John Gagliardi built a reliable repertoire of witty one-liners and humorous anecdotes he liked to share in interviews, at banquets and other speaking engagements, or just in everyday conversation.
One of his standbys involved Jim Lehman '56, the star of the legendary football coach's first few teams at Saint John's University in the mid-1950s.
"John liked to say people asked him how many touchdowns Jim would score if he was playing today," recalls Wayne Hergott '57, a teammate of Lehman's.
"He answered by saying 'Oh, probably about 12 or 14.' Those people would then say that didn't seem like that many over the course of four years. And John would say, 'Maybe not. But you have to remember, the guy is in his 70s now. He might have lost a step.' "
The story was meant to draw a laugh. But it also illustrated the tremendous respect Gagliardi held for Lehman, who arrived in Collegeville the year before he did and went on to become his first superstar.
Right up until his retirement in 2012, Gagliardi showed film of Lehman to incoming players as an example of the successful tradition the program had established.
"I know the respect Coach Gagliardi had for my Dad was something that meant a lot to him over the years," said Lehman's son Tom, who went on to great success and fame on the PGA Tour. "Respect was a big thing to him. He was proud of the fact that a coach of that stature still remembered and talked about the things (Lehman) achieved.
"I think he did take a little extra pride in the fact that he was such a big part of Gagliardi's first teams there. He was in at ground zero of what became this amazing tradition of football success."
Gagliardi went on to win four national championships and more games (489) than any coach in college football history. But it was players like Lehman who helped get his career at SJU off to a strong start when he replaced NFL Hall of Famer John 'Blood' McNally as the Johnnies' head coach prior to the 1953 season.
Lehman started as a fleet-footed quarterback that season on a team that tied Gustavus for the MIAC title – the Johnnies' first taste of a conference crown since 1938.
But before the year was over Lehman moved to halfback, where he remained for the rest of his collegiate career.
"My freshman year, Jim started the season at quarterback," Hergott said with a chuckle. "But by the end of the year, I was starting and he had moved to halfback. I'd love to leave the story there to make me look good.
"But the truth was John knew the kind of talent that Jim had was being smothered at quarterback, because quarterbacks didn't run the ball as much. We needed to have the ball in Jim's hands in the running game as much as possible.
"So that became my job – making sure I got him the ball early and often."
It proved a wise strategy as Lehman finished his career with 30 rushing touchdowns – which, at the time, was a school record and remains tied for seventh-most in program history.
He was an All-American as both a junior and senior in 1954 and '55, and was named the 1955 MIAC MVP after scoring 16 touchdowns that season.
Perhaps his most impressive performance came in the season finale against Augustana (S.D.) in 1954 when he rushed for five touchdowns in a 39-7 Saint John's victory.
That remains tied for the single-game team record. But Hergott said he could have had even more.
"It was colder than heck that day," he recalls. "The field was literally frozen and Jim still had five touchdowns. And there was at least one more play where he would have scored had he not slipped."
Lehman (
far left) was also a standout baseball player at SJU. But it was on the football field where he made his biggest impact.
He was so important to the team, in fact, that Gagliardi pointed to an injury he suffered in 1954 as a big part of why the coach developed his legendary list of No's – especially no full contact in practice.
Full-contact scrimmaging was something Gagliardi had long questioned going back to when he first took over as a player-coach on his high school team in Trinidad, Colorado in 1943.
"I guess maybe I felt like I had to do it for a while," he recalled in a 2002 interview with the St. Cloud Times. "But the biggest key in turning me away from all of that was when Jim Lehman got hurt in a scrimmage. It was pointless – when your star players get hurt, boy, you're in trouble.
"I was trying to survive here. Why take chances like that?"
Following graduation, Lehman served in the Navy and spent time briefly with the Baltimore Colts before injuries ended his pro-football aspirations.
He and his wife Barbara eventually settled in Alexandria where they raised sons Jim Jr., Tom and Michael.
Jim Jr. – who went on to become a successful amateur golfer in his own right – followed in his father's footsteps at SJU, graduating in 1980.
"Growing up in Alexandria, we didn't live that far from Saint John's," Jim Jr. recalls. "And from time to time, Dad would say let's jump in the car and go see a football game, or a basketball game. So I'd been here a few times and I really liked the campus.
"In truth, Saint John's was the only school I applied to. I figured if it was good enough for my Dad, it was good enough for me."
Meanwhile, Tom said he was very close to following the same path before a last-minute offer came his way.
"I was enrolled at Saint John's right up until mid-August before school started," recalled Tom, a high school quarterback who had planned on playing football for the Johnnies. "But I'd had the good fortune of playing golf in a tournament with one of the captains of the team at the University of Minnesota. And I got a call from the golf coach there who asked if I'd like to play for the Gophers.
"So I ended up dropping out at Saint John's and enrolling at the U of M. But before that, Saint John's was where I had planned on going. It wasn't just my Dad. My uncle had gone there and my brother was there too. So there was a real family legacy at that place."
Youngest brother Michael would follow in Tom's footsteps and play golf at the U of M. But Tom said the bond his father felt for SJU remained strong all the way up until his death at age 75 in 2009 following a battle with lung cancer.
"He always remained very committed to Saint John's over the years," he said. "I think that was because people he met there had an extremely significant impact on his life. Coach Gagliardi was one of them, of course. But there was also a monk or priest he met there who became a lifelong friend and a real mentor to him.
"Saint John's had a really deep meaning for him."
Which is why both he and his brother said his father would be deeply honored to be inducted into the school's Hall of Honor.
"He was a humble guy," Tom said. "He was never a self-promoter. In fact, he was probably the least self-promoting guy you'd ever meet. So for the school to honor him for what he achieved – and to make sure everyone knows what he achieved – would have been a big deal to him.
"It would have meant an awful lot."
"Growing up, we'd have to ask Dad questions about his athletic accomplishments, and even then, he wouldn't spend a whole lot of time talking about them," Jim Jr. added. "He was just a modest guy. That was his personality
"But I know he was very proud to have been a big part of (Gagliardi's) first teams at Saint John's. That was an important time in his life."
