A note of congratulations to former La Porte Bulldog head football coach Carroll Lundin, who was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor on Wednesday in San Antonio.

We’ve had the opportunity to expand a working relationship with La Porte ISD and cover some of their athletic programs and it’s been fun to learn more about the great sports history of La Porte High School in the process.

Carroll Lundin is certainly a big part of the football history at La Porte.

Lundin, who led the Bulldogs to the playoffs seven times in his 14 years was part of the 2010 class of inductees that included former Southlake Carroll coach Bob Ledbetter, former Converse Judson coach Roy Wallace, and Tommy Watkins, who coached at Rotan, Iowa Park, Andrews, Uvalde and two Garland ISD schools.

While at La Porte as head football coach (from 1974 to 1987), Lundin had a record of 108-47-1.

After his team posted a 1-9 record in his first season at La Porte, Lundin then led the Bulldogs to ten consecutive winning seasons and six playoff appearances from 1975 to 1984.  His final team, in 1987, would also make the Region III playoffs.

His Bulldog teams reached the state quarterfinal round twice, in 1978 and 1987. Both years they were defeated by Houston Stratford.

One interesting fact about Lundin’s teams is that it seemed to take some very good talent to knock them from the playoffs. The 1978 Stratford team was led by Craig James and they went on to win the Class 4A (the largest school classification at the time)state championship that year.

The 1987 Stratford squad was quarterbacked by a young gunslinger named David Klingler, who would move on to the University of Houston and the NFL to throw the football around.

But Lundin was no stranger to great offensive opponents in big games long before La Porte ran into Stratford. 

His 17-year head coaching career also included a three-year stint at Austin Reagan from 1971-1973, where he compiled a 31-6-1 record and closed out his tenure with a trip to the Class 4A state finals against Earl Campbell-led Tyler John Tyler in 1973.

Lundin stepped away from coaching to become La Porte ISD’s athletic director in 1988.  He was previously inducted into the Greater Houston Football Coaches Association Hall of Honor in 2004.