by Jay Miller
Buena Vista Today, March 1992
"Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day.”
These words from
Home on the Range, a childhood favorite, could sum up John Naughton’s coaching career at Buena Vista College. And like the song, the people who have met him, coached with him, and played for him, have “nary heard a discouraging word.”
“I couldn’t have asked for a better coach,” said Jeannie (Demers) Henningsen ’88, the NCAA Division III women’s all-time scoring leader. “I have so many good memories. He comes off as a harsh coach, but he’s a big softy. He’s done a lot for the women’s program at Buena Vista.”
Naughton didn’t come to Buena Vista in 1962 looking to put Buena Vista women’s basketball on the map. A 1950 Buena Vista graduate, he was hired in 1962 by then Buena Vista athletic director Jay Beekmann to rebuild the football team and teach.
“John’s a very caring individual, and I knew that from his days at the college as a student,” said Beekmann. “Sometimes people take him the wrong way. He’s very witty and can keep a crowd in stitches. I have a lot of respect for him.”
Naughton coached many sports at Buena Vista. As football coach, Naughton’s best seasons came in 1965 and 1966 when both teams finished 6-3 overall and 4-3 in the Iowa Conference (good for fourth place each time). Naughton directed the wrestling program for three years after football. He was coach of the Buena Vista men’s golf team from 1962- 1987. His golf teams won 42 consecutive matches and the 1979 and 1980 teams he coached were Iowa Conference champions. He had a pair of All-Americans in golf, Tom Geelan in 1981, and his son, Bill Naughton, in 1986.
But it was with women’s basketball that Naughton hit his stride as a coach. He led Buena Vista to one Iowa Conference Championship, six national tournament appearances, and a quarterfinal slot in the 1989-90 NCAA Division III Basketball Championship, where his team lost in overtime by two points to the eventual champion.
He coached the NCAA Division III all-time leading scorer Henningsen, and he had athletes named to first team national academic and athletic teams 10 times. Under his guidance, the 1979-80 team posted the school’s best mark of 26-2. His 1989-90 team won its first 11 games, beginning Nov. 18 and not losing until Jan. 9. The team went on to finish second in the Iowa Conference and gain a bid to the NCAA playoffs as a No. 4 seed. The “Cinderella” team upset regional favorite Washington 78- 71 and then beat Wartburg for the regional title, 78-63. Naughton is 258-151 overall. “I’ll miss it, but it is time to get a younger person in here who can do the job,” said Naughton. “I think I’ve been loyal to the school, and I hope I did a good enough job.”
Naughton, a Buena Vista Hall of Famer, graduated from the school in 1950 after captaining the basketball and football teams. The Parnell native grew up in Cedar Rapids and went to high school at what is now called Cedar Rapids LaSalle.
“John Naughton has done about as much for kids at Buena Vista as anyone I know,” said Bernie Saggau ’49, executive director of the Iowa High School Boys Athletic Association and classmate of Naughton’s at Buena Vista. “John always gave the idea that he was tough, but he has the heart of a watermelon. He’s a very soft and caring person.
“He was a heck of a baseball player,” added Saggau. “He had an outstanding knowledge of the game. But he understood that the main purpose was to have fun and he put fun in the games for kids.”
Naughton was an avid student of baseball during his playing days. He played baseball for Kenny Blackman in the late 1940s. “John got along with everybody,” said Blackman. “He was probably the best player I had as a coach. But you should have known the crew he ran around with. They were always up to something. It was just a continuous cycle. Never a dull moment with him or his buddies.”
Jim Fanning, former Buena Vista baseball player and now in the front office for the Montreal Expos, agreed with Blackman. “John always kept the guys loose in pressure situations with a laugh. I never saw him down about anything.”
After college, Naughton served in the Korean War for the United States Marine Corps from 1950 to 1952 and was credited with saving the lives of four fellow marines. Once back in the states, he taught and coached at Marathon High School (1952-54), Fort Dodge St. Edmond's High School (1954-60) and Iowa Central Community College (1961) before returning to his alma mater. “I told my wife (Lee, a kindergarten teacher at St. Mary’s in Storm Lake), there was only one college job for me,” said Naughton. “I liked it all about Storm Lake. The college, the people, the community. I jumped at the chance when Jay (Beekmann) called me about the coaching/teaching job. I came here with $25 and one suitcase. Now I’m leaving 30 years later. How would you like to have been my wife for the last 30 years? She’s been great.”
“John Naughton has been an institution within Buena Vista College and the health department,” said Keith Briscoe, college president. ‘The wit and drama of women’s basketball combined will never again be matched.”
