Paul Loggan’s family remembers dad’s legacy of equality at North Central High School
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — One of the friendliest faces at any high school in America belonged to Paul Loggan, the North Central High School athletics director.
The condolences after Loggan’s death on Easter Sunday this year were profound.
Taken by the coronavirus at just 57 years old, Hoosiers are still processing the loss of the man who impacted high school athletics for over three decades.
“I am so very sorry for your loss. I understand Paul (Loggan) was a beloved member of the community,” former Colts quarterback Peyton Manning said during a personal video message to the Loggan family. “As a husband and father, I know well that the greatest team Paul was ever a part of and the team he was most proud of was the one he had at home with all of you.”
“Kathy, Michael, Will and Sami…I know you will honor your husband and father’s legacy by continuing to stay strong, loving fiercely and fighting to win each day.”
Paul’s daughter Sami, her two older brothers Michael and Will, and mom Kathy had previously kept that message secret.
Manning’s message meant the world to the Loggan’s children, who grew up on the sidelines and inside the concession stands at countless Panthers games.
This week, ahead of Father’s Day, the boys and mom returned to their second home, the high school.
“I have slowly started working on cleaning out his office,” Kathy Loggan said. “It is a slow process. It took a good half an hour of crying and then I started in.”
Will Loggan said, “I definitely can feel him in here, every time I enter the school. I feel like he is in here somewhere just watching us.”
Father’s Day at the Loggan house always meant dad at home and fielding phone calls from his former Panthers athletes. This year, the conversations would have certainly included the fight for equality across our country. Ironically, that very lesson is what Loggan perfected into his legacy.
“I met Paul for the first time in this gym 32 years ago,” 1990 alumnus Tony Henderson said while at the high school. “When I left here and went to college, Paul said don’t embarrass North Central.”
“I said, man, you don’t have to worry about that.”
In the late 1980s, Henderson wrestled for Loggan during his earliest years coaching at the high school, before Henderson went on to play collegiate football at the University of Michigan. The pair instantly hit it off and quickly “Uncle Tony” became a staple around the Loggan family.
The beauty of North Central is its diversity: an enrollment of over 3,700 students from nearly every income level and walk of life. No family, takes more pride in that than the Loggans.
“I don’t even know anything else, other than North Central,” Kathy said. “We are a family, and it doesn’t matter if Paul is here or not. We will still be a family.”
Henderson said of Paul, “Everything he said he was going to do, he did. Not everyone can do that or say that.”
This Father’s Day remember the man who made everyone family.
“He is up there clapping his big bear paw hands, telling us to move on in life,” Michael Loggan said. “We will never forget about him.”
God knows they all miss you Paul. Rest easy, Mr. Loggan.