John Emry, right, coached the North Central gymnastics team in the 1970s.
Submitted photo
John Emry was at a point where he might’ve been wondering if the gymnastics community had forgotten about him.
Turns out it hadn’t.
On July 13, Emry, a Franklin resident since 1986, was one of five people inducted into the Indiana Gymnastics Hall of Fame during a luncheon that took place at the Athenaeum Turners Ballroom in Indianapolis.
Emry, 83, could’ve been honored years — perhaps even decades — ago, but he’s not complaining.
“It’s an honor. I wasn’t chasing it,” said Emry, who coached boys gymnastics at North Central from 1966 to 1976, the highlight coming when the Panthers captured a state championship to conclude the 1970-71 season. “The ceremony was really nice, and we all got our turn at the podium.”
A little over five minutes behind a microphone wasn’t nearly enough time for Emry to provide a detailed account of every stage in his gymnastics career, but he hit the high points.
A 1959 Sheridan graduate, Emry spent two years in the United States Air Force before competing in men’s gymnastics at Ball State. That experience would ultimately help him during the decade that would follow.
“I took a job in Washington Township, and they needed someone to take over the gymnastics program,” Emry said. “I wasn’t much older than the kids I was coaching.”
Boys gymnastics made its debut as a sanctioned sport in Indiana during the 1959-60 school year. Clarksville won the first four team titles and Concord then went on a three-year championship run of its own before Columbus put its first championship team on the floor.
Columbus (later Columbus North) won the four state championships prior to North Central and the two after.
If Indiana boys gymnastics has a dynasty, it was in fact Columbus North, which claimed 13 state titles during a 16-year span (1967-82). Other solid programs were Warren Central, champs in 1980 and 1983, and of course North Central.
“We placed high every year,” Emry said. “But Columbus North was the school that won the state championship about every year.”
Warren Central’s second state title marked the end of boys gymnastics as a sanctioned sport in Indiana, capping a 24-year run.
Emry’s gymnastics legacy extends to his and his wife Bette’s daughter, Katrina Farrow, a 2000 Franklin graduate who has also done well in the sport. Farrow coached gymnastics at the club level in upstate New York and Seattle before leading the girls team at Lawrence Free State High School to the 2020 Kansas state championship.
