enrolled at Adelphi University, quickly became active in the student government and joined the lacrosse team, a squad he eventually captained. He was also president of the Adelphi Athletic Association.
First Business, Then Teaching
During college Mr. Loughlin worked part-time as a salesman at Sears, Roebuck & Co. in Hempstead. After graduating from Adelphi with a Bachelor of Science degree he went to work in August 1950 as assistant to the president of Micro-Lite in New York City. He later worked as a cost accountant for Standard Brands in Manhattan, a post he held until he began his teaching career.
Just when Mr. Loughlin probably thought his military service was a thing of the past, he was recalled to active duty in June 1951 during the Korean War and served six months in Europe before a final discharge. Following a student teaching stint at Sewanhaka High School, he applied for a job in Huntington on April 12, 1952.
The Huntington School District saw something in the strapping 6’, 165 lb. military vet and former college athlete that they liked and he was hired to work as a business teacher at Robert L. Simpson High School, as Huntington High School was then known. The school was located on Main Street at the site of the current town hall.
After he was appointed to his position by the Huntington School Board but before he ever stepped foot in a classroom, he was offered an assistant lacrosse coaching position at Adelphi that offered him the opportunity for a low-cost master’s degree. He asked district officials for permission to accept the after school assignment and was turned down as administrators thought he would be spreading himself too thin so early in his teaching career.
Founded Lax Program in 1955
Instead, Mr. Loughlin became a central figure in Huntington, initiating the lacrosse program here in 1955. He also served as vice president of the Long Island-Metropolitan Lacrosse Association. Mr. Loughlin was the Blue Devil head coach until 1959 when he turned the program over to legendary Cliff Murray after being named assistant principal at the high school.
Whether it was the U.S. Navy, Adelphi, the business world, public education or the sports scene, Mr. Loughlin left his mark. He served as president of the Adelphi College Alumni Association, was appointed as alumni representative to the Adelphi Board of Trustees and was president of the Suffolk County Business Teachers Association.
After rapidly earning the respect of students, staff and the Huntington community, he was identified as holding the basic skills of leadership and organization needed for a successful career as a school administrator. With the opening of the new Huntington High School in late November 1958, the School Board decided to create a second assistant principal position to handle the influx of about 400 freshmen added to the high school building.
Mr. Loughlin was hired to fill the new administrative post. His responsibilities included the areas of discipline, pupil activities, school budgets, attendance and teacher orientation. The new position required him to step down from coaching and from serving as director of the district’s adult education program.
Named Principal in Rochester Area
The value of education was something Mr. Loughlin clearly believed in, as he eventually earned a Master’s degree at the Columbia University School of Business on June 1, 1954. By February 1960, he had completed another 30 graduate credits at Columbia.
During his time in Huntington, Mr. Loughlin married, became a father of two children and settled down in Northport. His career here ended at the same time Robert Cushman’s 18-year tenure as high school principal came to a close. Mr. Loughlin submitted a letter of resignation to Mr. Cushman, asking for it to become effective July 15, 1968 so he could assume new duties as principal of Rush-Henrietta High School in the Rochester area.
One of the only signs remaining of Mr. Loughlin’s time in Huntington rests in the high school yearbooks tucked away in the School Heritage Museum. In the 1959 edition, there’s a famous photo of Mr. Cushman, Mr. Loughlin and Raymond A. Hettler, who was hired as an assistant principal at R.L. Simpson High School in 1955, exiting the new high school building prior to its opening following a tour of the facility days before students flooded into the school for the first time.
(If any reader has additional information on Donald A. Loughlin please contact the district via e-mail at contactus@hufsd.edu.)
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