Changes Afoot in the PE/Athletics Department
Jim Lemen has announced his decision to retire as director of the Burroughs Physical Education & Athletics Department, effective June 30, 2010. Lemen has held this position from more than 20 years and has been a member of the Burroughs faculty for more than 40 years. Though relinquishing the top PE/Athletic position, he will stay at Burroughs for the 2010-11 school year to coach at the younger levels, complete a history of Burroughs athletics and work on the school’s grandparents’ annual giving campaign.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Lemen joined the Burroughs faculty in 1963 as a member of the history department and as a football and basketball coach. He left briefly (1966 – 1970) to serve as assistant football coach at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). Lemen returned to Burroughs in 1970 as teacher, head football coach and athletic director.
Over the course of his 43-plus year career at Burroughs, Lemen has served as
- history teacher (1963-66, 1971-73, 1976-2004)
- director of the school’s day camp (1970-77)
- head football coach (1970 – 2004) with an overall record of 238-123-4 and eight state championships, and
- head baseball coach (1974-75, 1987-99) with a record of 175-125, reaching the Final Four four times and securing the state championship in 1991.
He has also coached girls and boys basketball, girls softball and 7th and 8th grade athletics.
Lemen is the recipient of numerous coaching awards and has been inducted into the Missouri Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Metropolitan Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Last year he received his “most meaningful honor” when he was inducted into the Western Hills High School Athletic Hall of Fame (Cincinnati, Ohio) where he lettered in football, basketball and track.
Lemen and his wife, Carole, have been married for 47 years and have four children and seven grandchildren.
Head of School Andy Abbott said Burroughs will conduct a nationwide search.
