With the Wayne State Wildcats picking up their fourth win this season, head coach Dan McLaughlin took sole possession of the school’s all-time wins record with 63. Nearly everyone involved in the program had some knowledge that McLaughlin entered the season with a chance at the record, except McLaughlin himself.

   “I didn’t even know (about the record) until you told me,” McLaughlin said. “Then after the season started I forgot again until my wife told me I had tied the record after the Mary game.”

   McLaughlin is self-admittedly not one for personal achievements in a team sport, and in his 11th season as the leader of the ‘Cats, never could have imagined staying in Wayne this long.

   “Seven years was the longest I had ever been at one place, and I never really thought I would be (at WSC) for more than two years, so it’s kind of ironic with that ‘seven-year itch thing,’ but here I am in year eleven,” McLaughlin said.

   “Being here this long, I oughta have 63 wins by now,” he added, before jokingly mentioning it shouldn’t have taken him so long to reach the mark.

   In McLaughin’s eyes, he has seen Wayne grow as a community at the same time he has helped Wayne State football grow as a program.

   When I first got here, Wayne wasn’t the greatest place to be, which is why I didn’t think I would be here more than a couple of years. The community has really grown since I’ve been here and I have met some wonderful people.”

   One of the people McLaughlin met at WSC is Reg Swanson, who funded the new weight room facility that was built in 2008. Though it may seem as just a weight room to some, it is a symbol of growth of the program for many.

   Offensive coordinator Logan Masters is the school record holder for career receptions (258) and yards (3863). He came to Wayne in 2005, McLaughlin’s second year leading the program, and the Wildcats were a struggling program.

   “When I came on my visit here, they didn’t even show me the weight room because it was the biggest joke ever for a college football team,” Masters said.

   “And now, we have one of the best facilities in all of Division II. It is a great example of how the culture has changed under coach McLaughlin.”

   McLaughlin has had some big wins at Wayne, including the upset of number one Minnesota-Duluth in 2011. But in McLaughlin’s opinion, the biggest win came in his first season.

   The Wildcats ended their 2004 campaign at the Metrodome, as every team in the NSIC used to. The ‘Cats upset Bemidji State, which gave them a winning conference record for the season for the first time since they joined the NSIC.

   “Without that win, I don’t think I would still be here,” McLaughlin said.

   Masters believes that the program made strides because of how McLaughlin showed Wayne how good they could be at football.

   “When I first got here, we weren’t very good,” Masters said. “My freshman year, we started six true freshman on offense, because coach thought we were the best players on the field. We took our lumps, but as we got older, and coach added more good players, we improved, and coach showed Wayne that they could be successful at football.”

   McLaughin’s son, Scott, is the defensive coordinator for the Wildcats. According to him, the biggest reason his father was able to turn the program around was how well he was able to mesh players who came from different backgrounds into one team.

   “When he first got here, most players didn’t stay and work out in the summer together like players at most of the top schools did. He organized a pig roast, where the team would split into teams for a softball tournament, and afterwards, someone would roast a hog. It was a good way to get the guys together in the summer, and that’s a big part of how he has turned things around, to be able to get guys to mesh and come together.”

   Before coming to WSC, McLaughlin was a legendary high school coach in Nebraska, and he is the only coach to win state titles at three different schools. He won in his first and only season as head coach at Broken Bow in 1987, before moving on to Norfolk High, where he won the title in 1994. After his championship, he again moved on, this time to Millard West in Omaha, where he again stayed for seven years, and completed his trifecta with an undefeated 2001 season marked with yet another state championship trophy.

   After high school coaching days ended in 2002, McLaughlin worked under Frank Solich for a year at the University of Nebraska, coaching the offensive line as a graduate assistant and coordinating the walk-on program. When Solich was let go following the season, McLaughlin spent his only season outside Nebraska at Minnesota State, where he coached the offensive line in 2004, before being named the 21st head coach in Wayne State history.

   Through his journey as a student, coach, and high school teacher of 22 years (his proudest off-the-field accomplishment besides raising two sons), McLaughin met a plethora of important people who helped him reach success.

   The two he admired most and learned from the most were two of his coaches. His high school coach, Larry Kickbusch, coached McLaughlin in not only football, but basketball and track as well.

   “It was really admirable how he was able to coach such different sports, and teach a lot about each sport,” McLaughlin said.

   He also was influenced by his college basketball (yes basketball, not football) coach, Jerry Mosser.

   “He taught me a lot not only about basketball, but about life. He helped me continue to grow as a person,” McLaughlin said.

   Continual growth as a person is something McLaughlin preaches.

   “I used to always think I was right, and you can’t learn anything new if you’re always right,” McLaughlin said. “Ever since I realized you can’t always be right, I have learned so much more.”

   Dan McLaughlin, like the rest of us, may not always be right. But he has been right on the football field 63 times at WSC, good enough to be the greatest football coach the school has ever seen.