Leon family has long, successful basketball history at LHS
• The following is part of an ongoing series of articles in celebration of Libertyville High School's 100th anniversary.
Larry Leon was a 17-year Libertyville High School head basketball coach and social studies teacher (1963-79). One of his top players during his LHS coaching career was his son Bob, a 1974 LHS grad.
Larry was a 1948 graduate of Marseilles High School, a small central Illinois school. He was an All-Conference basketball and baseball player at Marseilles. He attended Northern Illinois University, earning All-Conference honors for the baseball team, graduating with an education degree in 1952.
After serving in the Army for two years in Korea, Larry took a teaching job at Marseilles and coaching underlevel sports. He spent two years at Marseilles, then took a teaching and head basketball coaching position at Antioch for the 1957-58 school year.
Larry spent six years at Antioch before taking the same position at Libertyville for the 1962-63 season. During his 17 years at Libertyville, his coaching record was 198-184. His team won the 1969 North Suburban Conference. This title was especially satisfying as it was the first conference basketball title a Libertyville team had won since 1936 - 33 years!
Larry's 1974 and 1979 teams won regional titles. It was the first State Series title a Libertyville Basketball team had won since the 1945 and 1946 teams won district titles.
Larry had started a part-time insurance business late in his LHS career. He went full time in the insurance business following the 1979 school year and retired from teaching. In his retirement he coached golf at the College of Lake County and Robert Morris University. He was inducted into the Lake County High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. Larry turned 87 in November and is living in Spring Meadows in Libertyville.
Larry's son Bob was a three-year starting point guard for his father's team. He earned three All-Conference and All-Lake County honors. His senior year he was named one of the 20 All-Chicago Area players by the Chicago Daily News.
Being a prolific scorer, Bob was the Lake County Scoring leader his senior year, fourth as a junior. Until the advent of the 3-point line for the 1987-88 season, Bob was in the top 10 of the All-Time Lake County Career Scoring Leaders.
Bob went to Ohio University on a basketball scholarship where he was a four-year letterman, two-year starting at point guard and the team's assist leader, and he finished his career with a 90 percent free throw percentage.
Bob graduated from Ohio U with a social studies education degree. He taught and was the head basketball coach for seven years in three northern Ohio high schools. He went into Commercial Insurance Underwriting in 1985, and currently works in advertising with a media firm.
Bob's sons are quite the athletes as well. Craig is one of the USA's top marathon runners, having a personal best of 2:13:41 (5:07 pace per mile). Bret is the Head PGA Golf Professional at Old Elm Club in Highland Park.
Bob's younger brother, Jeff, played basketball for his father as well, graduating in 1977. Jeff is a sports/news broadcaster for radio station WRHL in Rochelle.