Monumental moments are rarely forgotten.
So it is with Bob Clements, who, with wife Lana (nee Lombard), have moved back to Humboldt.
One of Bob’s signature moments occurred late in the 1969 class 2A state championship basketball game.
The Cubs, led by 6-foot-7 Lynn Seyfert’s 35 points, and Southwestern Heights (Kismet) were tied at the end of regulation time. SWHS’s Gene McVey, a tall rangy lad, had kept pace with Seyfert’s production. But, McVey had four fouls, Seyfert three. Meanwhile, Bob also had four fouls.
“Frank (Hemphill, assistant coach to Head Coach Don Walburn) drew a play for me to challenge McVey,” Bob recalled. “One of us was going to foul out.” A whistle blew — time stood still for Cub fans — then the referee pointed at McVey.
Humboldt went on to a 57-53 overtime victory.
“WE ALWAYS talked about returning to Humboldt,” Lana, a 1968 HHS grad, said, “but I never thought it would happen.”
Last fall at the all-classes reunion the state championship team was recognized to sustained applause. On the way back to Emporia, their home since Bob played football for Emporia State, conversation of a move turned serious.
Bob’s mother, Dora Lou, had died Sept. 15, not long before the reunion. Her spacious home, just right for Bob and Lana, beckoned.
The Clementses sold their Emporia home, “quicker than I thought it would, quicker than I wanted it to,” Lana said, and they sold the bar and grill.
They packed things accumulated in 45 years of marriage, with Bob doing much of it. Lana broke her arm in February.
AFTER HE graduated from HHS in 1969, Bob was off to Kansas University on a football scholarship. His dream of big-time football crashed when he tore a knee ligament. “I just lost interest in football,” Bob admitted.
The next year with football seemingly in his past, Bob got a call from Bub Elliott, new coach at Kansas State Teachers College, now Emporia State.
“He asked if I wanted to go back (to football). ‘Not really,’ I said.”
The coach was persistent. Come talk about it, Elliott implored. “I did and got excited about football again,” Bob said.
The next three years he started at linebacker for the Hornets.
After graduation Bob was invited to try out with the New England Patriots. “I played in three pre-season games … and then got cut.”
