One school, two brothers, two paths

Mike Lawton never set out to be the historian when it comes to Dixon High School athletics, but in many ways, that's who he is. Brad Lawton never set out to be a record-setting javelin thrower at the University of Illinois, but that's who he is. The Lawtons, sons of Rich and Sue Lawton of Sterling, each carved his own sports niche in vastly different ways. Mike Lawton is the creator of "We're Out To Win This Game," a takeoff on the Dixon fight song and a booklet that contains football and basketball scores, coaching marks, decade-by-decade breakdowns, individual records and other tidbits dating back to the early 1900s. The project started in the early 1990s, shortly after Lawton completed undergraduate work at the University of Illinois. He'd ask his father, a long-time Dixon football coach, questions about the football program and its history. More often than not, the answers would be inconclusive. Similar inquiries to the Dixon athletic office were fruitless, so Lawton took it upon himself to do research. Most of it was done at the Dixon Public Library, while a smaller portion was done at The Telegraph office on Peoria Avenue. It wasn't glamorous work. He'd sort through grainy microfilm, yellowed newspaper clippings or weathered yearbooks in search of information. "I'd just go up to the library an hour or two here or there," Lawton said. "Six or seven years later, I really had something." Lawton has been the voice of Dixon football and basketball for WIXN radio since 1994, and he uses the stats regularly. In 2005, when Derion Halfacre scored on a 99-yard kickoff return against Geneseo, Lawton was able to pass the word of the record to public address announcer Lloyd Johnson. The situation was similar in 2000, when Rob Willey set game (305 yards) and season (1,646) rushing records. "That was pretty cool because during the game they could announce that was a new record," Lawton said. "Otherwise, I don't think anybody would have known." Lawton encountered a few problems in his research. For some games, there would be a score, but few individual statistics. For others, there would be no box score. Accounts from the 1920s and 1930s were hazier than that. "It wasn't anything that would have affected the people that were the cream of the crop, like the Roger Colemans and Rob Willeys in football for rushing yardage," Lawton said. The hard part of compiling "We're Out To Win This Game" is over. Lawton simply keeps track of each season's games, updates the numbers and produces a new copy as needed. "[Assistant football coach] Bruce Luther hits me up every year," Lawton said. "He'll say, 'You got your updated records yet? I need 'em.' " An athlete himself, Lawton had a modest high school career. He played one year of football and baseball, and was the sports editor of the school paper his last two years. After college, he taught and coached in Oregon for 13 years before becoming an elementary school principal in Dixon three years ago. He's back to coaching, as he leads youth baseball, softball and basketball teams on which his children, Katie and Ryan, are members. "It's neat to see in your own kids the light coming on a little bit with sports and understanding it," Lawton said. "Monday night, Katie had a softball game. She was playing second base and there was a grounder hit to her. She was able to scoop it up and throw the runner out at first. "She knew she had to do it quickly because the runner was coming fast. It's just little things like that when you can start to see it." - Of the Lawton boys, Brad was the athlete. He played four years of football at Dixon and was a first-team all-area defensive end as a senior. He gave up basketball after two years but competed in track all four years. As an undersized weightman, he missed qualifying for state in the shot put by an inch his senior year. He went to the University of Illinois with the intention of becoming a doctor, which he now is in Morris. Continuing his athletic career happened by chance. In the late 1980s, Rich Lawton, then the head Dixon boys track coach, was in Champaign to attend a coaches clinic, as well as to check in on a former athlete of his, Aaron Mobarek, who was attending the U of I on a track scholarship. At the clinic, Rich Lawton had a conversation with then-Illinois field event coach Scott Irving about coaching his own son. Irving inquired about Brad and was informed the younger Lawton was a student at Illinois but not involved in athletics. Irving asked Rich Lawton if Brad could throw a baseball the length of the football field. When Rich replied his son indeed could do that, Irving requested and received Brad's phone number. "Coach Irving thought he could turn people with good arms into javelin throwers," Brad said. The early results were not promising. In his first formal meet, at Southeast Missouri State, Lawton's first throw was so far off-line it stuck in the track. "I didn't even know if I'd make the team," he said, "but coach had enough confidence in his own ability and I stuck with it. Eventually I got better, then I got pretty good at it." As a senior, he set an Illinois school record that still stands - 225 feet, 2 inches in a meet at Clemson. That was good enough to provisionally qualify Lawton for the NCAA meet, though he did not compete. He also won the Big Ten Medal of Honor as a senior, which recognizes a school's top graduating male (since 1914) and female (since 1982) student-athlete. Mobarek and another Dixonite, former Northwestern football player Bud Melvin, also received the award. "That was pretty cool," Brad Lawton said, "to have three people from the same small town receive this honor. It's kind of unbelievable." Lawton is a family practice physician at the Allen Medical Center in Morris, where he resides with wife Heidi and children Matt and Natalie. He coaches youth basketball and soccer, and keeps close tabs on the Morris football team. He treats many of the Redskins at the clinic, as well as on game nights, when he'll be on the sideline for a bird's-eye view. "I'm very excited about Morris joining the NCIC," Lawton said. "It's going to be great to go to the same towns that I played in and see how they do."