May Free State High grad Carson Bowen (28) rushes during Kansas’ 35-7 loss to Missouri in the all-star showcase in Blue Springs, Missouri.

Blue Springs, Mo. ? Two of Lawrence’s most popular high school football coaches were honored for their contributions to the sport on Thursday.

Al Woolard and Dick Purdy were inducted into the inaugural class of the Greater Kansas City Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame during halftime of Thursday’s All-Star game at Blue Springs South.

Woolard, who died in 1998, helped establish Lawrence’s football tradition with a 153-12-5 record from 1950-68, which included 10 state championships, including five straight from 1956-60. He was the winningest high school football coach in the nation when he retired in 1969.

Berta Woolard, right, and her daughter, Kelsey Smith, and Kelsey’s husband, Ryan, accepted the award for the late Al Woolard. Berta’s husband, Mickey Woolard, was unable to attend the event in honor of his father.

“It is huge,” said Woolard’s daughter-in-law Berta Woolard, who accepted his Hall of Fame plaque. “The thing that is the biggest thing we noticed about Al off the football field were, for years, all of his players would still come find him. The friendship and the respect they had from him and for him …

“They’d always say, ‘Coach Woolard, he never raised his voice, but we knew what we were supposed to do.’ So it’s a huge honor. We’re very pleased.”

Woolard, who served in the Army Air Corps in World War II, helped LHS to 10 undefeated seasons. His son Mickey, named after New York Yankees Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, whom Woolard once coached in Oklahoma, couldn’t attend Thursday because he is doing teacher’s training in Uganda.

“I think he would also say the biggest testimony was all the kids just following him,” Berta Woolard said of the beloved coach. “He was proud of the wins. He felt like that’s why you get out there is to win. But all the people that he met and the relationships that he had with his players was incredible.”

Purdy coached at Lawrence High for nine seasons, leading the Lions to an 84-17 record and five Class 6A state championships, including four straight in 1990-93. In his 41 years as a head coach at the high school level, Purdy accumulated a 270-138-5 record.

Purdy, who resides in Green Valley, Arizona, couldn’t attend Thursday’s ceremony because he will have surgery on his gallbladder today.

During a halftime ceremony at the Greater Kansas City All-Star Football game, Stuart Purdy accepts the Hall of Fame plaque for his father, former Lawrence High coach Dick Purdy, on Thursday in Blue Springs, Missouri.

“He was visiting me in Chicago, and we were watching the Blackhawks game and not feeling well,” said Purdy’s son, Stuart, who accepted his plaque for him Thursday. “So after the game, at least his timing was good, he went to the hospital, and he was there all week. He’ll have surgery (today). Then he’ll make his way back down here.”

Stuart Purdy said his father was proud of his induction into the Hall of Fame, but that wasn’t the biggest reason he wanted to attend Thursday’s ceremony.

“It’s all about the friendships,” Stuart Purdy said. “He was disappointed he couldn’t see all of the other guys he coached with. Some assistant coaches and some foes. Just all the memories, and I think at this time in his life, those memories become more valuable.

“He still plays softball at 80, and he’s the player-coach, so he loves sports, whatever it is.”

In Thursday’s All-Star game, Free State High graduate Carson Bowen played for Kansas in a 35-7 loss to Missouri. He had one rush for nine yards.

Ottawa’s Andre Lewis, Tonganoxie’s Jared Sommers, Baldwin’s Tyler Davidson and Eudora’s Justus Merz and Jonathan Ortiz also played for Kansas. Merz was a team captain at the coin toss and was selected the team’s Outstanding Lineman afterward.

“It was fun,” said Bowen, who will continue playing at Baker University. “It was good to put the pads back on one last time before college.”