Wichita ? Over the years, legendary Lawrence High football and track coach Bill Freeman watched his players hoist state trophy after state trophy.

But Saturday afternoon, current and former Lions saw Freeman hold his own gold plaque high when he was inducted into the Kansas State High School Activities Assn. Hall of Fame at the state track and field meet.

“I think I’ve been pretty lucky, because I had some great athletes, some great coaches and some great friends,” the 74-year-old Freeman said.

The induction was at Wichita State’s Cessna Stadium, where Freeman’s teams won the 1989 and 1990 Class 6A boys championships.

Freeman, who now lives in his hometown of LeRoy, where he has been the mayor for the past 12 years and owner of The First National Bank of LeRoy, waved to a cheering crowd before recalling some of his top athletic moments with a small group of media members.

Two of Freeman’s favorite football stories came at the expense of Manhattan High in state-championship games. Once the Lions limited the Indians to just one first down in a 1980 title tilt, while another game saw an LHS squad with no major-college prospects knock off a Manhattan team that had 11 Division One players.

“But maybe my favorite story was this one year we won every event at the league track meet in running except for the half mile, and that was because they started without us,” a smiling Freeman said. “There was a rain delay, and our kids were in the gym warming up, but they forgot to come tell us.”

While Freeman will be remembered at LHS for his five state football titles, a 242-81-3 career mark and the handful of players he pushed to the pros, first-year LHS track coach Scott Stidham said the great thing about Freeman was that he truly cared about the kids he coached.

“When I went up to congratulate him, he was more concerned that (LHS junior) Scott Penny had just won the shot-put title than he was with the Hall of Fame, but that’s just how he is,” Stidham said. “For me being in my first year of coaching here and getting to watch coach get inducted was a really special moment.”