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ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME

HAROLD LAUGHLIN '24

Inducted: 1992

A Rector Scholar at DePauw, Hal Laughlin was a starting forward on the 1923-24 basketball team which beat the likes of Illinois, Northwestern and Marquette. A newspaper account of the time called Laughlin's performance in a game with Butler one of the flashiest floor games exhibited in a long time. After graduation he attended the University of Cincinnati to obtain an M.A. and also taught courses in freshman American History. He also coached basketball at Walnut Hills High School in its first year of existence. That year he played semi-pro basketball for a team which won the city championship. In 1925, he started work for the Indiana Limestone Corp. as an executive secretary to the sales manager in his hometown of Bedford, Ind. He was transferred to Kansas City in 1927 where he was in charge of the sales office until 1932. Then he managed the Kansas City Cut Stone Company until 1941. Along with a partner in Topeka, Kan., he formed the Jayhawk Construction Co. which built construction projects in Arkansas and Tennessee under the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Following World War II he formed the Harem & Laughlin Construction Co. in Kansas City which still is a recognized leader in the construction field. Laughlin remained there until his retirement in 1972. He has served in several civic organizations in Kansas City and in Naples, Fla., where he now resides. In March 1991, he was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame for his accomplishments at Bedford High School as winner of the state's Gimbel Mental Attitude Award in 1920.