Longtime Cubs coach staying active at age 70

Franklin boys track coach Mike Hall has no plans to use his recent hip replacement surgery as an excuse to slow down.

Now 70, Hall remains busy despite having retired as a school guidance counselor at the conclusion of the 2011-12 school year.

He starts his 33rd season coaching the Grizzly Cubs on April 4, when they travel to Shelbyville for a dual meet.

“I remember when my dad retired after umpteen years at Cummins in Columbus, he became busier than ever with all kinds of little bitty things,” Hall said. “That wasn’t necessarily my goal, but it seems pretty comfortable.

“I’m not really doing anything that taxes my time too much. I wanted to stay busy and not just sit around.”

For at least two weeks, Hall didn’t have a choice.

In January, he began experiencing pain in his left hip due to what was eventually diagnosed as severe arthritis. He thought about delaying surgery until track season was over, but he was in too much pain for that to be a viable option.

“I just didn’t think it was fair to anybody to go through the season with that,” Hall said. “And I’m not in any pain now, so that’s worked out great. The recovery is kind of ongoing, but it has, in my opinion, been amazingly quick.”

Hall underwent hip replacement surgery at Community South Hospital on Jan. 25. The operation temporarily sidelined him from two of his favorite non-track responsibilities.

During the boys basketball season, he provides color commentary for Johnson County boys broadcasts alongside Scott Uecker on KORN-100.3 FM.

Hall, a 1969 Franklin College graduate, also is in charge of the scorebook at Grizzlies home men’s basketball games. In the fall, he is seated inside the press box running the clock when Franklin College hosts a football game.

In addition, Hall is the public address announcer for Franklin Community High School football games, his signature call being, “And that’s a first down, Grrrrr-izzly Cubs.”

Bill Doty, the Franklin athletics director who played junior varsity basketball for Franklin in the late 1980s with Hall as his coach, admires Hall’s desire to remain busy.

“His level of commitment to the athletic department, the community and to the high school is still very high,” Doty said. “When you have a coach like that with Mike’s level of knowledge and experience, that’s hard to replace.

“It just shows he enjoys being around the kids and staying active.”

Doty can count on Hall to help out in any way possible; he recently helped track down the 1,000-point scorers in school history with their exact career totals. This list is now attractively presented on a wall in the northeast corner of the main gym.

As a coach, Hall isn’t running and doing push-ups with his athletes the way he did until approximately 10 years ago. He still enjoys the day-to-day interaction with Grizzly Cubs athletes, even if it means hearing them groan about his taste in music blared over the public address system during practices.

The Beach Boys and Creedence Clearwater Revival are favorites. The Grizzly Cubs also hear their share of Temptations, Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett and others.

As recently as last spring, Hall thought the 2019 season might be his last coaching at Franklin. That still may be the case, though Hall is reluctant to voice any sort of exact stopping point.

“Being a head coach, you’ve got a lot of responsibilities. Paperwork and administration type things that go beyond the coaching realm. Those are the things I don’t necessarily enjoy as much,” Hall said.

“But I enjoy the coaching, the one-on-one type things more.”